My back has put me on notice.
Recently I finished my light/moderate squat workout, went to set the bar back in the rack, and slammed it hard into the J-hook on the left side. The rebound set off a twisting motion with my low back and hips as the fulcrum. I managed to not collapse under the weight and put it down safely, but my quadratus lumborum muscle on the opposite (right) side immediately went into a painful spasm.
The next two days were bad. A deep breath would set my QL cramping. I managed to get in some upper body work, and by Thursday I'd rehabbed it sufficiently to complete a moderate deadlift workout. A couple of weeks later the pain is almost gone. But my back is still twitchy and I'm unwilling to push the lower body lifts very hard for the time being. Or maybe ever again.
Is there really a point in pushing an aging body toward new 5-lb personal bests? Or would scaling my squat and deadlift 1RM back to 500-ish, avoiding injury and doing more quality reps in the 400-450 range, be a better idea? A sensible person probably wouldn't be asking these questions.
Squat: 495 lbs. x 3, 525 lbs. x 1
Bench press: 305 lbs. x 3 sets x 6, 315 lbs. x 3 sets x 5, 325 lbs. x 4 sets x 3
Seated overhead press: 205 lbs. x 6-6-5, 210 lbs. 3s x 5
Deadlift: 505 lbs. x 3, 515 lbs. x 3, 540 lbs. x 2s x 1 (all the weight I have at home, so I did two singles)
Front squat: 315 lbs. x 1 (crapped out on these after back squats)
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