This hasn’t happened for awhile, thankfully, but it’s a game that I am familiar with as it used to happen once or twice a year. Dropped into the hole with 225 on the first rep and my back just noped out (I did manage to get up with the weight, but racked immediately in pain). Amusingly, this usually seems to happen with warmup weights, not maximal weights - I’ve never really hurt myself on a max lift. Anyways, I pivoted to a quick bench press workout since I already had the power bar down from the gun rack and I was a little pissed off at missing out on a workout.
Bench Press
5x135
4x165
3x195
3x225
3x225
For the rest of this week, will probably just do lots of upper body work on machines at the gym (and soak in the hot tub afterwards). Usually when this particular type of back tweak hits me, it resolves within about a week. No squats or deadlifts until next week. Hold me to it!
Funny, I have always prided myself on the garage-gym, workout-at-home, just-the-core-lifts thing, but with a tweaked back it was awfully nice to be able to go to the rec center, pump out some high-rep upper body stuff, and get in the hot tub. Happy with my choice to move to doing the big-3 lifts once each per week with this kind of high-rep pump work in between.
Back feeling much better. A little travel so next few days workouts will be improvised. Hoping to start deadlifting again next week and squatting the week after.
Traveling, brought along some resistance tubes I had from a long while ago, realized it might be good to use these every so often as warmups or for a little different challenge. Got a surprisingly decent upper body workout in with these & a few sets of pushups.
Tested the waters one week post-tweak and my back held up fine. Will give it a few more days of upper body work and then maybe do a few singles at 405 on Friday.
Back feels about 85 percent recovered from last week’s aggravation. Decided I will stick with three singles at 405 for a week or two until it feels totally back to normal (or as normal as my back gets) before resuming three triples at 405 as the weekly workout.
Sometimes life throws you a curveball. I was just about to go to the gym for my mid-day break when I got a call from my 4yo’s preschool that he was sick and needed a pickup. Brought him home, put him down for a nap, and decided that my best option for the day was just a couple of military presses - not something loud like deadlifting.