I’m an 80 y/o male intermediate lifter. I was testing a 5 RM on my dead lift and pulled a hamstring on the 5th rep. I’ve been rehabbing with Austin’s “Pain in Training” article and I’m using 1/3 of my 5 RM weight and dead lifting 3 x 12, 3-0-3 and that feels OK. But the recommendation for the third set is RPE 8 and the weight is so light I can’t come close to that. I can just keep adding weight until I hit RPE 8 but my question is (and it’s about training injuries in general) can I trust that I’ll get some warning discomfort during the lift so I can stop in time to not reinjure myself? Thanks.
Hey @geoswz thanks for the question. Sorry to hear about the recent hamstrings injury. I wouldn’t be concerned with “warning signs” and relation to injury in this regard given we expect some level of symptoms to be present during this recovery process. However, symptoms should be tolerable and not leaving you feeling worse during or after training (example, reduced range of motion at the area or unable to accomplish usual daily tasks). I will say when it comes to muscle injuries, I typically advocate for doing some isolation work to the area such as hamstring curls to aid with the recovery process. Otherwise, sounds like you have a solid grasp on this process.