Hey everyone, I apologize in advance for asking such a lengthy a question I already know the answer to but I’m just hoping to ease some of my family’s minds.
First with some personal history. About a year and a half ago I received a microdiskectomy (L5 S1) to relieve chronic sciatic pain. About every 3 or so months I would experience a flair up, due to movement or sometimes even a simple sneeze. These often rendered me unable to work, walk, sit or sometimes move at all without experiencing excruciating pain. After two years of trying things such as chiro, physio, acupuncture, etc with no success, surgery seemed like a necessary last resort. I’m happy to say that the surgery was successful and shortly after recovering was introduced to strength training as a form of maintenance. I have since fallen completely in love with barbell training and have been doing so 3-4 days a week ever since. My question now is, is there any reason I should be concerned about going “too heavy” (rpe 9’s) with certain lifts such as deadlift or squat? I understand that generally load management etc is the best way to avoid injury. However, since the disk has already been jeopardized, am I now at a higher risk? If so is the risk percentage even worth considering or just nocebo at this point? I see and feel the results myself but I guess I’m wondering if you guys can help me articulate or link me to evidence that the benefits clearly outweigh the risk even with my given surgical implications.