Back has really been feeling a lot better as of late, so I have been able to move up a bit with squats and deadlift-type movements. It leads me to believe it was just very bad strain, but I am still not pushing it too much. Mostly form work today and just getting some extra time under the bar since it’s been awhile!
I have started playing around with a low-bar placement again for squats, and it seems to make me feel much better. I am assuming because my abs are still very weak, high bar squats tend to make my lower back hurt more because I can’t properly brace everything just yet. They tend to put more stress on my quads, low back, and abs…which are all quite weak areas for me. Low-bar seems like a good route until I can bring up all these weak areas to a point where they are not really hurting me.
Old Lady Warm-Up:
Stair-stepper – 5 mins (med intensity)
planks – 2 x 1 min.
X-band walks – 2 x bunch
Banded clam shells (lots)
Single-leg Hip Bridges – 1 x 15 per side
Banded squats (wrapped around knees, focusing on forcing the knees out through the whole movement)
Foam roll (calves, mid-back, glutes) Foam
Squats:
bar x bunch
95×5
135×3
155×2
175×1
185×1
195x2x1
185x5x1
Rack-Pulls
145×5
195×5
215×3
235×3
245×3
Natural GHR (feet wedged under squat rack)
1×8
1×7
Lying Leg Curls
85x10x3
Bad Girl Machine
250x15x3
I Lift So I Can Eat. 
I just wanted to say thank you for doing what you do. I comment on your facebook post every once and a while. I benefit greatly from your warm ups. I have a hard time warming up and activating my muscles. You have successfully navigated through my 2 main problems. Hip mobilization and glute activation in the warm up. Can you touch on a warm up routine for the elbow. I am making a program for myself, but I would also like your input
This warm up was awesome, you’re posts are always so helpful. I feel so much more confident at the gym when I know what I’m doing! This one wasespecially helpful since I recently strained my lower back and the lower bar placement made squats so much easier.