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Originally Posted by repo
stronglifts.com/] l4 an l5 herniated i've been seen chiropractor to help so far so good. i'am not to post full url until i have 15 post
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Ok, Strong Lifts. We are familiar with the program.
A few things to consider:
1) Strong Lifts is probably the most squat intense 5x5 program. In my opinion it is unnecessarily squat heavy for lifters such as yourself. There are better 5x5's available. 5/3/1 may be a better choice, if structured with an appropriate assistance program. You could set it up as a nice muscle and strength building system.
2) You are going to need to progress. Doing so on Smith machine squats means that you're going to wake up in several months with a whole lot of weight on your back.
Smith squats are an unnatural form of squatting. They are sub-par. They take the natural squat movement and change it. While they may feel easier out the gate, when the weight gets heavy they are more likely to give you more back issues, as well as knee issues, etc.
Therefore, if you are unable to squat, I do not recommend Smith squats. I would like to encourage you to squat, but I do not know the extent of your medical condition. Because of this I think you can find much better movements than the Smith squat.
Are you able to do lunges, split squats, hack squats and/or leg presses heavy without back issues?
Since you can't barbell squat, I would probably do 531 and drop the 531 for squat day. Replace it with a 5x10-20 leg press plus assistance work. Make it a strictly muscle building day. 5x5's tend to be squat-centric, so that is the reason I shy away a bit from advocating one just yet.
This is merely one man's opinion. Some of the other seasoned members may have better suggestions. I have never dealt with back injuries.