[vl]

I’ll add to this advice: work out every day. It’s way easier to do it this way. If you go for few large workouts, it’s easy to skip and easy to slip. With small workout every day you know you have to do it and it can’t be pushed out from the schedule.

Corollary to this, remove friction for starting a workout. I.e. get equipment to your abode/office so you can start working out in 2 minutes.

And also: there are a lot of great work out sessions on YouTube. Dumbbells, yoga, stretching, etc.

And also also: if you don’t know where to start, just pay for personal trainer.

[heresjohnny]

While solid advice, working out everyday can lead to overtraining. Happened to me and it’s not fun. Doing some yoga every day: yes. Heavy squats: no, please no.

[robcohen]

Overtraining is a concern, but I’ve previously done 7x per week heavy weightlifting and it’s fine so long as you cycle through different body parts and listen to your body. In the Marine Corps I’d usually work out 3x a day 5 days a week and 1x per day on the weekends. Granted I was in my 20s then, but I think what matters more than “preemptively not overtraining” is just listening to your body. Most people go way too heavy for their goals. I’ve found that’s really unnecessary and counterproductive, but exercising often is fine.

[generalenvelope]

Emphasis on listen to your body. Plugging because I'm such a big fan, Barbell Medicine has changed my life in terms of understanding training/injury risk based on actual evidence. If you haven't tried it, highly recommend RPE based training. It's refreshing to realize that you don't need to go super hard to make serious progress. And like you're describing, it can often set you back. There's a fatigue cost to every stimulus and it's all about balancing those to get the desired adaptations.

[polishdude20]

Another thing Ive learned from them is that if something hurts or I have pain that isn't caused by physical damage, it's most likely fine to lift. Usually lifting actually helps any back pain.

A few weeks back I tweaked my back just while laying down for some reason. Hurt like hell getting up. Next day, still painful, did some light squats. During the squats the pain didn't get any worse. So I added more weight. Less pain. More weight, less pain. Until I got to my working set for the day and nailed it. The back pain got better and it was all fine.

Now the lifting may not have had any effect on the pain. It could have just gone away on its own. I'll never know. But the point being that the pain didn't indicate a structural damage that was dangerous. Lifting probably also helped my mind make that distinction.

[generalenvelope]

Hell yeah. Austin Baraki's "Aches and Pains" article is great, as well as the YT video "4 step for managing pain in the gym".

I've had many similar back pain experiences to yours. Bio-Psycho-Social model for the win

[nextlevelwizard]

Usually when people tell me they are going heavy more than 3 times per week they usually arent going that hard, just because it is hard to recover that fast.

[vl]

My strategy is to go for variety. I do weights one day, cardio other day.

[quickthrower2]

YMMV: For me the physical relocation and access to lots of equipment is important. Twice a week weights suits me fine. Not saying I am right but saying there is no one way