I had an extremely painful sensation that persisted for a week, it was the start of an hernia and had I push through the pain it would have required additional

I had an extremely painful sensation that persisted for a week, it was the start of an hernia and had I push through the pain it would have required additional surgery. My surgeon had a look at the training program and told me to skip the initial exhaustion test, do it in 18 weeks instead of 6 by increasing the number of reps only once a week and remove the plus from the number of reps in the last series. It's crazy how fast unsed muscles atrophy when you're past 40, I only stopped for 8 months (the recovery from my surgery) and I had to start back at day one.