Avoiding loading the spine

Warm-up:
bench press

5x5 bench press (135,4x140)

5x250 ft versaclimber (~12 min work, ~1:1 work:rest)

Should have been heavy singles today, but I tweaked my back (rowing on the erg of all things). Bench felt fine, but holy fucking hell that versaclimber destroyed me. I'm a fan cause it's very low impact (good for my back). Only problem is that the one versaclimber my gym has is ancient (circa 1980) and has some mechanical dial with no markings for resistance. Gonna be hard to be consistent with that, but maybe I can count on the fact that no one in the gyms uses this machine (it wasn't even turned on when I found it).