Our spines degenerate over time.  An MRI of my C spine shows major problems on the left side, but my issues are on the right.

Degeneration also with my L spine.

Spare your spine.

Listen, brother, it ain't that complicated.  Just train.  It doesn't matter how you train. 

Train like a pussy.  (Vince Taylor, Paul Dillet)
Train like a berseker.  (Ronnie and some others.)
Low-Volume HIT.  (Mentzer and some other guys.)
Moderate-Volume HIT.  (Yates and many others in the late 90s.)
Volume training.  (The "standard" bodybuilding routine.)
Extreme volume training.  (2x/day; some of the Venice Beach guys did this because they loved the gym.)
Instinctive training.  (Train whatever and however you feel like training that day.)

And I could go on all day.  It doesn't matter.  It all works.  Find what you like, what gets you into the gym, and stick with it. 

Not really.  Muscle growth is 60% genetics/drugs, 30% diet, 10% everything else.  You need to train, but over a sufficiently long time horizon how you train doesn't matter much for hypertrophy.

For the past few years I have been convinced that Joe Weider is Satan incarnate and bodybuilding is a ritualistic sacrifice of health for the spectacle of carnal indulgence.

As such, I have been convinced that any amount of muscle equals steroids and any amount of steroids equals removing years off your length of days.

However, a few minutes ago I started questioning it all. Perhaps a little bit of it is actually a good thing