Are you sure it was skeletal pain and not muscular? I decided on a whim to go for a PR on deadlift after slacking off from the gym for ~2 weeks. It aged my back by 30 years for a week before the stiffness went away.

I'm personally a big fan of Barbell Medicine and the biopsychosocial model they're pushing. A point Dr. Feigenbaum had made is that if you're capable of performing the barbell movements without load, there isn't really any reason for why the movement should cause harm. If it causes pain, you're loading up too much weight before your body has adapted to it.