I am not a doctor, so take what I say with a grain of salt. That said, I have experience with your situation so here's some background:
In 2013, I damaged/herniated L4 L5 and l5 S1 and it put me out of the game completely for a couple of months (as in, I couldn't go to the gym because just putting my socks on or hitting a bump while driving without vomiting from the pain felt like an immense challenge).
I rehabbed it and got stronger than before, but this last December I got into a car accident and injured my back again. As of today, I am pain free and very rarely, if ever, feel even the smallest bit of discomfort (and when I do, it's mostly from sitting in the same place for way too long).
I would say that I'm pretty good at recovering from back injuries at this point. I just pulled a 5 plate deadlift last week, for reference, which I would say is pretty good considering I was out of the game completely just 3 months ago and I had to avoid deads off the floor altogether for two of those months because just hitting 275 for a single was very uncomfortable.
The main pieces of advice I will give are:
If you can, see a spine/sports medicine specialist MD. They will be able to accurately advise you on activity based on your situation and they won't do what a lot of GP's do which is basically say "if it hurts, don't ever do it."
Do your fuckin' rehab and take it seriously. It isn't supposed to feel good, but it works.
I don't care what anyone says, chiropractic work absolutely has it's place and it is definitely an option worth exploring, provided you are ALSO doing rehab in conjunction with it (in other words, you are doing chiropractic for relief and more comfortable movement while doing PT work to treat the root cause of the issue). In my 100% anecdotal personal experience, the combo of both together is far better than either alone.
When a medical professional has advised that you are clear to begin working out again, take it slow.
Test movements and see what you can do with good form and absolutely no bad discomfort whatsoever. That's your working max.
Do variations of the big lifts that are challenging, require less weight to get a training stimulus, and don't bother the injury. After the car accident, I found that I couldn't do deadlifts off the floor, bench press, barbell rows, or low bar squats without a great deal of discomfort. Romanian Dl's, power cleans, overhead presses, chins, chest supported rows/cable rows, and high bar squats (done, at first, with light weights), however, gave me hardly any trouble at all. As a result, I did the shit out of those at first and focused on building as much volume as possible in those movements with high reps and lower weight.
once you are pain free, make a commitment to making your back and core as strong as possible. You have to do this. If you don't you will end up in pain again and you will injure yourself eventually. Doing an upper lower split, have worked up to doing either a deadlift variation, a good morning, or back extensions every single training day. I also do an ab move every single training day as well. This keeps my back feeling good.
I did a linear progression using high reps at first, adding 5-10 lbs per session starting with sets of 10 to 15. When that slowed down/stalled, I tapered to sets of 8, then 5, then 3. This kept things moving forward and helped me get my confidence with the lifts back while really drilling form.
Think somewhat like a bodybuilder. When it's leg day and your squats are feeling really off/weak and your back is feeling iffy, do isolation work that doesn't bother you so much. If you can leg press without any unusual discomfort, do that instead, do some hamstring curls, try some planks and bodyweight back extensions, and get out of there. If your back is just feeling like crap and none of the above is working, go home and take an advil.
Move as much as possible within reason. being sedentary is your enemy. In the long run, you will actually hurt more if you aren't as active as you can be without injuring yourself more. If all you can do is go for walks at a slow and easy pace, do that.
Hope that helps.