You're listening to Life Kit from NPR.

Hey everybody, it's Mariel.

A couple years ago, our producer, Margaret Serino, was at the gym lifting some weights.

It was her first time back after a pretty long break, but she was feeling good, feeling strong.

Then when she bent over to pick up her barbell on her last set.

I just felt something snap.

And I literally said out loud, that is not good.

Something in her lower back, some muscle or tendon or bone, was not where it was supposed to be.

And I just immediately dropped everything and, like, crawled home from the gym and took all of the

pain meds I could find. Margaret was mad at herself, because this time, this injury, she says,

it was kind of her fault. I did none of the things I was supposed to.

I was lifting weights for the first time in like a year.

And then immediately went as heavy as I used to go.

I didn't warm up.

I just waltzed into the gym, loaded up my barbell, and was like, it'll be fine.

It was not fine. She had to work with a physical

therapist for months to fix her back. She couldn't do workouts or do the hobbies she liked to do.

But the experience taught her that all of those parts of the workout that she used to gloss over,

the warm up, the cool down, the stretching, those things matter. Three, two, one, go.

After a lot of treatment and time off, Margaret's back at the gym now, doing the things she

used to do, but safely this time. And she's got tips to share so that you don't need to

throw your back out to learn the right from the wrong. On this episode of Life Kit, how to recover in between your workouts.

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