Sometimes, you do something you didn't quite expect...

Photo by Colin Young-Wolff

I had what some would call “an interesting weekend”

Although I haven’t posted much about it before, if you’ve talked to me in-person at all then you’ve probably heard that my husband and I participate in a hobby called cosplay – creating costumes that bring to life our favorite characters from video games and other media. (And we're VERY deep into this hobby - we do costume competitions across the country, our entire basement is a costume workshop, and I decided to own a minivan pretty much just to haul costumes to conventions)

One of our favorite video games to cosplay from, called League of Legends, hosted their North American Spring finals championship game right here in St. Louis. The top two teams of the continent went head to head in a Best of 5 match in front of 9000 fans in a sold out Chaifetz Arena. And the company that created the game invited my husband and I to be among the official cosplay guests - or as I like to call it, "the hype crew"

It. Was. INCREDIBLE!!!

We got backstage access, met some of our favorite personalities in the gaming community, spent time with friends from all across the country, and entertained the crowd with photo-ops before the games began

What I didn't know we would end up also doing - throwing swag from the stage to the stands between each of those 5 games

Now, I'm not what you'd call "sporty." Pitching is NOT my strong suit - especially in a costume that limits my mobility, and lobbing extremely light-weight stress balls, with a pretty significant distance from the stage to the elevated first row. The first few I threw weren't even CLOSE to making it to the crowd. So I gave it everything I could to pitch those balls as hard as possible - about 30% actually made it into the stands. I'm calling that a success!

You know what happens when you make your body do an activity it hasn't done in about 15 years, and you do it at 110%?

Oh yes. 

YOU HURT!!

It didn't take long before my shoulder was pretty much dead. I was hurting and weak from the pain to the point that during the last round of swag throwing, I couldn't get ANY balls to the stands and I switched to just handing the swag to my husband to throw because my shoulder could NOT do it any more

The experience was still amazingly fun across the board! Hands-down our favorite day in costume ever! 

But OWWW!

As I spend this week recovering from my wrecked shoulder, I got to wondering:

Are you prepared for unexpected activity this season?

It could be a spontaneous session of playing ball with your kids or grandkids

Or clearing downed tree limbs from an overnight storm

Or changing a tire that got mangled from construction debris

Or sprinting after your dog when he breaks his leash and takes off after a bunny

Or frantically deep-cleaning your house before surprise company comes over

If you do something you haven't done before, and you do it at maximum effort, you'll probably end up hurt!

What can you do to minimize that risk?

Keep your body in peak condition no matter what may or may not be coming up, through a decent diet, regular exercise, and routine wellness chiropractic care - if you're at the top and you slip, you'll still be much better off than if you start at the bottom and slip (take it from me, someone who faceplants more often than I care to admit, literally and figuratively). When your body is already at its best or close to it, an unexpected activity won't wreck you nearly as hard or for as long as it would if you haven't been doing anything to take care of yourself. 

And when that pain does show up from some unplanned weekend fun, reach out to me to see if I can help you get back to normal asap so that you're ready for whatever the next weekend throws at you

I just probably won't be the one throwing!

Go here to schedule a call to see if I'm the right one to be helping you, OR call or text "curious" to (636) 751-3150

Have fun next weekend,

~Dr. Vicky

Look mom! I'm on the jumbotron!

Photo by Jacob Pepe. Jumbotron image by Riot Games

Want to get the latest blogs delivered right to your inbox?

Sign up below to receive The Complete Wellness Connection: