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My Lesson from watching High School Gymnastics

                This last week I got to bring my 3 oldest daughters to watch the Elk River gymnastics team compete against Moorhead.  I have watched gymnastics on television and watched my children participate in child gymnastics, but I had never taken the opportunity to watch talented athletes participate without the magic of editing and choosing what to and what not to show.  The Elks did a fantastic job, and aside from my 5-and 4-year-olds becoming too tired to continue, we had a very enjoyable time.
                There was an incident, however, during the vault.  One of the girls missed the spring-board and slammed into the vault chest-first.  She was clearly shaken, and her shoulder was sore.  Her coach and her mother (who happened to be sitting right behind me) kept asking her if she was ok.  She kept reassuring them that she was.  The rest of the time, I kept an eye on her.  She definitely felt the impact but was determined to not let it get in the way of her meet. 
                Watching this made me realize that it was a perfect analogy for how we deal with our injuries in our society.  How many times have you rolled your ankle or slipped without falling and you shake it off and don’t let the fact your body just sustained trauma effect your day.  Most of the time, that isn’t a big deal, but what we don’t realize is those minor traumas can add up.  If we don’t make sure that trauma really isn’t an issue, we don’t know how much or how little damage we have done. 

                Next time you are sore for longer than an hour after a “minor trauma” you probably did more damage than you realize.  It would be in your best interest to go in and see your chiropractor and make sure it won’t turn into a nagging issue down the road.

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