Dragon dancing is something that I've enjoyed doing since I started doing it around 4 years ago. I've done the Dragon dance at the banquet three times now, and it's been fun and rewarding every time. However, over the last few months my shoulders have started to give me more and more trouble, to the point where my arm will lose all strength and go numb if I turn my shoulder too much. Obviously this isn't good, especially since I'm only 18. I'm just starting to get into the field that I want, and my body is already disagreeing with it. This came super clear to me on Thursday, as I was doing an oil change at school. The vehicles we work on at NAIT stay in the shop their whole lives, never seeing the road once. This means that 99% of the parts on them aren't seized or rusted and are very easy to get off. Even with this perfect world scenario, my shoulder gave out trying to take off the oil filter. Not good, as I was essentially useless to my group for around 10 minutes after that. So how does this relate to Dragon dancing? I find that the morning after every practice/demo my shoulders feel like garbage. It hurts to move them for awhile after getting up and I have very limited strength as well. What I'm trying to say is that I will taking a break from Dragon dancing this year, and focusing on getting my body back into a good condition, where it can handle what I'm giving it. If I was older, I would just try to change what I can about my Dragon dancing to accommodate for my shoulders. But I'm still young enough that whatever damage I may have done might not be permanent, so I can take steps to undo it and come back stronger and better. I want to say thanks to my fellow Dragon dancers for all the fun during the practices and dances, and I hope to be back on the team in the future!
2800 push ups
4480 sit ups
80 M'long Koon
80 Hockey Stick Form
168 Kilometers
86 AOK
Working in the trades takes a great toll on the body. I hope you can figure out your shoulder thing soon!
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