INJURIES, WHAT ARE THE GOOD FOR?

I have been dealing with tennis elbow (or lateral epicondylitis) the past couple weeks. It is a first for me, and it sure is a new sensation (I typically deal with leg pain with lipedema, arm pain is somewhat new to me).

I use my arms, and arm strength a lot in moving about my every day life, and I like feeling strong, so this has put a cramp in my activities as of late.

I think the injury was caused by a somewhat new movement for me, floor pulls. We started doing floor pulls as part of our WOD (workout of the day), and they are just what they sound like, you lay on the floor and using your core and arms (no legs), you pull yourself across the mats. My MOD (modification) for this movement is to do them on the doorway edge...

When I first started doing the floor pulls, I was only able to do a couple, but have since built up to incorporating them into my regular CrossFit warmup (in place of the pull-ups), and lately coach has been having us do "stations" where we have different movements and do them for a set period of time, as in the photo above - the pulls were one of four movements that day.

Injuries, What Are They Good For?

So here is where the title came from. In talking it over with coach, and after doing the floor pulls yesterday, and realizing if I bring my elbows in more, and engage my core more, the pain was greatly diminished.

Coach made a comment about all movement should start from the core and work it's way out. You get in to trouble when the outer extremities start to do the work that the core should do (or the core is not engaged when the extremities are working).

So don't treat your elbow like a shoulder, and don't treat your shoulder like your core.

The injury I had sustained reminded me that I was not using my core enough. That I was finding a way to move my body any way I could, instead of the proper way.

So in that regard, the injury is a good reminder of engaging my core, and probably will be for some time as it heals.