Revised, but still Unworthy...and THAT'S what glute activation means

The elbow pain from Friday's workout seems to be a bit more than muscle soreness. Yesterday it hurt like hell and I had trouble gripping much of anything. Lateral movements with my hand or any rotation of my wrist caused pain in my elbow. I couldn't write or even use the mouse. It was a better today in terms of outright pain, but I still had trouble pouring milk from the nearly-full carton this morning. I'm taking ibuprofen and treating it gingerly.

However, I didn't really want to skip another workout day. I tested a number of exercises to see what bothered the elbow. Pulling movements, especially like the ones involved in cleans, were a no-go. Pushing movements seemed to be okay. Based on that, "Unworthy" seemed to present itself as a feasible solution. Because I was a little worried about the effect of KB swings, I decided to switch the pushup reps and KB swing reps. I was also a bit concerned about losing my grip and sending a kettlebell flying across my living room, but that would be better than dropping it on my foot, right?

Buy-in: 2 rounds of:
10 squats
10 V-ups
10 pushups
10 supermans
5 KB DLs

WOD: "Unworthy Revised" done w/25# KB

• 80 squats/40 pushups/20 KB swings
• 40 squats/20 pushups/10 KB swings
• 20 squats/10 pushups/5 KB swings
• 40 squats/20 pushups/10 KB swings
• 80 squats/40 pushups/20 KB swings

Time: 18:07

Thoughts: This is another one of those WODs that looks easy on paper and then morphs into an elephant on your back in the second round. I'm still pretty strong on pushups despite the elbow - never did less than 10 in a row even on the last set.

My major epiphany on this WOD was the idea of glute activation. I've heard the term bandied around, but never really understood what it meant until today. Because of my elbow, I had to use glute activation to get the kettlebell to swing. Wow. Just pop the hips hard, and the damn KB goes up, taking my arms along for the ride. Just hang on so the bell won't break some expensive knickknack that my mother has placed in my living room.

Then it occured to me that glute activation might work on the air squats as well. Worth a shot, especially if it keeps me from crippled by DOMS in my quads tomorrow. So I tried it out and sure enough, the air squats went a lot easier as well.

I have to admit I'm a little embarassed by all this. I mean, I've been Crossfitting for 8 months now, so you'd think I'd at least have the flippin' air squat figured out. Apparently not.

Cash out: Hollow hold - :30
Front plank - 1:00
Side planks - :30 each side