April 18th and 19th - Leg rehab, Bench instead of DL - heavy-light singles

 18.04.2026

I would like to learn to hop on one leg again, and on both legs, like I used to so much. It's one of the rehab things. My left leg, to be fair, isn't that springy either!

I noticed this, I've been noticing this. I think I need to work on negatives, on landing with my foot cause that's what's lacking. Why am I such a cripple all of a sudden? I'm not, but that's the kind of thoughts I occasionally get. I will become athletic and agile again.

I'm already doing it. I can't very well do "one legged hops / jump" on the right, unless I really focus my effort on overcoming the tissue stiffness. Running in place - that works.

More hopping - this time I hanged one of my thick rubber bands on the pullup bar and it's assisting me. I can jump pretty high with it! The fact that it's rubber makes it more smooth.

Must not overdo it. I still got strained meniscus tissues, the ones I had surgery on - I think that's one of the parts I hurt during PP at the end of March.

***

I've done more of that jumping. Then I decided to take a walk - finally pick up those pants I ordered.

So I walked. I put on the boots, the rain hoodie. My outer foot has been hurting, the knuckles of my 4th and 5th toes. But later I realized it's possible that it comes from an overly tight boot.

I struggled with walking today. That one day in October I didn't struggle - after I cut my leg but before I rolled my ankle 4 times. Today was a bit of a struggle. I mostly walked with my left leg - that's how it felt again. After a while it got easier. I've had to do some up- and down-hill climbing - a lot of fun, especially in those trekking boots of mine. I wandered in spirals comedically through hills and garages and around buildings. That's exactly what happens when you're exposed to aerobic activity - your brain power dies down a little. And in war it's double that. It died down so well I tried to light up a stove with a match. An unlit one. Then I tried putting a jar of coffee I bought onto the base of the electric kettle.

I'm just joshing of course. But it is pretty painful to know you've gone stupid for external reasons. Because you didn't get enough sleep or food or had to spend energy on cardio. There's gotta be a way to avoid that stupidity, develop some kind of personal algorithm that would circumvent that.

I ordered a couple cool tanktops and four sets of pants on impulse the other day. I was pretty tired of having to return clothing so I ordered them to the pickup location. One tanktop got denied for some reason. Maybe they assumed I was gonna take only one of the two. The pants - I ended up purchasing three out of four. One really large pair, one cheap but good, one quality pair I couldn't say no to. The pair I declined was the wrong color and it was in a really torn up package. Well, it wasn't the wrong color from what I ordered, it was a darker shade of multicam.

I've been hearing that that ozon company has been mistreating sellers and buyers. They were given a warning. That's why I felt ashamed not to buy almost all the pants. The whole reason for a pickup point is so you can try it on. Cause it's happened more than once, I ordered my size and it was too small. These times all the pants I tried on fit me well. One even was slightly oversized. I now have a pretty humongous wardrobe selection, Summer or Winter. I spent more money since September 2025 on clothing than I ever have. That's an awkward sentence.

On the way back I ended up agreeing with myself to treat myself and went into the store. I bough jam, ketchup, four tomatoes, a pack of dumplings, two packs of ground beef and one large instant coffee. Jardin something - it seemed okay enough, I think I bought it before. Also noodles.

On the way back my foot felt better. Not longer semi-clubfoot, but not perfect either. The way I was putting weight on it kept feeling wrong, even though the boot was a little more loose. I'm not sure if it's the right thing to do, but walking with the toe pointing out - like I used to walk back before 2016 - sort of feels like it alleviates my current issue. That way outer and inner part of the foot land more evenly together.

I looked up foot anatomy and it gave me some pretty unpleasant chills. I am certain I haven't severed or torn anything, but that piece of glass likely did nick some connective tissues.

I went home and enjoyed myself that one pack of noodles and a couple pieces of toast with jam, month-old bread - surprisingly not moldy! That felt nice, a little snack. Then one cup of coffee.

Now I am standing and writing all this. I kept the rubber band on top of my pullup bar - it seems that way I keep coming up to it and doing my hopping, one and two legs. Please pray for me and my leg!

Today was sort of like a mini workout, with the walking and ankle/calf prehab. Isn't it shameful to list "walking" as part of the workout? Lol.

***

You know, I have an insane amount of thoughts on "Wise Blood". Maybe I'll write about it tomorrow. Watching the movie now.

Been doing too much of that hopping. Had to stop myself!

19.04.2026

It's pretty late. Yesterday was somewhat fatiguing lol! Ended up sleeping some today, like I've been hit in the head.

I was supposed to do DLs - but it's actually a start of the new cycle, the new program. Damn the roidheads, they made the word "cycle" sound dirty and disgusting.

So, I'm thinking I won't do DLs today, but I will do some Bench. Possibly heady stuff. I have a couple ideas. At the end of the program you DON'T have to grow weak. You have to 'ride the peak of the wave' as smoothly as you can so you don't have to start at the beach and can just hop onto another wave. It's all about balancing the recovery, the underlying damage and wear that is less than visible. Sometimes your CNS takes a sudden drop. Sometimes the 'accumulated fatigue' affects other things, life and psyche.

BUT I am actually very well recovered because I basically have been resting the last 5 days.

I think I'll do easy singles today. It's a "heavy-light-heavy" variation - a heavy variation of a light variation of a heavy workout. Honestly this classification could use some work, because it's not obvious what rep range we're talking about - but it's just for "effort/weight/load" within the range. So if I was, for example, to start my DL cycle with 250 for sets of 8 it's be just "heavy" or "heavy-medium" (medium variation of a heavy workout). If I was going to do 255 for sets of 8 that'd be "heavy-heavy" lol.

I think I can do 250 for 3 sets of 8. BUT I am not quite sure I should START my new cycle with it... Then again, suddenly going LIGHT would feel wrong too. As much as I enjoyed that workout where I did 190 and 200 for 10 OHG I feel like it disrupted my health for a while, that sudden "laziness", if that makes sense.

Workout

Warmup - pretty thorough, minor stretches, wall pushups, planks

Bench press

20 - 40 - 60 - 70 - 90 - 100 - 110

120 for 2

130 - 140 - 150 - 160 for 1 all downstairs, short breaks. Now a longer break

160 - 3 sets of 1 short breaks - feels good. Another upstairs break

160 - 2 sets of 1

110 for 10 - medium grip, lowering it to upper chest

90 for 10 - same

70 for 10 - normal lowering, medium-narrow grip

Overhead press 

20 for 30 - focus on the 180 degree full body jerk lockout; it has become my "brushing teeth".

Feels good. Hope to have a nice DL tomorrow! Pray for me and for things about me, please 😀 You know prayers work through time, right? 😉 Send me your grace, please, dear reader 😀 The one that our Blessed Lord gave you - share some with me!

Also, I need to to some rehab. Not even prehab tbh!

Did some hopping, a few sets, with and without the runner band. This thing makes me unreasonably nervous. You just gotta have a grip on yourself when dealing with this kind of stuff.

RPotD - White umbrella-mushroom, related to champignon - the button mushroom

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Macrolepiota_excoriata

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ackerschirmpilz-1.jpg