#2026

Mishmisha

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"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
Once again I'm coming in with a new thread for the year. Last year's thread got finished successfully, and I think I mostly achieved my pre-pandemic level of fitness. This year, I want to take it further and really push myself. And I hope to get some actually visible muscle, too - although I might have to invest into some protein shakes or something.

My goal for the year: become capable of doing push-ups on the floor. Additional goal: become capable of doing at least one proper pull-up.

My main obstacles: weak arms and shoulders, wrists and elbow joints... I'll have to take it very slow.

Let's get it started.:curlz:
 

Mishmisha

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"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
Alright, so I actually already started on January. This month I'm doing a program and two challenges:
Zero Hero program - I'm finally giving the RPG format a try!
Indoor Cardio challenge - it's finally snowing outside, and with the ankle-deep snow everywhere I'm no longer able to go on regular walks. So indoor cardio it is.
Wall Push-ups challenge - the only kind of push-ups I can do right now, so it's the best point to start.

I'm lucky enough to spend the winter holidays with my parents at their house, and there's actually some proper walls in there, for the push-ups. Unfortunately my usual dwelling lacks such convenient wall-space, so I'll have to get creative once the holidays are over.
 

Mishmisha

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"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
January 5th-8th:

Zero Hero day 5-8 (level 3)
Indoor Cardio day 5-8
Wall Push-ups day 5-8
The Walk
Factory Reset level 3

So far I've had to replace all butt kicks with slow butt kicks, otherwise my ankle starts to protest (it's been broken before and healed wrong). Since all my running replacement days in the Zero Hero program seem to fall on the butt kicks days in the challenge, I've considered just doing these butt kicks once and calling it a day, but in the end decided that I'd rather also do march steps for the program instead.

The push-ups are going well! My wrists ache a little afterwards, but not too badly.

Overall, I feel like I'm pushing myself a little, but can still do more once in a while. So that's good.
 

Mishmisha

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"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
January 9th-12th:

Zero Hero day 9-12
Indoor Cardio day 9-12
Wall Push-ups day 9-12

Comeback Cardio level 3
Exercise of the day for the 12th

I ate very well these holidays, and thanks to that the push-ups have started giving tangible results already. My food intake will naturally lower now that the holidays are over, so I'll need to make sure to eat enough protein to keep the muscle I gained and hopefully gain more. Might be the time to get some protein powder and maybe start making smoothies or something.
 

Mishmisha

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Bard Pronouns: He/They
Posts: 222
"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"

Mishmisha

Well-known member
Bard Pronouns: He/They
Posts: 222
"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"

Mishmisha

Well-known member
Bard Pronouns: He/They
Posts: 222
"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
January 23rd:

Wake Up! Mobility with EC
Wake Up! Energised
Morning Stretching with EC
Zero Hero day 23
Indoor Cardio day 23
Wall Push-ups day 23
Exercise of the day - I'm definitely better than a year ago: I actually held the position to the end for each leg without re-adjusting or losing balance. Good to know.
Upperbody Tendon Strength with EC - I like that it's timed. And that it's short, but I still feel the strain, especially in my forearms, although not so much that it hinders me afterwards. I could probably make this a daily exercise.
Anywhere Abs with EC - honestly, that felt more like a leg workout than an abs workout.
 

Mishmisha

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Posts: 222
"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"

Mishmisha

Well-known member
Bard Pronouns: He/They
Posts: 222
"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
January 26th:

Wake Up! Mobility with EC
Wake Up! Energised
Morning Stretching with EC
Zero Hero day 26
Indoor Cardio day 26
Wall Push-ups day 26
Exercise of the day

For the Battleground:
Combat Light (600 strikes total) - the name seemed auspicious :LOL:
Seated Warrior (750 strikes total) - this one put a real strain on my shoulders, and also helped me discover that I can only do palm strikes with my fingers bent, since they don't straighten out all the way enough for a proper palm strike. I'm sure it's fine, though.
Skirmish (294 strikes total) - as light of a workout as its name implies. Got my heart rate up, but not enough to sweat.
 

Mishmisha

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Posts: 222
"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
January 27th:

Wake Up! Mobility
Wake Up! Energised
Morning Stretching
Zero Hero day 27
Indoor Cardio day 27
Wall Push-ups day 27

For the Battleground:
Beginner Combat (700 strikes total) - somehow I managed to strain my left pectoral muscle with all these jabs and crosses? I wasn't even aware that was something that could happen. Although logically it makes sense, of course, any muscle can get strained with new and sudden activity... But I was still surprised.
Skybreaker (840 strikes total) - my left hip did not like doing the side kicks at waist height. At all. It kept popping uncomfortably. I tried to stick it out, thinking that maybe it just needed to warm up... But no. Uncomfortable no matter what. I think I might have to stick to low side kicks from now on.
 

Mishmisha

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Posts: 222
"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
January 31st:

Wake Up! Mobility
Wake Up! Energised
Morning Stretching
One Angry Bird level 3 with EC (30sec rest)
Full Body Stretching
Breathe Easy
Back & Biceps Express with 2kg weight in one hand and two 1kg weights in the other

1 high knee day from 3-Minute HIIT challenge (3 sets of 40sec high knees with 30sec rest) to determine whether I should take up this challenge for the February. Verdict: for now I'll do march steps for at least one set, and hopefully switch to all high knees after a week or two - turns out I can't hold the form for all three sets, it turns into something closer to jogging at the end. But overall it's workable. I guess technically it means that I'm doing this as 29-day challenge, right?

Since February is 28 days, I need to start the other challenge and the program for this month in advance. Probably should've started yesterday, actually... Oh well. At least there'll be symmetry to it: start them one day before February, and finish one day after.
Push-Up Streak day 1 (20 wall push-ups in one go)
Unbound day 1 - realized that I probably should've done more lower body stretches before this, because it was surprisingly difficult. I'll count it as a victory that I didn't just fall over (even though I had to grab the table leg once or twice to keep it that way).

:rstar: January results :rstar:

Zero Hero - done :v:
Indoor Cardio - done :v:
Wall Push-ups - done :v:
Battleground - 6 864 strikes

Smirk Thumbs Up GIF by Persona
 

Mishmisha

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"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
February 2026

Program: Unbound
At first I wanted to add it on another program, but then I took on the HIIT challenge, and the push-up challenge, and realized that I won't be able to keep up with all that and also two programs. Challenges took priority, and I already did the first day for this program, so I guess I'll take a more intensive program next month.

Challenge 1: 3-Minute HIIT
28-day challenge for a 28-day long month! And, well, it's just three minutes every day. Indoor Cardio challenge prepared me for this.

Challenge 2: Push-Up Streak
Keeping in mind my goal of becoming capable of doing push-ups on the floor this year! At first I thought to take on some challenge with plank-based exercise like shoulder taps, but it turned out I'm not quite there yet... My wrists can't take holding me off the floor for long enough. So, more wall push-ups it is!

* * *
As the sun comes up,
My bones feel the cold settle in.
The view is worth it.

- Misha, February 2026
 

Mishmisha

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"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
February 1st:

Woke up clearly sick, with sore throat and feeling cold despite turning up the heating previous evening... I really shouldn't have gone to stay at my parents' house this weekend. Perhaps I wouldn't have, if my mother deigned to inform me of her own illness beforehand. It's like she thinks that she's somehow exempt from ever being contagious.

:grumpy:

Despite it all, I managed to exercise! Mostly in the morning, before I was really hit with the shivers and weakness in my entire body.

Wake Up! Mobility
Wake Up! Energised
Morning Stretching
3-Minute HIIT day 1 - had to replace last set of jacks with step jacks. Not sure if it's the illness or my own overestimation of my ability to do 120sec of jumping jacks nearly consecutively.
Push-Up Streak day 2 (24 wall push-ups in one go)
Unbound day 2 - I have mistakenly left this for later, and had to do it in the evening while feeling alarmingly weak and shaking a little. But I did it! Although the third stretch was quite baffling, I'm not sure I understood and done it correctly... Still, I'm lucky it wasn't lower body stretches again. I don't think I could keep myself from falling over in that case.

Here's to hoping I'll get better tomorrow...
 

Mishmisha

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"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
February 6th:

Wake Up! Mobility with EC
Wake Up! Energised with EC
Morning Stretching with EC
3-Minute HIIT day 6 (half march steps, half high knees)
Push-Up Streak day 7 (38 wall push-ups in one go)
Unbound day 7
Silver level 3 with EC - the description is right on the money: "one of those stealth mode workouts you can do when you're not sure you should be exercising or when you are in recuperative mode, or when simply you're stuck for a workout routine, do not want to wake the neighbours or advertise the fact you're working out." Can confirm, it is all that.
Last Life level 3 with EC - at first I thought that I completely forgot how to throw a punch since Battleground, but after a couple sets I got right back into it.
Groundwork level 3 with EC - my shoulders felt it! The rest of me, not so much.

Also, I scrubbed half the floor in my apartment - hands and knees and all, - and it left me completely wiped out. More exhausting than any workout. And I still have the other half to go! Tomorrow, though. And hopefully, I'll be able to use a mop.
 
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Mishmisha

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Posts: 222
"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
February 7th:

Wake Up! Mobility with EC
Wake Up! Energised with EC
Morning Stretching with EC
3-Minute HIIT day 7 (jumping jacks)
Push-Up Streak day 8 (20 wall push-ups in one go)
Unbound day 8
Upperbody Tendon Strength with EC

I tried out a few workouts from the new Longevity collection as well:
Rotator Cuff - this one is familiar! The "elbow to torso" exercise still confuses me though. I'm not sure I'm doing it right.
Balance - also familiar, but not in a good way. My flat feet hurt too much to do this regularly... Maybe I'll try this again with some orthopedic footwear though. But hey, at least I was actually able to finish it this time! This one can leave the "wishlist" bookmarks now.
Posture - this one isn't new to me either... But I still can't tell what the wall stand is supposed to achieve. It doesn't feel like anything when I do it. Also, the image says 20 seconds, but the timer gives you 30 for each exercise. Not sure if that's a bug or a feature. I'm fine with doing 30 seconds either way.
Mobility Matrix - the video was VITAL. I would have never guessed that the "thumbs up" means without it. Not a workout that can be shared without the video or at least the description. That's definitely not how I'd choose to illustrate "finger rotations"...
Centenarian level 3 with EC - fairly easy full body strength workout. After the first set, I doubled the hip rotations to match everything else. After finishing 7 sets and some rest, my shoulder finally started to complain about all the effort I was making it go through - I could barely lift my arm above my head when I went to stretch at first. I think it's probably cumulative effect though, not something specific to this workout.

Procrastinated scrubbing the rest of the floors; it all has to be vacuumed again, but I didn't clean out my vacuum after last time, so now I have to clean it first, let it dry overnight, then tomorrow vacuum and scrub the floor after that. Not counting all the soil I have to sweep up after one of my pots fell over (which was weeks ago btw, but it wasn't anywhere I have to walk through so I've been able to ignore it) for which I have to borrow a broom or something from a neighbor first... And of course, I have to put away everything else that's laying on the floor first (various chairs, a tiny rug, bags full of stuff, a giant cardboard box I keep meaning to repurpose...) Yeah, cleaning the bathroom, kitchen, and hallway floors was the easy part. Apparently. Way less things laying around. I should put some of them away in a wardrobe or something.

I keep telling myself this is just spring cleaning starting early, but at this rate I'll be finished with the actual spring cleaning by the summer. Hmm...

My spring cleaning has
Started in February.
Will finish by June.
 

Mishmisha

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"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
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Mishmisha

Well-known member
Bard Pronouns: He/They
Posts: 222
"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
February 9th:

Wake Up! Mobility with EC
Wake Up! Energised with EC
Morning Stretching with EC
3-Minute HIIT day 9 (jumping jacks)
Push-Up Streak day 10 (44 wall push-ups in one go)
Unbound day 10
Upperbody Tendon Strength with EC
Exercise of the day

I think the universe is conspiring against me. Or against clean floors in my apartment. The moment I got up to start vacuuming and decided to close the curtains first, yet ANOTHER pot fell down in chain reaction, like some kind of fucked up anti-clean-floor Rube Goldberg machine, and scattered yet more soil over the floor, right where I'd swept up the soil just yesterday. I just gave up at that point. I'm not dealing with that today.
 

Mishmisha

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Posts: 222
"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
February 10th:

Wake Up! Mobility with EC
Wake Up! Energised with EC
Morning Stretching with EC
3-Minute HIIT day 10 (half march steps, half high knees)
Push-Up Streak day 11 (48 wall push-ups in one go)
Unbound day 11

Thanks for the support! 👍 Today my mission has been concluded. I have swept up the soil, then put away things I haven't put away before, then vacuumed everything including the heaters (mine are hidden behind removable panels with holes for air circulation and never ever cleaned so they got really dusty. There were even cobwebs) and then, then I FINALLY could wash the floor (and the heaters) properly. At last! So much scrubbing. I'd like to say, "That was a pain, and I'm never doing it again!" but that sort of thinking is exactly what led to the necessity of scrubbing my floors by hand, so... I guess I should rather try to mop the floor regularly (with an actual mop) so it never gets to this state again. How often is it supposed to happen, once a week? Every two weeks? Once a month is probably not often enough... Eh, I'll figure it out.
 
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Mishmisha

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Posts: 222
"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
February 11th:

Wake Up! Mobility with EC (done early)
Wake Up! Energised with EC (30 reps)
Morning Stretching with EC (done early)
3-Minute HIIT day 11 (jumping jacks)
Push-Up Streak day 12 (25 wall push-ups in one go)
Unbound day 12
After Breakfast
The Walk
Micro Walk with EC (done twice)
3-Minute Wake Up! Workout - just as bad as I remember from my last time trying it, but at least I managed to actually finish it without switching to the low-impact versions completely (only on seal jacks cause it just doesn't feel natural doing a jumping version). Not a workout I could do regularly though, unless I did switch to low impact for at least half of it.
Mobility Matrix with EC (kept my balance)
 
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Mishmisha

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Bard Pronouns: He/They
Posts: 222
"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
February 12th:

Wake Up! Mobility
Wake Up! Energised with EC (30 reps)
Morning Stretching
3-Minute HIIT day 12 (half march steps, half high knees)
Push-Up Streak day 13 (50 wall push-ups in one go)
Unbound day 13
Posture Fix
Wrist Mobility
3-Minute Wake Up! Workout - this time I replaced half jacks, jumping jacks, and seal jacks with low impact versions. As a result my leg muscles were still capable of doing split jacks properly, and I didn't feel like my legs were falling off at the end.
Limitless - felt more like a strength workout at first.
Stability - better for my feet than Balance, but unfortunately out of my league for now. My core simply isn't strong enough to hold positions 7 and 8 for so long. I can barely even take position 8. Alas.

Visited the gym today. My apartment building has a tiny gym in the basement that's free to use for the tenants, I visited it a few times for the threadmill a long while back... It didn't really get bigger or better equipped since then. This time I visited because I 1) hoped that they got a stationary bicycle by now (they didn't), and 2) wanted to find 3-4kg dumbbells for a workout, and guess what? That's exactly the weights they don't have. They have 1kg, 2kg, 2.5kg, and then it's straight to 5kg, 7.5kg, 10kg etc. I was told that they're planning to get 3-4kg dumbbells by the next month though, so that's... something, I guess. Anyway, the result was:
Back & Biceps Express (3 times: once with 2kg dumbbells, once with a single 4kg kettlebell, doing 10 reps for each hand then switching, and after a break - with 5kg dumbbells just to see if maybe I could handle that after all; turns out I sorta can? But not without losing the form completely by the 4th set)
30min on elliptical trainer because I didn't wanna put more stress on my ankles and thought it looked better than a threadmill for that. I would've gone for a stationary bicycle if I could, but, well... Anyway, I never really used elliptical trainer before, so I was just gonna try it out, but then I realized I could actually feel my leg muscles strain while my joints didn't hurt at all, and got so excited about basically jogging without worrying about my bones that I went on for half an hour, trying different speeds and resistance. The link is to the wikipedia article - I looked it up after getting home, and sure enough, it really was designed specifically to be low impact. Pretty interesting stuff.
30 vertical push-ups, getting lower with each 10, to see if I'm ready to upgrade from wall push-ups to push-ups at incline. My desk cuts into my hands too much to be a viable option, but these ladder rungs seem to work better.
 
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Mishmisha

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Posts: 222
"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"

Mishmisha

Well-known member
Bard Pronouns: He/They
Posts: 222
"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
Yay for finding that the eliptical works wel for you and for trying out the heavier kettlebel!
Thank you! I want to make gym visits more regular now - at least for the elliptical, but also, hopefully, for the dumbbells when they get those in the same weight as kettlebell.

Best Wishes Good Luck GIF by Studios 2016
 

Encina

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Alchemist Posts: 119
"La mayor encina fue bellota chiquitina. The greatest oak was once a tiny acorn."
They have 1kg, 2kg, 2.5kg, and then it's straight to 5kg, 7.5kg, 10kg etc.
If it helps, when I didn’t have 3 kg dumbbells, I used to grab a 1 kg and a 2 kg dumbbell together. Of course, for some exercises this isn’t very practical—especially if the dumbbells are too big (like the plastic ones filled with sand or something similar).
 

Mishmisha

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"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
If it helps, when I didn’t have 3 kg dumbbells, I used to grab a 1 kg and a 2 kg dumbbell together. Of course, for some exercises this isn’t very practical—especially if the dumbbells are too big (like the plastic ones filled with sand or something similar).
Yeah, I did something similar once! Unfortunately almost all the dumbbells in this gym are too big. I can still try it, though!
 

Mishmisha

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Posts: 222
"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
February 17th:

Wake Up! Mobility with EC (done early)
Wake Up! Energised with EC (30 reps)
Morning Stretching with EC (done early)
3-Minute HIIT day 17 (jumping jacks)
Push-Up Streak day 18 (65 wall push-ups in two sets)
Unbound day 18
Then, since I was on the mat already, I decided to try a kneeling variation on push-ups. Managed 10 of them with some effort, but without wrist pain. I'm not yet at the point of doing a push-up challenge like this, but maybe in a month or two...
Mobility Matrix with EC (kept balance)

In the afternoon I visited the gym again:
20min cardio program on elliptical trainer (6.04km, average RPM - 50, heartbeat measurement inconsistent but it definitely got up to 200 at the end)
Back & Biceps Express (with 2kg+1kg dumbbells because I found fairly small 1kg dumbbells in there; so that makes it a workout with 3kg weights, basically)
Vertical/standing pull-ups (two sets, 20 reps each)
Incline push-ups (20 reps)
Dead hang 10-count
Post-Workout Mobility - IMHO this could easily pass for a standalone workout. The less said about my form on half of these exercises, the better.
 
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Mishmisha

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Bard Pronouns: He/They
Posts: 222
"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
February 18th:

Wake Up! Mobility with EC (done early)
Wake Up! Energised with EC (30 reps)
Morning Stretching with EC (done early)
3-Minute HIIT day 18 (march steps)
Push-Up Streak day 19 (70 incline push-ups in two sets)
Unbound day 19
Exercise of the day (40 calf raises)
Mobility Matrix with EC (kept balance)

Went to the gym again:
20min cardio program on elliptical trainer (6.22km) - this program slowly, step-by-step, gets the resistance from 2 to 20 and then back down to 2. I don't want to go fast the whole time, so it's pretty good for me. I wanna try the other programs too, though, at least once.
Dead hang (15-count)
Incline push-ups (for the push-up streak challenge)
Vertical/standing pull-ups (two sets, 20 reps each)
Back & Biceps Express (with 2.5kg dumbbells)
 

Mishmisha

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Bard Pronouns: He/They
Posts: 222
"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
February 19th:

Wake Up! Mobility with EC (done early)
Wake Up! Energised with EC (30 reps)
Morning Stretching with EC (done early)
3-Minute HIIT day 19 (jumping jacks)
Push-Up Streak day 20 (35 incline push-ups in one go)
Unbound day 20
Mobility Matrix with EC (kept balance)
Exercise of the day (50 elbow strikes)

10min random program on elliptical trainer (3.16 km) - I was in a bit of a hurry, so I shortened the time. Good thing, too: apparently this program randomly changes resistance all throughout, which led to having to push through a lot of 16-19 sort of resistance, way more than the cardio program. Pretty exhausting.
Dead hang (15-count)
Incline push-ups (for the push-up streak challenge) - I increased the incline and my arms hated that.
Vertical/standing pull-ups (two sets, 20 reps each)
Back & Biceps Express (with 2.5kg dumbbells)

Speaking of gym, I forgot to log this, but last time I actually found a skipping rope and a metal hula hoop in here.

Skipping rope turned out to be basically jumping with extra steps which already rules it out for me, but as if that's not enough, the ceiling in the gym is way too low in most places to skip rope under it. There's exactly one place in the entire gym I can skip rope, and it's awkward as hell.

I don't think I've even touched a hula hoop since high school (it belonged to my cousin who lived with us at the time), so I was mostly just curious about it. Turns out the most strenuous part of hula-hooping, for me, is holding my arms up. It's just tedious. I managed about 5min total of continuous hula-hooping in different directions, thanks to my music, but it was too boring to do it again.
 
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Mishmisha

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Bard Pronouns: He/They
Posts: 222
"Levanta el vaso y a brindar por el aguante!"
February 20th:

Wake Up! Mobility with EC (done early)
Wake Up! Energised with EC (30 reps)
Morning Stretching with EC (done early)
3-Minute HIIT day 20 (march steps)
Push-Up Streak day 21 (70 incline push-ups in two sets)
Unbound day 21
Back Pain Relief (twice)
Mobility Matrix with EC (kept balance)

20min manual program on elliptical trainer (8.01km, lowest resistance, I tried to keep RPM as high as I could for as long as I could)
Dead hang (15-count)
Incline push-ups (for the push-up streak challenge)
Vertical/standing pull-ups (two sets, 20 reps each)
Back & Biceps Express (with 2.5kg dumbbells)

My dad intends to run 5k in April... He asked my younger sibling to join him, but that wasn't meant to be. Tomorrow I'm going to see if I can do 5k on a treadmill, and if yes, maybe I could join him instead.
 
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