finger issues with 3x3

tom0989123

tom0989123

Veteran
Joined
Sep 6, 2022
Messages
367
Location
nun ya bloody business that where.
for the last seven day I have been practicing and practicing and practicing,
getting in over 100 solves per day and now I have a finger issue one my left
hand my Index finger/knuckle has gotten red and has started to swell so I've
decided to stop for a week and just give it a rest. But, what if I get this same issue again?
what do I do?
 
tom0989123 said:
for the last seven day I have been practicing and practicing and practicing,
getting in over 100 solves per day and now I have a finger issue one my left
hand my Index finger/knuckle has gotten red and has started to swell so I've
decided to stop for a week and just give it a rest. But, what if I get this same issue again?
what do I do?
Click to expand...
consult a doctor
 
tom0989123 said:
for the last seven day I have been practicing and practicing and practicing,
getting in over 100 solves per day and now I have a finger issue one my left
hand my Index finger/knuckle has gotten red and has started to swell so I've
decided to stop for a week and just give it a rest. But, what if I get this same issue again?
what do I do?
Click to expand...
reddening and swelling, that's probably arthritis
 
tom0989123 said:
so am I jus some weirdo that has this thing?
Click to expand...

As an older solver (34) I experience pain in my hands and wrists fairly regularly after long day or weekend of solving. So, it could just be a tired joint. However, since you only mentioned it being that one knuckle being the problem, I'm thinking that it could have something to do with your specific turning style. Perhaps you're rougher on that finger than you realize? Maybe you use it for some odd angled finger tricks and it's being slightly twisted multiple times throughout the solve. You could be making slightly rougher U or F' turns with that finger and a part of the puzzle is hitting that knuckle every time you do those turns. There are a lot of potential reasons. For future improvement, I'd say do a bunch of semi-slow solves, and focus on your turning style with that particular finger as much as possible. Maybe if possible, film a few full speed solves and watch them back in slow motion, that could also help to identify the problem. If you're able to identify what might be causing that pain, from there it would just be a matter of adjusting your turning style to prevent it from happening in the future.
 
As a couple other people have said, I'd recommend just taking a break and letting the swelling die down (ice can be helpful with that). If it comes back, you may want to consult a medical professional to try to identify the issue. I imagine they'd ask you about the specifics of the pain, causes, etc., and then determine a diagnosis based on those things. Chances are it's nothing and you just irritated it and it'll be fine as soon as you let it heal, but there's a pretty big downside if it actually is something, so contact a doctor/nurse (even just one you know personally) if it comes back.
 
unirox13 said:
As an older solver (34) I experience pain in my hands and wrists fairly regularly after long day or weekend of solving. So, it could just be a tired joint. However, since you only mentioned it being that one knuckle being the problem, I'm thinking that it could have something to do with your specific turning style. Perhaps you're rougher on that finger than you realize? Maybe you use it for some odd angled finger tricks and it's being slightly twisted multiple times throughout the solve. You could be making slightly rougher U or F' turns with that finger and a part of the puzzle is hitting that knuckle every time you do those turns. There are a lot of potential reasons. For future improvement, I'd say do a bunch of semi-slow solves, and focus on your turning style with that particular finger as much as possible. Maybe if possible, film a few full speed solves and watch them back in slow motion, that could also help to identify the problem. If you're able to identify what might be causing that pain, from there it would just be a matter of adjusting your turning style to prevent it from happening in the future.
Click to expand...
ye, you have a point.

but will any of this pain stop at any point?
and Garf hasn't said any thing about me
experiencing pain when I get faster.
 
tom0989123 said:
ye, you have a point.

but will any of this pain stop at any point?
and Garf hasn't said any thing about me
experiencing pain when I get faster.
Click to expand...
Eventually your fingers will get more used to solving the cube, so the pain should be more rare over time. How fast your times are isn’t much of a factor; how much you cube will have much more effect.
 
tom0989123 said:
and Garf hasn't said any thing about me
experiencing pain when I get faster.
Click to expand...
Rest.
With anything that takes physical effort (running, playing sports, cubing???, or even doing paperwork) you are going to feel some pain. At the end of my cross-country season, I was told to rest so that I was overdoing myself. Sometimes during cubing my left index finger hurts, so I don't do any heavy cubing that day.
Rest with ice is useful as you can recover.

Also, it's true you are going to feel pain, like being sore. Ex. I had a track meet on Saturday I had a track meet. I had a great day with a 1600m in 5:15 and 800m in 2:17. Afterwards, I was sore. The best way to deal with soreness is to take it cool the next day, and make sure you are stretching/hydrating. So Sunday I went on a chill 5-mile run. (most people wouldn't consider 5 miles chill, but I was running at an 8:30 mile pace, which is chill for me.)
However, pulled muscles/tendons are bad, and need to be iced so that they are hurt further. Even blisters and warts are bad.
 
I had a similar thing happen the other day after doing a lot of square one solving. My left ring finger knuckle got red and a little swollen from doing a lot of D’ flicks. I just stopped Squan for a while and I haven’t had another problem since.
 
E8431649-D5B4-4DC1-B3EF-E1800A3ED82E.jpeg

I consulted google. Seems like I should just remove the finger now and get it over with. Only OH cubing from now on
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

nethons
Suggest finger warm-up algorithm
Replies
2
Views
369
precompsubwr
precompsubwr
M
Gemini Flash does finger tricks!
Replies
0
Views
318
michaelg
M
Cuber239
How to finger trick cross
Replies
2
Views
582
Caleb Valenzuela
Caleb Valenzuela
JDCubing1
Got any PLL Finger tricks?
Replies
3
Views
500
L4NC3_D4_AS14N
L4NC3_D4_AS14N
Chicken-Cuber
How to turn faster without actually learning any new finger tricks
2
Replies
36
Views
5,652
Caleb Valenzuela
Caleb Valenzuela
Back
Top