Heavy weight lifting affects cubing?

[That70sShowDude]

I lift really heavy at the gym very frequently. Sometimes, my wrists are hurting because of this. Some examples would be motions such as pulling movements (deadlifts, lat pulldown, barbell row, pull ups) or pressing movements (flat bench, incline bench, shoulder, weighted dips). Many other exercises excluding these main ones are dealing with holding weights in my hands, which is dealing with wrist action. I use lifting straps on some heavy back (pulling) exercises, so I can hold on to the weight. These straps are putting a lot of weight on my wrists during deadlifts. This is because a great deal of weight can be added to them. When I take off the straps, my hands are either very red or very purple. Then there is usually this pattern in my hand from the straps pressure. My calluses are pretty bad. Also, sometimes I feel that I'm not turning very smoothly and lock up a bit. Reason being that I can have a bit of shakiness in my hands. This is also probably from the heavy lifting. It's not that big of a deal, but still another thing that I think about.

I feel as if my cubing would improve at a slower rate with these lifts. Then maybe it will hurt my wrists badly enough, that I'll start getting slower or not be able to cube for that long of a duration. I'm constantly thinking about this and it bothers me. Weight lifters are not exactly known for their dexterity. I could never stop lifting, but I friggin love cubing.

Thoughts???

 

[Edward]

I've noticed this too D: (I have to lift weights for football). When I'm sore, my cubing suffers too.

 

[goatseforever]

bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/That70sShowDude

Damn bro you ripped. Wtf are you doing on a Rubik's cube forum Saturday night and not out having a foursome?

 

[That70sShowDude]

Damn bro you ripped. Wtf are you doing on a Rubik's cube forum Saturday night and not out having a foursome?

lol, stay on topic

That picture is from the start of a bulk and I'm pretty small there.
I think I was ~152lbs in that pic, but ~158 or 159 now. Even though I look like I weigh more.
I'm going to cut for next summer then.

 

[skatemaster78]

I lift too but I never seem to have this problem.

 

[Dene]

How much are you deadlifting?

Personally I haven't had any problems with wrists but I don't use wrist straps.

 

[Litz]

Honestly, don't worry about it, it's normal. Just don't expect to do any good solves after you workout (your hands will "shake" too much and the cube won't feel right).

 

[That70sShowDude]

How much are you deadlifting?

Personally I haven't had any problems with wrists but I don't use wrist straps.

Well I've been having a lot of lower back pain and uneeded hamstring soreness. So I switched to rack pulls. It's just like a deadlift except the bar is a few inches below your knees. I didn't feel like putting rack pulls in the description, because deadlifts are more familiar. I usually do 225 for like 20 reps, 275 for 12ish, 325 for 6ish. Since I've been getting around 6 reps on my last set, I'll probably be going heavier ... I'm only in the high 150's for BW so ...

My theory is that using lifting straps would be better for my cubing, because I won't have to destroy my hands/wrists/forearms trying to hold onto the bar.

 

[BigSams]

o_O I lift, but it helps my cubing. More blood flows into my fingers --> quicker flicks. But that's probably because I lift moderately heavy weights with more reps. Your situation is different because you're doing heavy stuff. So you could try cutting the weight and adding reps and #of sets.

 

[Dene]

Well I've been having a lot of lower back pain and uneeded hamstring soreness. So I switched to rack pulls. It's just like a deadlift except the bar is a few inches below your knees. I didn't feel like putting rack pulls in the description, because deadlifts are more familiar. I usually do 225 for like 20 reps, 275 for 12ish, 325 for 6ish. Since I've been getting around 6 reps on my last set, I'll probably be going heavier ... I'm only in the high 150's for BW so ...

My theory is that using lifting straps would be better for my cubing, because I won't have to destroy my hands/wrists/forearms trying to hold onto the bar.

Oh ok. I'm really lazy about deadlifting so I only end up doing them about once a month and I have only gone up to 100kg (220~ lbs) XD
I just put everything in my hands. Although I have a very good grip. I have beast callouses though. But yea it doesn't have any bearing on my cubing at all.

 

[uberCuber]

lifting weights doesn't seem to affect me much at all, but playing certain liszt pieces on piano certainly affects my hands' desire to cube...

 

[qqwref]

Having that kind of hand strength could help for things like 6x6 or 7x7. But for puzzles where you need fast turning, I'd say you should just try to avoid solving them soon after a workout.

 

[That70sShowDude]

Alright thanks guys. Do you think that it will diminish my cubing skills? Possibly in the long run?

Also, I shouldn't just say I lift very heavy. My beginning sets are usually lighter, especially squat/rack pull, because they are sometimes said to increase waist size when you go heavy. Although, my later sets are almost always very heavy on leg/back/chest exercises.

Having that kind of hand strength could help for things like 6x6 or 7x7. But for puzzles where you need fast turning, I'd say you should just try to avoid solving them soon after a workout.

I wish that would work for me, but my large cube times are horrific. The bigger the cube, the worse I get.