Cubing and Arthritis Risks

[Feryll]

We all know how incredulously fast the celebrity cubers' hands move, and it often times comes up from our friends and family how we're "destroying our wrists" when we show them a solve. How great are the risks involving carpal tunnel and arthritis in the future years? One would think that with the faster, slicker speed cubes on the market there wouldn't be as much of an issue as with the original plastic-vs-plastic death match Rubik's Brand cubes (especially if you've already learned good fingertricks).

How worried are you about getting hurt from cubing? Personally, I'm only slightly worried, but I do have this pain in my lower right wrist (although I'm not sure if it's from cubing; it doesn't really hurt that much when I solve).

 

[Reinier Schippers]

I'm not worried at all. My GP (can solve too) said that if you use a good cube and use fingertricks you will not get hurt anything

 

[uberCuber]

Both of my hobbies, cubing and piano, exclusively involve hands, and I have been fine so far. I'm not worried

 

[ZamHalen]

I got tendinitis from too much OH so of course I'd be worried (sort of).

 

[qqwref]

Carpal tunnel (and similar repetitive motion injuries) will generally only happen if you really overdo it. If your wrist really starts to hurt, it's a good idea to start using it as little as possible for the rest of the day, or at the very least until it stops hurting. The big treatment for CTS is to lay off the affected area as much as possible for something like a month while it fixes itself, so it's best to just take a break when you start being worried about it. (Stretching the hand/wrist helps a bit too.) I use my wrists a lot (not just for cubing) and I'm fine as long as I'm careful about it.

As for (osteo)arthritis, it's hard to say. Two of the biggest factors are age and genetics, so when it does develop it's really tough to make any real conclusions based on behavior from many years ago. Considering that the major treatment is physical therapy and moderate exercise, I'd say it's not something cubers should worry about (or at least, they should worry about it for reasons unrelated to cubing).

 

[Dene]

Well, I already have pangs in my left hand. I can't say whether it has anything to do with cubing, but at the very least, it can't be helping.

 

[Georgeanderre]

I already have arthritis and have had carpal tunnel affect me badly twice, not from cubing, but I have dislocated a finger whilst cubing

 

[Systemdertoten]

I'm not that worried about arthritis, but I do often suffer from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

 

[Zarxrax]

I have dislocated a finger whilst cubing

How does that happen?

 

[freshcuber]

I already have arthritis and have had carpal tunnel affect me badly twice, not from cubing, but I have dislocated a finger whilst cubing

That is hard core. How did you do it?

OT I'm not concerned one bit. My family tree has so many other terrible diseases in it some arthritis isn't too scary at all. I've never had any hand pain other than I get a bit sore from OH since I'm starting to take it more seriously. I usually do a few solves and then wait a couple minutes. Today I've done 21 solves so far and I'll probably go to at least thirty but it's the most solves OH I've ever done in a day so I'm expecting some soreness.

 

[Jedi5412]

I get bombarded with all this stuff about arthritus when i evern touch the cube =.=

 

[cmhardw]

I started having issues with my right wrist and right forearm in 2002 (4 years into cubing). When I cube too much I get pain along the length of my forearm from elbow to wrist on the same side as my pinky and ring fingers. If I really overdo it, I get pain in my wrist as well.

This is actually part of the reason I switched from speedcubing to blindcubing in 2005. It was getting to the point, especially with 4x4 and 5x5 where if I did an average of 12 I'd have to ice my wrist afterward. Even with blindcubing I still usually ice my wrist after a 7x7 blindsolve, since the solving phase takes me almost 30 minutes, and I'm usually gripping the cube more tensely than usual so as not to let it slip or accidentally pull an extra slice without meaning to or something.

As for now, I still do 3x3, but if the cube is too loose or if I do more than about 100 solves in a single day I will have to ice my wrist and take the rest of the day off (and sometimes really take it easy the next day as well).

I don't know if cubing caused my symptoms per se, but it definitely makes my symptoms worse whenever I cube too much.

 

[Jostle]

I already have arthritis and have had carpal tunnel affect me badly twice, not from cubing, but I have dislocated a finger whilst cubing

I'm actually interested in how this would happen.

 

[Georgeanderre]

How does that happen?

I can't remember exactly, it was a longtime ago but what I can remember is the nurse having a laugh when I told her how it happened
I think I damaged it a few days earlier, so cubing probably didn't help it

 

[cubeslayer]

I do not know how many times I solve a cube during a day. If I have no work and no school, I carry the cube with me everywhere and solve it as normally as I breathe. That said, I notice that the skin beneath my fingernails begin to bleed and peel. My thumbs become very sore. My wrist also becomes sore, and I try to work through the pain, but then I must stop because it begins hurting too much. Bah, it's a sacrifice. I am sure professional pianists face something similar, if not worse ( this is an assumption, so I am making an ass of my self without truly knowing).

 

[professoralpha7]

when I solve square-1 (only square-1, interestingly), i get a pain in my right hand right above my wrist, and I have to soak my hand in hot water to make it feel better.

 

[RyanO]

Cubing is very likely to lead to moderate CTDs, but because there isn't a lot of force required to make turns it probably won't produce very serious problems. OH will cause problems more noticeably than 2H.

 

[uberCuber]

when I solve square-1 (only square-1, interestingly), i get a pain in my right hand right above my wrist, and I have to soak my hand in hot water to make it feel better.

Oh yeah, I haven't practiced Square-1 in so long I forgot, but I would always get strange pains when I did it too