How Does Health Effect Cubing?

[KingCanyon]

So this is a pretty interesting topic for me. Of course practice, efficiency, and memorizing algorithms can make you faster. However, there are other factors. The question here is whether health effects cubing in general. That may be physical, emotional, or mental health. Perhaps performance, especially in a competition environment can be altered if you become healthier. I can see this especially for BLDers as their events take a decent amount of brain power and concentration. Thoughts?

 

[Cody_Caston]

Perseverance

 

[tx789]

I think people taking more care with what they eat and drink at comps will become more common with time. I doubt younger cubers(12-13 range) will pay as much attention to it.

 

[Tabe]

So this is a pretty interesting topic for me. Of course practice, efficiency, and memorizing algorithms can make you faster. However, there are other factors. The question here is whether health effects cubing in general.

I can speak from personal experience on this. Last fall, for a period of a few months, I was constantly exhausted when I would arrive home from work. I've never been a high energy person but this was very, very unusual. I'm talking get home and barely have the strength to do anything other than watch TV. This killed motivation to practice as well as the ability to practice. When I DID practice, I was unable to be as sharp mentally as needed. I had no symptoms other than the energy.

After Thanksgiving, I was hospitalized and ended up having surgery to repair some issues. Turns out those issues had been causing me to be ill for months and I didn't know it. After a short recovery time, I suddenly had energy again and could actually practice. Since December, I've lowered pretty much all of my PBs in every event - except clock, LOL. And not just PBs but overall performance - I went from having just a few sub-20 3x3 singles ever to getting 25 of them since February 1st.

So, yeah, health can definitely have an effect. Especially if you don't even know you're sick.

 

[Apolo]

Like everything, being depressed / stressed / negative makes you worse.

 

[ProStar]

I think the mental health definitely effects your solves. Also if anyone's ever gotten home from working out then tried to cube, they'll know it majorly effects their times

 

[VIBE_ZT]

From 2018-2019 when I struggled with depression, I couldn't do well even on a good day. It really does take everything out of you.

That brain fog doesn't like it when you try to lookahead, believe me lol.

So yeah, health 100% affects cubing!

 

[One Wheel]

I generally have very poor success rate at 3BLD, but I often have a significantly better success rate when I’m moderately sleep deprived. My short term memory improves. I first noticed it in college, I was transferring data from one program to another and couldn’t copy, normally I could look at a 5-digit zip code once and type it accurately without looking again, but about 1:00 AM I found that I could look at a 10-digit phone number once and type it accurately.

 

[cubeshepherd]

I can speak from personal experience on this. Last fall, for a period of a few months, I was constantly exhausted when I would arrive home from work. I've never been a high energy person but this was very, very unusual. I'm talking get home and barely have the strength to do anything other than watch TV. This killed motivation to practice as well as the ability to practice. When I DID practice, I was unable to be as sharp mentally as needed. I had no symptoms other than the energy.

After Thanksgiving, I was hospitalized and ended up having surgery to repair some issues. Turns out those issues had been causing me to be ill for months and I didn't know it. After a short recovery time, I suddenly had energy again and could actually practice. Since December, I've lowered pretty much all of my PBs in every event - except clock, LOL. And not just PBs but overall performance - I went from having just a few sub-20 3x3 singles ever to getting 25 of them since February 1st.

So, yeah, health can definitely have an effect. Especially if you don't even know you're sick.

Same story as me in late 2018, except the difference was the reverse of yours. : ) Before I could cube better then after.

Health (either mental, physical, or both) play a big part in cubing I think, and that goes with most competitive things you do.

 

[VIBE_ZT]

I generally have very poor success rate at 3BLD, but I often have a significantly better success rate when I’m moderately sleep deprived. My short term memory improves. I first noticed it in college, I was transferring data from one program to another and couldn’t copy, normally I could look at a 5-digit zip code once and type it accurately without looking again, but about 1:00 AM I found that I could look at a 10-digit phone number once and type it accurately.

Sleep deprivation gives you superpowers, I swear. 3 AM is when the fun begins.

 

[brododragon]

Sleep deprivation gives you superpowers, I swear. 3 AM is when the fun begins.

Well maybe I should continue doing 11:00 sessions.

 

[MBCubes]

Sleep deprivation gives you superpowers, I swear. 3 AM is when the fun begins.

I flew to UCSD winter about 2 months ago in San Diego and I was supposed to fly in the night before and get in around 6 local time but I had so many flight complications that I got into LA at 1 AM which felt like 4 AM since I’m used to Eastern time and I only got like 4 hours of sleep and then the next morning had to drive 2 hours to the comp and it was actually one of my best comps overall and I think it was partially due to the fact that I got minimal sleep the night before.

 

[KingCanyon]

I flew to UCSD winter about 2 months ago in San Diego and I was supposed to fly in the night before and get in around 6 local time but I had so many flight complications that I got into LA at 1 AM which felt like 4 AM since I’m used to Eastern time and I only got like 4 hours of sleep and then the next morning had to drive 2 hours to the comp and it was actually one of my best comps overall and I think it was partially due to the fact that I got minimal sleep the night before.

I wonder how lack of sleep affects competitors in general. I know some competitions go all night, especially some on New Year's Eve.