How to develop finger strength for cubing

[dannyz0r]

Try scrolling your mouse really fast and trying to get to the same spot you started on. Fast twitch+finger control.

 

[MW1990]

May I suggest: http://www.criticalbench.com/images/gripmaster3.jpg If I'm not mistaken, I saw on Syu's blog something of this nature. I play guitar as well, and I use all my fingers (minus the thumbs), so 8 finger playing is fun, builds finger strength, and sounds cool!

 

[Kiongku]

Hmm your video shows a very bad idea of lifting a weight.
You should not bend down with your hips to lift the weight but rather bend your knees and lift it up with your back straight.

This will help to avoid back injury if its very heavy... Just a note..

 

[luke1984]

Weight training is awesome, I love it, but I don't think it'll make a difference as far as finger speed goes. Finger speed has much more to do with motor skills, dexterity.

 

[CuberDude]

Weight training is awesome, I love it, but I don't think it'll make a difference as far as finger speed goes. Finger speed has much more to do with motor skills, dexterity.

Lifting weights is good for breaking in store bought cubes.

 

[JLarsen]

Weight training is awesome, I love it, but I don't think it'll make a difference as far as finger speed goes. Finger speed has much more to do with motor skills, dexterity.

I agree it doesn't take that much "strength" to have high tps, as much as it does control, and speed. The best way I see to improve tps, is to cube. You cube, you get better at cubes. Ya know?

Oh. Another thought. TPS isn't that important either, people should be working on their look ahead more than anything.

 

[zosomaniac]

Take steroids. They may help for developing strength.

 

[fanwuq]

Take steroids. They may help for developing strength.

ROF2L!!! That will only make getting +2 and breaking magic strings easier.

Chris,
Thanks for the insightful post! I'll try that. What is the powerball?

Kiongku,
Thanks for the tip! I don't have any more weights, but I'll try to get better form.

MW1990,
Good idea, Escher also mentioned it.

Pandaman,
What you said is all very true. Of course the best way to get faster at cubing is to practice cubing. But I often see people getting nervous and dropping cubes, lockup, etc. during competition (including myself). I think it's because of weak fingers. If you have stronger fingers, you would have more control over your cube and not shake or mess up when you are nervous. I think doing such exercises can make you calmer so you can focus more on the lookahead.

dannyz0r,
No.

Thanks for the comments, everyone!


I think Tetris would help with your look ahead and finger speed, but I don't really like it much because it is more of a video game that a physical exercise. It transitions well into cubing, but not for other everyday activities.
Juggling is a very good activity. It trains hand control, look ahead, and endurance if you can juggle for a long time. I can't do it yet, but I'll work on it eventually.

 

[Carrot]

Fanwuq, I do train my forearms with some light weights too prevent injuries from too much cubing (I have had an injury in my left forearm, so it gets injuries very easy >.<)

(just googled it and found the exercises: http://www.leehayward.com/exercises/forearms/index.htm the first two exercise and btw. I use about 20-30 kgs repeated about 50-100 times for the first one, and about 10-20 kgs repeated about 30-50 times with number two)

 

[JLarsen]

Interesting theory Fanwuq, although certainly you agree that it is nerves that causes these lock ups. I do wonder if strengthening them would reduce the nervous shake of the hands.....

I mean....when was the last time you saw some HUGE guy, shaking?

 

[fanwuq]

Interesting theory Fanwuq, although certainly you agree that it is nerves that causes these lock ups. I do wonder if strengthening them would reduce the nervous shake of the hands.....

I mean....when was the last time you saw some HUGE guy, shaking?

Right. Dan Cohen never shakes during competition; that's why he just keep on breaking WRs. His fingers are like twice as thick as mine.

Odder,
Nice exercises!

 

[fanwuq]

Here is the home workout I do. When warming up for cubing I basically rotate between doing the parts of this workout that don't involve weights, or I do the same thing only minus the weights. I find this works especially well when done 30-45 minutes before competing.

Just watched the video. A reduced version is great for cubing warmup, but I fail to see how it could be anything just that. Any increase in overall strength is impossible. That guy did not get any stronger, he simply lost a layer of fat.

http://www.beastskills.com/tutorials.htm
Can't do any of these yet, but I'm working on Pistol, L-seat, and handstand progressions (and failing quite badly).

Like everyone said, cubing is not really about finger strength. I was inspired by Chris warming up for his solves. I also remember discussions about whether cubing is a real sport. My idea was to pretend it is a sport and actually do physical exercises to train for cubing like for other sports. The exercises I randomly came up with are probably overkill and not necessarily helpful (so the video is somewhat of a joke), but I think this is an aspect of cubing that requires more exploration. Some of the suggestions in this thread are translate much better into cubing than my original ideas.

I have also seen posts here by kids complaining that people make fun of them for being cubing nerds. If they do these exercises and tell the other guy they have strong fingers that can strangle people to death, maybe they won't get picked on. (Violence is not recommended.)

 

[cmhardw]

Just watched the video. A reduced version is great for cubing warmup, but I fail to see how it could be anything just that. Any increase in overall strength is impossible. That guy did not get any stronger, he simply lost a layer of fat.

My legs got quite a bit stronger by doing the jump squats with dumbbells. Also, I do sets of 30 elevated pushups with resistance bands like the guy in the video, but I used to have a hard time doing 30 pushups period. That's not to say elevated pushups, or even with resistance bands. So I guess you could argue that I have more upper body strength than I used to.

Granted, I don't look anywhere near as cut or fit as the guy in the video, but I feel much more fit.

http://www.beastskills.com/tutorials.htm
Can't do any of these yet, but I'm working on Pistol, L-seat, and handstand progressions (and failing quite badly).

Like everyone said, cubing is not really about finger strength. I was inspired by Chris warming up for his solves. I also remember discussions about whether cubing is a real sport. My idea was to pretend it is a sport and actually do physical exercises to train for cubing like for other sports.

Actually the only reason I do exercises before my events is for blindfolded. I had heard many times over that the memory sports experts recommend to exercise to improve your memory. I don't know if this has an effect on memory per se, but I think the increased blood flow to the brain has a positive effect, and this is why I warm up before my events.

I will continue to exercise because I think it is a good and healthy thing to do, but I also thing it helps my BLD cubing. Whether or not this is a placebo effect or not I can't prove, but still there is a positive outcome that comes from my exercising. For that reason alone I will keep doing it.

Chris

 

[luke1984]

Here is the home workout I do. When warming up for cubing I basically rotate between doing the parts of this workout that don't involve weights, or I do the same thing only minus the weights. I find this works especially well when done 30-45 minutes before competing.

Just watched the video. A reduced version is great for cubing warmup, but I fail to see how it could be anything just that. Any increase in overall strength is impossible. That guy did not get any stronger, he simply lost a layer of fat.

http://www.beastskills.com/tutorials.htm
Can't do any of these yet, but I'm working on Pistol, L-seat, and handstand progressions (and failing quite badly).

Like everyone said, cubing is not really about finger strength. I was inspired by Chris warming up for his solves. I also remember discussions about whether cubing is a real sport. My idea was to pretend it is a sport and actually do physical exercises to train for cubing like for other sports. The exercises I randomly came up with are probably overkill and not necessarily helpful (so the video is somewhat of a joke), but I think this is an aspect of cubing that requires more exploration. Some of the suggestions in this thread are translate much better into cubing than my original ideas.

I have also seen posts here by kids complaining that people make fun of them for being cubing nerds. If they do these exercises and tell the other guy they have strong fingers that can strangle people to death, maybe they won't get picked on. (Violence is not recommended.)

I'm not sure what you mean by this, but in those few years I've done weight training I've more than doubled my overall strength, even tripled on some muscle groups. Again, I may be misunderstanding.

 

[fanwuq]

I'm not sure what you mean by this, but in those few years I've done weight training I've more than doubled my overall strength, even tripled on some muscle groups. Again, I may be misunderstanding.

I agree with you. I mean that doing as many different exercises and as many reps as the video recommend is much more of an endurance test than a strength test. Weight lifting is pretty straight forward--you are as strong as the amount you can lift. I only have 90 pounds and the only exercise that it's good for if I want to train for strength is over head press. Although 30 deadlifts would end up being a pretty difficult endurance challenge.
I think singles and averages of 5 or 12 are about strength; but once you get session of over 20, it's mainly endurance. That's for cubing or any other exercise.
I think a highly focused average of 12 beats a long session of hundreds of cubes any day.

 

[lowonthefoodchain]

Wow, I brought a Grip Master to US Nationals. Great way to warm up even, especially before one hand.

 

[Xquare-1]

Does finger strength really makes you turn faster?

 

[V-te]

Turn a new v-cube 6 for hours with only your fingers. That works =)

 

[elcarc]

Does finger strength really makes you turn faster?

It probably wont improve your solves that much, but tighter cubes will be much easier to turn. that allows you to set diy's that pop, a little tighter

 

[fundash]

Btw, the video is removed...terms of use violation apparently...