Practicing only once per 2 days?

[CubeDust]

I've decided to post this one here, and not in puzzle theory because puzzle theory is about:
Non-speed related puzzle discussion goes here: Group theory, mathematics, fewest moves and similar are discussed in "Puzzle Theory".

this thread is about speed, not FMC, math or nothing like that.
ok let's start now.

as I was in 9th grade, and my classmates started working out at the gym,it was the first time i have heard about the mussle building technique;
one day of practice, and one day of resting.
It was a while 'till I've wondered about those days when you just can't solve as fast as the day before. So i did 1+1..and started to try what could happen if I will solve cubes once every two days!

I've tested this theory for the whole summer, and the Results are:

+there was a kind of improvment over time(ofcourse)
+didn't have even a single day with any kind of "finger's ache"
+when i did solve between practice days, the solve time's were awful.
-I felt like not solving enough..I wanted more..
-limited my pracite time to more-specific-afternoon hours. I couldn't be as Spontaneous as before.

please tell me what's your opinion; do you think we can slice our sessions to half and still improve with the same rate?

 

[incessantcheese]

well, seeing as i haven't tried it, i can't say whether or not it would be useful.... but i have to say i don't think practicing less will result in the same improvement rate. i would guess it results in about... half the improvement rate.

comparing regular speedsolve to weightlifting doesn't really make sense. weightlifting is systematically over-straining your muscles so that on the rest days they grow back stronger than before. this doesn't really happen in speedsolve.

personally, i think even more important than practicing every day is practicing for long sessions. i've set almost all my two hand personal best times in long sessions. i set a few 12.xx second times in may to june when i was practicing a lot in one sitting and my average was around 19-20 seconds. now my average of 100 is sub-17, but i don't usually cube for more than 30 minutes at a time. i have a lot of 13.xx times, but probably less than 5 12.xx times in the past month. i dunno, perhaps long sessions put you in some sort of half-exhausted hypnotic state that is perfect for setting record times! or maybe it's pure luck. no idea.

 

[Zyrb]

thats a good question, but why would you want to give yourself less time to do something you enjoy?

 

[Daniel Wu]

I'm going to say no. Cubing is not as high of an intensity as muscle building technique. Muscle building requires a day off in order to allow the muscles to recover. Cubing is not like that. Recognition doesn't really need a day to recover. And I've done 500 solves every day for a week (it was a boring week ) before and my fingers weren't sore or anything.

 

[Andrew Ricci]

thats a good question, but why would you want to give yourself less time to do something you enjoy?

Exactly.

Also, this is a hobby where rest is really not needed. When working out, every other day is good so you have time to rest and recuperate. Cubing is no physical stress, so I can't really see skipping days.

 

[cyoubx]

Agree with the above, but here's two things I've noticed:
1. Extended breaks (a day/week/month(?)) from cubing sometimes helps after rigorous practice.
2. There are certainly days when my solves are terrible, but there a number of factors (besides finger fatigue) that would cause that - temperature, lighting, etc.