Life In 19x19

Can anybody contribute their personal experiences as to whether physical exercise has helped their ability to play go?

After personal testing for a while seems to add a stone or 2.

Quite why it works for me, I dunno. More blood to brain = win?
or really I can see it in the style.. I'm more ready for a fight after exercise! ... so it might not help every play style.

Regular exercize has been shown to increase cognitive function in all demographics. So seeing as go is very cognitive, I would say yes.

Might just add that I was talking about exercise right/shortly before a game or 2.. rather than just exercise over a sustained period of time.

Lifting weights is not good before go. But some cardio to get my heart pumping gets me in a good mood and clears my mind.

I would day 15-30 minutes of cardio would be best, as it is enough to increase focus but won't tire you out.

Apart from the question being raised, it surely benefits your health. Imo, that should be enough motivation to go for it. If it helps your Go on top of it - fine.

Andd wrote:Regular exercize has been shown to increase cognitive function in all demographics. So seeing as go is very cognitive, I would say yes.

Indeed, I seem to recall hearing somewhere that aerobic exercise is one of the few things that will virtually always improve someone's psychological well being (releasing endorphins and what not). I would imagine the benefits translate quite well to go.

Hehe... When I was at King's Baduk Education Center (KBC) In Korea during 2009 for 5 months (It has since closed, but sort of re-opened in Hungary) we had to play two league games per day amongst many other forms of study, sometimes more than two. Sometimes the usual daily routine was bent a bit and we randomly did some sports earlier than usual or something. Whenever I had to play a league game immediately after sports, I lost. Not only that, blood rushed to my head during the game for some reason. I'm not sure if that would still happen, but we were very competitive there and studied Go very, very seriously (most of us) so I grew to hate the idea of exercise immediately before a game. The negative effect was amplified the faster the game settings were.

I have, however, seen improvement in my Go from general personal fitness, or loss of strength from lack of fitness.

Go Boxing!

Pair go / 2-man volleyball

I've been training in the gym since february.

Number of stones I've gained since then : 1.5
Number of stones I gained the previous year in the same time span, with similar effort and study : 2

SolarBear wrote:I've been training in the gym since february.

Number of stones I've gained since then : 1.5
Number of stones I gained the previous year in the same time span, with similar effort and study : 2

This is irrelevant. Each stone is progressively harder to gain, anyway.

I think light exercise refreshes the mind, although I have not tried it myself for a go tournament. I do know however, that after hours of sport and with an enhausted body, playing go is hard. It's just difficult to focus then.

Sex is best about 2.5 hours before the match. But not longer than 20 minutes.