Most people struggle to solve a 3×3 Rubik’s cube with their hands, but there are people out there who can do it in under 20 seconds, using only their feet.

You’ve probably heard of people solving Rubik’s cubes blindfolded, using only one hand and even while juggling them; all these different ways of solving the popular puzzle are impressive to watch, but there’s another way of doing it that will probably blow your mind – solving the colorful cube using nothing but your feet. For some reason, I never imagined solving a Rubik’s cube without touching it with your hands was even possible, but it turns out people can do it much faster than the vast majority can using our hands. The current record for the fastest Rubik’s cube solved exclusively with the lower extremity of the legs beneath the ankles is 16.9 seconds.

Photo: YouTube screengrab

While feet solving a Rubik’s cube is actually a quite common event at speedcubing events, it’s also a very controversial thing. Apparently, some competitors consider it an unsanitary event and refuse to participate even though it affects their “Sum of Ranks” score. According to the Ruwix wiki, most professional speedcubers do wash their feet before taking part in official events, which implies that not all of them do… But while some would love to see it removed as an official event, there’s no denying that it’s fascinating to watch and brings a lot of media attention to the competitive Rubik’s cube solving scene.

Official feet solving events require special timers that competitors interact with using their feet. The current format when judging such competitions is Mean of 3, in which participants get three tries to solve the puzzle with their feet and mean is calculated from the 3 solve times. According to WPDH, the current record for the fastest successful attempt was set by 15-year-old Daniel Rose-Levine who lost year solved a 3×3 Rubik’s cube in just 16.9 seconds.

“At first it was really hard to do, it took me like 10 minutes to solve,” Rose-Levine told Fox5. “I actually started practicing with my feet more because my hands started to hurt from too much hand cubing, so, for a while, I was only practicing with my feet. And that’s when I got really fast enough for the world record.”