EndurElite Chief Endurance Officers Matt Mosman discusses if swearing during exercise can improve strength, power, and cardiovascular function.
Does Swearing Help You Run Or Bike Faster?
Ever wonder if cussing during exercise can improve your performance?
- Prepare to have your mind blown because a scientist named Stephens actually tested this hypothesis.
- He took 29 adults (males and female) and had them perform a series of Wingate tests...basically a test on a stationary bike where you pedal as hard as you can for 30 seconds.
- During one series of tests, the participants cussed, during the other series of tests they did not.
- After all the data was crunched the scientists discovered peak power output and average power output were significantly greater (5%) when the participants cussed to when they didn’t.
- For all you OCR athletes they also found out cussing increased grip strength.
- So why does swearing improve performance?
- It is possible that reduced pain perception due to swearing-induced distraction underlies the improved performance on the Wingate by making it more tolerable to pedal hard against the resistance.
- Take home point? Feel free to drop some f’ and s’ bombs during exercise…just don’t do it around the children.
- Link to full study here.
