Swear More To Boost Muscle Power In The Gym

Taipei Gym, If you eff and blind in the gym, you might actually be doing your body some favours.

That’s according to new research, which suggests that muscle strength and stamina can be boosted by swearing.

Psychologists conducted tests in which volunteers had to swear before intense sessions on an exercise bike, or squeezing a device that measures hand grip strength.

In both experiments swearing led to significant improvements in performance compared with uttering “neutral” words.

The study followed up earlier work that showed how swearing increases pain tolerance, helping explain the common reaction to hitting one’s thumb with a hammer.

Lead author of the study, Dr Richard Stephens, from the University of Keele, said: “We know from our earlier research that swearing makes people more able to tolerate pain. A possible reason for this is that it stimulates the body’s sympathetic nervous system - that’s the system that makes your heart pound when you are in danger.

“If that is the reason, we would expect swearing to make people stronger too, and that is just what we found in these experiments.”

Surprisingly, increases in heart rate and other expected changes linked to the “fight or flight” response were not seen in the latest tests.


“Why it is that swearing has these effects on strength and pain tolerance remains to be discovered,” Dr Stephens added.

“We have yet to understand the power of swearing fully.”

The findings were presented at the British Psychological Society’s annual meeting taking place in Brighton.

References: Taipei Gym, Taipei Fitness, Core Space