Health

Simple trick could make you stronger in the gym – but be careful where you do it


With fitness influencers slowly taking over the internet, you won’t be short of finding tips to help you progress in the gym.

As the supplement industry booms with companies promising shortcuts to everything from weight loss to muscle gains, it’s hard to know which ones to trust and which will have a real impact on our fitness goals.

One psychologist has released a study which claims to improve both anaerobic power and strength – and the best bit is it’s completely free. Although you may have to be careful where you try it.

Dr Richard Stephens, from Keele University, conducted two experiments testing participants’ performance during a short, intense period on an exercise bike and completing an isometric handgrip test.

Just don’t do it too loudly

 

Those taking part did the test twice, once swearing during the exercise and once not swearing.

The results showed the subjects produced more power on the exercise bike and had a stronger handgrip when they were effing and jeffing.

Dr Stephens said: “We know from our earlier research that swearing makes people more able to tolerate pain.

Both tests found swearing aloud improved performance

 

“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.

“But when we measured heart rate and some other things you would expect to be affected if the sympathetic nervous system was responsible for this increase in strength, we did not find significant changes.

“So quite why it is that swearing has these effects on strength and pain tolerance remains to be discovered. We have yet to understand the power of swearing fully.”

With great power comes great responsibility, so maybe just try to keep it down a bit.





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