Research Shows Swearing Makes You F*****G Stronger!

If you’ve ever been told you swear like a sailor then you’ll be happy to learn that it may actually be very good for you!

A new study has found that swearing out loud actually makes you stronger and improves performance, especially when playing sport. Which may explain why John McEnroe was such a legend on court.

The test, conducted at Keele University in the UK, was carried out in two parts. The first included 29 volunteers who pedalled as fast as they could for 30 seconds on an exercise bike. For the first 30 seconds they could swear out loud and for the second they were only allowed a ‘neutral’ word.

In the next test, 52 participants squeezed a handgrip as hard as they could after both swearing and saying a neutral word. In both tests, the order in which participants swore or said the neutral word was randomised.

The results were very interesting! The participants were shown to have produced 24 watts more pedal power when they swore. In the second test the participant’s strength increased by 8.2 percent meaning they could lift 2.1kg more!

While the research didn’t show exactly why swearing helps it did find that heart rate did not increase while using the expletives. Which means the act did not trigger participants’ fight-or-flight responses as expected.

Dr Richard Stephens, from Keele University, said: ‘The results consistently showed that swearing was helping, but not in the way we thought it would. One explanation is that swearing distracts people from pain. Or it might be that swearing makes people more disinhibited – it makes them let go.

When you’re not holding back, you’re not worried about what you’re doing, that could enable extra performance.’

This could be the reason why some successful sportspeople swear. ‘In the case of John McEnroe and Roy Keane, it may certainly explain it somewhat and maybe it helped them.

I’m not sure it is necessarily acceptable to swear in front of so many people though, so it’s complicated.’

Earlier research also showed that swearing helps people cope with pain, explaining why it can help to drop the F bomb when you accidentally step on a random piece of Lego in the middle of the night!

So there you have it! If you’ve ever been told you have a foul mouth well F**K IT, now you have the perfect comeback!

Photos: Google images