kingskring
Registered User
- Dec 3, 2012
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When reaching down into one’s soul for a little extra energy to finish a race, score a touchdown, or grab a rebound, nearly every athlete, no matter the level of competition, has felt the same urge: to curse.
And now science has confirmed whether it’s effective. The verdict? You better ****ing believe it.
Richard Stephens, a psychologist at England’s Keele University, conducted experiments involving both intense physical tests starting at both a high heart rate and at rest—a max-effort 30-second exercise bike challenge and a hand-grip power squeeze—and found that participants who cursed performed better than those who said neutral words during the hard times. Those pedaling had a 4.6 percent increase in peak power (i.e. the first five seconds) and 2.8 percent gain in average power and those squeezing had an 8.2 percent increase in strength.
“We’re not telling people something they don’t already know, but we’re verifying that in a systematic and objective way,†Stephens told the Guardian. “I think people instinctively reach for swearwords when they hurt themselves and when they’re looking for an extra boost in performance.â€
This builds on earlier work from Stephens, the psychologist hero of the blue-talking set, who found that swearing can minimize the effect of pain. (His reported advice: “I would advise people, if they hurt themselves, to swear.â€)
And you all thought Kevin Garnett was just a profane potty mouth on the basketball court when really all his MF this and MF that were science-approved techniques to improve performance.
A couple years ago, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was caught cursing so much on camera that the Boston Globe named him its Poor Sport of the Week. That prompted Brady to give a stirring defense of the f-bomb in a WEEI interview, which he acknowledged was a “great word.â€
more at de LINKO
http://www.vocativ.com/427729/cursing-weightlifting-stronger-science/
