Can your potty mouth actually be of help during the workout?

Yes, you read that headline correctly. If you cuss like a sailor, your strong words may actually give you a boost during your workouts. 

New research suggests that cursing before exercising gives people a surge of power. If that’s the case, dear mileage junkies: embrace your potty mouth. 

These research findings which were published earlier this month. The project was spearheaded by Richard Stephens of Keel University and was presented at the Annual Conference of the British Psychological Society in Brighton. He conducted his research with Dr. David K. Spierer who works in the health and exercise science department at Long Island University Brooklyn. 

RELATED: New study proves exactly why you should start strength training

In order to present this notion that swearing before a hard effort could improve the results, the two researchers conducted two experiments. 

In the first test, 29 people were asked to do short, intense bursts in a bike both right after swearing and without using bad language. In the other test, 52 people were asked to do an isometric hand grip test– again both after cussing and without. 

The experiment found that people produced more power after cussing in the first test and their grip was also stronger after shouting expletives during the second test. 

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

The exact reason for this surge in power isn’t completely known though. While the suspicion is that it triggers the sympathetic nervous system, when Stephens measured heart rate and other things that should be impacted by the same system, those changes were not significant. 

So, it remains a bit of a mystery. What is known is that these two think that the curse words could give you an edge before physical exertion.