Can swearing help you become a better runner?

Are you sick and tired of hearing how to improve your performance by adding more speedwork, strength training or mileage? Throw all this out the window, because a new study published in Lingua, a journal of general linguistics, says that you can improve your strength, pain tolerance and energy all with the power of swearing.

Well, [expletive]. That’s easy!

In the study, participants were asked to hold their hands in an ice water bath for as long as they could tolerate while vocalizing swear words and regular, neutral words. Pain tolerance was measured as the length of time that the participants could keep their hands in the water. Swearing was found to increase the study subjects’ pain tolerance, allowing them to hold their hands in ice water for a longer period than when they spoke regular words.

The research also demonstrates that, when doing physical exercise, swearing increases one’s strength and power relative to not swearing. (There were no cardiovascular or autonomic nervous system effects affiliated with swearing.)

It might be in your best interest and public safety not to repeatedly scream your favourite swear word during your next road race, which won’t likely help you set a personal best (or win you any fans). But the next time you’re hurting down the final stretch, a reasonably quiet cuss word or two might help fight the pain and get you to the finish line.