Effect of SWEARING on Physical Performance - Dan Garner Vitality Blueprint Review

Dan Garner - Vitality Blueprint co-founder review on swearing FB post July 3rd 2026.

One word can change your output, and the data is wild. We’re talking about swearing and physical performance, sparked by a 2024 mini review in Frontiers in Psychology that pulls together controlled studies on what happens when you repeat a swear word during a max-effort attempt versus a neutral word. Same task, same setup, different word, and the “explicit” option starts to look like a legitimate training variable.

We walk through the headline results and why they matter for real-world coaching: wall sits held longer, more push-ups to failure, longer planks, stronger grip strength, and even a bump in Wingate test peak and average power. We also zoom out for perspective on how big those percentage changes are compared to typical training gains, and why replication makes this more than a one-off gimmick.

Then we get practical and a little uncomfortable in the best way: why the mechanism is still unclear, why you shouldn’t assume it transfers to long endurance efforts, and how to apply it ethically as a coach. We talk mirroring clients, setting expectations, respecting your environment in busy gyms, and the fine line between “authentic” and “unprofessional,” especially when one offended person can cost you a review, a referral, or a room full of trust.

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Transcript

Swearing, Expectations, And Context

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Today's podcast is about the effect of swearing on physical performance. A mini review. I click the little explicit box. So if this gets your panties and stilettos and jock straps into a bundle, welcome to the Show Up Fitness Podcast, where great personal trainers are made. We are changing the fitness industry one qualified trainer at a time with our in-person and online personal training certification. If you want to become an elite personal trainer, head on over to showufffitness.com. Also make sure to check out my book, How to Become a Successful Personal Trainer. Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review. Have a great day and keep showing up. Today's podcast is about the effect of swearing on physical performance. A mini review. I click the little explicit box. So if this gets your panties and stilettos and jock straps into a bundle, use common sense. Don't go to a scary movie and then leave a bad review saying, oh my God, it was too scary. Those are the expectations. I wrote a book, The Vulgar Truth Diet. I cuss a lot. I talk about sex, boners, weird shit. That's not our main premise and thing that I'm pushing at show up fitness. It was for fun. Today's podcast is for fun.

The Data On Strength Gains

SPEAKER_01 1:24

It's about an actual scientific review from the Frontiers in Psychology, Mr. Dan Gardner. And you can follow him at Dan Gardner Nutrition, one of the co-founders of Vitality Blueprint, the company who we've partnered with recently, the most comprehensive blood panel testing in the world, alongside of Dr. Andy Galpin. If you don't know who Doc Galpin is, you're living under a rock. Listen to his podcast. Absolutely freaking amazing. I had him on our podcast. The guy is a stud. So what Dan talks about is the effect of swearing on physical performance, a mini review. This was listed November 11, 2024, in the Frontiers of Psychology. The authors were Nicholas Washmuth, Richard Stevens, as well as Christopher Ballman. He talks about the most unhinged performance aid. I know how that sounds, but the data is real. It has been replicated, and the effect is big enough to where now it's both comedic and awesome. In this 2024 review, they pulled together the controlled studies on swearing and physical performance. The setup is always the same. You do a max effort while repeating a swear word, or you do the identical effort repeating a neutral word. Nothing else changes. And here's what swearing did versus the clean group. Wall sit to exhaustion, 22% longer. Push-ups to failure, 15% more. Plank to exhaustion, 12% longer. Grip strength, 9% more across studies. The wind gate peak and average power. That's a test for anaerobic capacity, up 4.5%. Researchers ran the grip test, then replicated it years later and got the same answer. The replication added about 2.5 kilograms of grip strength per the word choice alone. It's not a fluke. This is a finding. For scale, the review itself notes that elite weightlifters add roughly 3.5% of lower body strength over a full year of training. A single prime word moved grip and power more than that. How awesome is that? But how does that work? So let's see what Dan has to say. The easy story is it kills pain, but it doesn't. When swearing raised grip strength, pain perception didn't budge. The next easy version is it's disinhibition. You stop holding back. And although that sounds right, the one study that actually tested that pathway found it did not explain the effect either. The authors land on a mix of sympathetic activation, reduced pain sensitivity, and disinhibited state, and they openly admit it isn't salt. That's the beauty of science. We keep on testing it. There's no emotions in science.

Why It Works Remains Unclear

SPEAKER_01 4:20

That's my words, not Dan's. Back to Dan. So the honest read is that the effect is now replicated in science, but the reason is not. And every study was run in a lab on short, hard efforts. So don't assume it carries over to your marathon and start swearing for 26.2 miles straight. But for one all-out grip, jump, or sprint, pick a real word and say it like you mean it, baby. And the comments are great. You got a bunch of people cussing in there. And again, I'm I'm I try to be neutral. I offend a lot of people with my annoying personality. And but at the end of the day, you have to do what the science says. I got this client, she's in her 60s, Beth, and I love her because she's German and she's very, very well read. She's an erudite

Coaching Etiquette And Mirroring Clients

SPEAKER_01 5:05

and she loves to cuss. Today we were doing some side planks, which holds up what the literature says. And she's doing it, she's like, fuck, fuck. She's cussing the whole entire time. This is six o'clock in the morning. So we have neighbors up top and they're probably pissed off, but I'm just cracking up. You got this, Beth. Come on, come on, you got this. I do encourage you, as a trainer, though, to be respectful of your environment. If I would have met Beth the first time and say, Hey, how's it fucking going? You weirdo, probably not going to go over too well. I mirror my clients. Those are the people skills that we talk about within the personal training industry that are really important. Because you could be in an equinox and you're talking to your client about doing lines of coke and cussing and flirting and doing weird stuff, but someone next to you overhears that and now they're offended. So they go to management or they leave a bad review. And you need to be held accountable for that. You need to know your environment. So when I train at our gym in Santa Monica, I'm not worried about it because it's just us. I know our other clients in here and they're cool as well. Not saying if you don't cuss, you're not cool. I'm saying they're cool with it. Every seminar that I do, because of our partnership with Lifetime, I always start out. I'm going to drop an F bomb right now. I know that's some vulgarity. Is anyone gonna be offended? And if you are, don't worry. I will adjust and modify the presentation and not use that vulgarity. One seminar in Las Vegas, there was a gentleman who raised his hand and says, I don't like it when people cuss. I said, That's awesome. I will respect that. Because the last thing I want to do is think, fuck this and shit and ask dildo, purple, butthole, whatever it is. And then he goes to management and says, That you know, that seminar wasn't that professional because we typically will associate a lack of vulgarity with professionalism. But I think it's a fine line. There's numerous people out there who have a professional title and they curse. But on the other side of the equation, I get it, there's numerous others who don't curse. So you have to find who you align with, but at the same time, I will challenge you that you can't go out there and start saying, Well, this is how I feel. And so you have to adjust your whole entire personality per se. But I'm a big believer in mirroring. So when I have an assessment with someone, I'm always on time, 30 minutes early. I looked apart, I talked apart, make sure my breath doesn't smell like shit. Nice handshake, smile. And as I ask questions within that 15 to 30 minutes, usually the person will open up because they're talking 70 to 80% of the time. And if a curse word comes out, then I will mirror that curse word. Client says shit, I may say shit later on. I don't go to the 10th degree and start using words that they've never heard of. I try to keep it appropriate. For young kids, anything, anyone under you know, 16 or so, I'm not dropping F bombs. I'm trying to be respectful because I don't want to brainwash them with all this vulgarity. Because on the other side of the equation, you have people like Gary V, he doesn't give a flying fuck. He cusses and people would call him out. So I think you curse too much. And in my opinion, I think he goes a little overboard. You can't watch one of his shorts on YouTube or Instagram within 30 seconds and he doesn't drop at least five F bombs. I think you can use it to bring character to the conversation or presentation you're giving. But with that being said, you have to understand if you choose to do that, people will be offended today. And all it takes is that one person to go online and leave a bad review, or they're not going to sign up for your course or whatever it is. I actually had someone come back the other day and they met with Megan. She gave them the first copy of my book, which had a lot more vulgarity. That was the feedback that I got. So I took out probably 50% of the curse words for volume two, and she was offended by it. And she said, you know, is this how it is? I don't like vulgarity. I don't find I don't find it professional, blah, blah, blah. It's like, that's actually on me. That's on us because we shouldn't have given her that book. And you have to take responsibility for that. So if you do drop a curse word and a client is offended, they have that right. It's freedom of speech, happy 250 years being an American. But people have that right to choose. You have that choice as well. Mirror the person in front of you. And if you want to get into the science and drop some F-bombs, get a fucking, let's fucking go. Let's fucking get fired up. Let's fucking go before your bench press. Science supports. You're actually probably going to be

Certifications, Seminars, And Best Deal

SPEAKER_01 9:25

stronger. Hopefully, you enjoyed today's podcast. Make sure to listen to tomorrow's podcast. I've referenced this study, but also it's our biggest sale of the year. You're going to get two certifications for $6.99 or a certification in a seminar or 100% all access, three certs, a seminar, and lifetime to the online, which is normally $100 per month. That's $9.99. It's our best deal of the year. 48 hours, hop on that sucker. Our July schedule is packed. We have a lot more RDs coming on the team, physical therapists. We have a ROM from Four Weeks to the Beach and the Coach's Summit that he has. He's going to be giving talks on nutrition. 2027, I'm going to be presenting at the Coach's Summit in Vegas. We will be in Miami at the Miami Falls at Lifetime. That's the 24th and 25th. Friday and Saturday, 12 to 5. I think the website says Friday, uh Saturday, Sunday. But just so you know, 99.99% of the seminars we do at lifetime, those will always be on Friday and Saturday. We are going to be in Franklin, Tennessee. We're excited to get there for the first time. We're also going to be in Tampa, and that's going to be in like September, October. The Franklin one will be in August as we roll out the Q3 seminars. In the summer, we typically don't do as many, usually one per month. But then as we get into August and for the rest of Q3 and Q4, we will be doing two to three per month. We will be doing our nutrition seminar, which will be a first one will be in New York with Mel. Two days getting into in-depth nutrition to complement the certification that we offer, as well as more bioenergetics and high rock style of training. And then we will be going to first form with our partnership with them. And that's their headquarters in St. Louis. So we're going to have a lot more seminars for you to surround yourself with like-minded individuals. If you want to hop on this deal of the century, DM me. You can send me an email, Chris at showupfitness.com. And we can save you a couple hundred bucks if you go through Venmo or Cash App because stupid California and all the taxes that you have to pay. So hop on this deal. Excited to help you become a successful personal trainer. And remember big fucking biceps are better than small ones and keep fucking showing up.