Grunting increases performance

dk8594

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I got the "talk" from gym management about quieting down last night as I tend to grunt during the last 2 reps. Thought I'd look into it to see if there was a reason I do it. Here is what I found...


Grunting in tennis increases ball velocity but not oxygen cost.



Abstract

Grunting is widely used by professional tennis players, but no research has been done to verify enhanced performance with grunting. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine if grunting enhanced ball velocity in groundstrokes and secondly, to determine if grunting increased the physiological cost of hitting (VO2, HR, VE/VO2, and RPE). Participants were 10 members of the men's (n = 5) and women's (n = 5) tennis teams at a Division I university who had just completed their indoor competitive season. Two hitting sessions were used as players repetitively hit forehand and backhand shots while either grunting or not grunting. Each hitting session consisted of five 2-minute periods with a 1-minute break in between each period. Ball velocity was measured with a radar gun. During each hitting session, players wore a portable metabolic measuring unit. HR was monitored using a Polar monitor, and RPE was assessed using Borg's 6-20 scale. Grunting increased ball velocity (kph) 3.8% compared with non-grunting condition (p < 0.034) with the mean ± SD being 83.4 ± 0.6.1 and 80.3 ± 0.8.7, respectively. The physiological responses (VO2, HR, VE/VO2, and RPE) for the 2 hitting conditions were not significantly different for any variable. When averaged across both hitting conditions, HR over the 5-time periods was higher in periods 3-5 than period (p < 0.018) 1, whereas VE/VO2 and RPE were greater in periods 2-5 than period 1 (p = 0.001). RPE significantly increased over time with periods 2-5 being greater than period 1 (p = 0.001). It was concluded that grunting increased ball velocity without increasing VO2 or VE/VO2 or RPE in comparison with not grunting. It may be worthwhile for players and coaches in tennis and other sports to experiment with grunting to determine possible improvement in performance.
 

HollyWoodCole

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Tennis is not what we meant when talking about working out DK.

:32 (1):
 

Jin

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That's right. You tell that guy to **** off! With science!
 

dk8594

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That's right. You tell that guy to **** off! With science!

Armed with this study, a pair of glasses, and a borrowed white lab coat..........how could he argue?
 

PillarofBalance

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I have trained in a serious gym for a number of years where just about anything goes... From naked deadlifts to shooting slin in the locker room and drol handed out like breath mints.

But grunting is annoying and unless you have a shitload of weight on the bar you should hold your air stay tight and not make gorilla rape sounds.
 

jennerrator

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Funny how this works...no matter how heavy shit was..I could never say a word or make a sound.

Wonder if it’s because I’m a major quiet person and can’t stand loud noises..

As I’m jamming my music at the gym so I hear nothing..honestly if I was doing something serious and someone yelled..it would most likely cause me to fuuuck up or hurt myself as it would scare the hell out of me as I stay so focused on the lift!!! That’s if I wasn’t listening to music of course!

But carry on if it’s needed..all for it!:D
 

HollyWoodCole

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Good point. I just thought it might be applicable for when I'm screaming like a mad man doing reverse wrist curls ;-)
The mental image was too much!! lol

What lift were you performing? In squats and DL I always keep my air tight, but on some other lifts I do end up grunting under PoB's warm up weight.
 

Elivo

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Ive never been one to grunt, with really heavy weight i may have a small noise escape but nothing that is going to attract attention. I dont mind it so much but i hate when people do it just for the sake of doing it. We have a couple that pretty much scream in my gym and it takes all i have in me not to smack them with the bar.
 

BrotherJ

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"You wanna make a lot of noise and get nothing done? Go join a protest."
 
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snake

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Grunting requires me to let out the air I need inside of me to stay stable. Sorry, not my thing.
 

Seeker

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one of the best threads ever on this board including both SI and UG had lots of grunting on a daily basis. hail to #tren4life
 

motown1002

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Grunting definitely improves sexual performance!!! :32 (20):
 

dk8594

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The mental image was too much!! lol

What lift were you performing? In squats and DL I always keep my air tight, but on some other lifts I do end up grunting under PoB's warm up weight.

It was the last couple of reps of a hammer strength bench press drop set.
 

Dungeon Dweller

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Grunting is similar to the "ki-hap" yell in martial arts. I think it basically moves your center of gravity some. But if you are doing valsalva I don't think you really want a "leak".
 

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