Strong language: swearing makes you stronger, psychologists confirm

Repeating profanities during tasks including cycling and a hand-grip test boosted performance, researchers say

It isn't big and it isn't clever. But the benefits, known to anyone who has moved home, climbed a mountain, or pushed a broken-down car, have finally been confirmed: according to psychologists, swearing makes you stronger.

The upside of letting profanities fly emerged from a series of experiments with people who repeated either a swear word or a neutral word as they pounded away on an exercise bike, or performed a simple hand-grip test.