Kim Zimmerman, the non-grunter

Last Wednesday, I accompanied Bonnie to her boxing training class for a workout. Oh man, was it EVER a workout. I was sore for three days afterwards! I felt really great after the workout, but the punishment from sore muscles for three days has convinced me not to return this week. But aside from this, we were interviewed by a journalist from the Edmonton Journal as we entered the gym. She was writing a story on 'grunting' while working out and what people thought of it. She took our names and then tape recorded our discussion with her on this topic. Bonnie actually found the article online the other day, so I've posted it here for you viewing pleasure, since "we" actually made it in the article.

(Note - I myself have not read the entire thing. I skimmed it to find my name. If you would prefer to do this, rather than read the whole thing, then just skip to the bottom of the entire article - my quote is the last line.)



"Bodybuilder Ryan Cherwoniak is a grunter and says it's a natural thing to do when you're exerting yourself to the max.

"It's the body's oomph at the end. And, a lot of it is a man thing, the animal in him," Cherwoniak allows.

Grunting is part of the body-building culture, says Katharine Yeoman, Hardcore's marketing and sales director. "We have a lot of grunting in our gym because we have a high percentage of bodybuilders.

"Typically, the people who grunt are really dedicated to coming to the gym a lot -- one of their major focuses in life is training and being really healthy -- so they don't have the social awareness of other people who are bothered by it," Yeoman says.

For the most part, grunters and the silent majority peacefully coexist in the gym, although there was a corrections officer who was kicked out of Planet Fitness in Wappingers Falls, N.Y. last year after violating its strict no-grunting policy. Grunting regularly makes the top 10 list of things people hate about the gym.

Mike Coughlin, a personal trainer at Hardcore, is occasionally asked by clients if there's anything he can do to silence a loud lifter. He says there are three reasons why people grunt when they lift: they're either lifting too much weight, trying to attract attention or they think it's acceptable behaviour.

"I make noise, absolutely," Coughlin says. "But I take into consideration there are other people working out with me."

Fans of the grunt says it helps them lift more weight. But a study at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, that compared football players who grunted while lifting deadweights to a group of graduate students who were untrained lifters and did not grunt, found the first group increased their lifts by two per cent and the second group by five per cent.

Researchers concluded grunting does not provide an overall boost to an individual's performance. Dan Syrotiuk, an exercise physiology professor and vice dean of physical education and recreation at the University of Alberta, says there's a physiological phenomenon called the Valsalva manoeuvre that occurs when people exert themselves. When you push a car that's out of gas or stuck in the snow, when you push out a baby during childbirth, have a bowel movement or you push weights, there's a momentary holding of breath that helps to stabilize the torso, particularly the spine, he says. It's a protective mechanism, a safety mechanism. Usually, at the end of the exertion, there is a rush of pent-up air that can be audible.

A little Valsalva is OK, but holding your breath for too long can be hazardous to your health because it deprives the body, specifically the brain and the heart, of oxygen, Syrotiuk says.

People who lift weights sometimes get a glimpse of this after holding their breath through 10 repetitions of an exercise such as a leg press, and report seeing stars because they're a little oxygen-starved.

There's a great debate about whether people should even be temporarily holding their breaths, Syrotiuk says, but research has disproved that holding your breath while lifting weights causes aneurisms, strokes or brain hemorrhages.

Still, you might be better off hissing when exerting yourself, the way some martial arts students do. The karate equivalent of the grunt is a yell in Japanese known as the kiai (pronounced key-eye), says karate instructor or sensei Neil Dunnigan. The hissing is the sound of air passing between the tongue and the teeth while releasing a fast burst of energy, making a strike. Its main purpose is to centre power in the lower belly, but it's also used to scare or break the spirit of an opponent, Dunnigan explains. It's better than a grunt because you continue to breathe while you exert yourself so your body is never deprived of oxygen.

As one non-grunting gym user, Wayne Davidson, observes, grunting is a motivation or psych tactic lifters believe gives them an extra boost at the height of exertion.

There are a lot more annoying things people do in the gym, Davidson says, like leaving behind their weight plates on machines for other people to have to unload before doing their own workout.

Or, as Kim Zimmerman, another non-grunter, observes: if people find grunting in the gym annoying it means they're paying too much attention to everyone else and not working hard enough themselves."
Chris Zdeb, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Monday, November 05


There! Did you see it!

What do you think of my quote? Not bad, hey?

Except for the fact that I'm pretty sure BONNIE said that, not me. I understand how the journalist could have mixed up which of us said what, but I think it's funny. Another irony is that I actually admitted to grunting ON OCCASION while playing sports. For example, throwing the ball or the frisbee really far/hard. So, I am technically not a "non-grunter", another reason I think it was Bonnie that said the quote. But that's ok, it gives me something interesting to write about here!