Thinking of headbanging at the next concert you go to? Well,
according to Dr. Andrew McIntosh, you should bring
a neck brace with you.
Dr. McIntosh, a biomedical and injury expert at
the University of New South Wales, performed a study and found that
headbanging in time with heavy metal or hard rock music can lead to
serious head or neck injuries.
"Perhaps AC/DC should play something more appropriate, such
as Moon River," McIntosh jokingly tells
The Herald.
Enlisting the help of researcher and heavy metal enthusiast
Declan Patton to watch fans at metal concerts, the
two
reported that "An average head banging song has a tempo of
about 146 beats per minute, which is predicted to cause mild head
injury when the range of motion is greater than 75°. At higher
tempos and greater ranges of motion there is a risk of neck
injury."
"To minimize the risk of head and neck injury, head bangers
should decrease their range of head and neck motion, head bang to
slower tempo songs by replacing heavy metal with adult oriented
rock, only head bang to every second beat, or use personal
protective equipment," McIntosh reports.
Translation: At the cost of looking like the biggest dork in the
room, wearing a neck brace to the next concert you go to could very
well save you from some unnecessary neck pains the next
morning.
Report by David Lowe-Bianco.
Source
