Science Behind The Grunt

There’s something about a guttural noise that grabs your attention. Whether it’s a harsh sneeze in a movie theater or a snoring stranger on a transcontinental flight, bodily sounds elicit instinctive reactions — surprise, annoyance, humor, disgust.

And then there’s the most gutteral of them all: the grunt.

Spend an afternoon at Equinox, and you’ll hear grunts of all kinds. A fellow member lifting weights to your left, an unusually loud member in Vinyasa Yoga, a hybrid sigh-grunt in the steam room. Maybe you’re the one grunting.