Prrceptunl atzdLlo~orSkzlls. 2008. 106, 958-962.

O Perceptual and Motor Skllls 2008

THE EFFECT OF LIGHT COLOR ON MUSCULAR

STRENGTH AND POWER'

DANIEL K CRrlNE, ROBERT Vi' HEUSrlRLING ALAN P JUhG

CHARLES D SAUDS, JOIIN K PCTRELLA

Suinn-2ary.-The purpose of this study was to assess the eftect of the color of light
in a room on muscular strength and power. A convenience sample of 18 rnen (,if age
=20.3 yr., SD= 1.2) performed n modified Wingate Anaerobic Cycle Test for ~nuscular
power arid a hand grip strengtli test in each of the follo\i:ing conditions: red, blue,
and white (neutral'l ambient light. h repeated-measures multivariate analysis of vari-
ance indicated that average muscular power was significantly higher when performing
the test in the room with red light compared to rooms lit with blue lighr or white
light. The results also indicated that grip strength was significantly higher in the room
lit with wliite light as compared to the roan1 lit with blue light.

For centuries, color has been used for its physiological. psychological,
and medtcinal effects on the body (Azeemi & Raza, 2005). L4s far back as
2000 B.C., humans were beginning to associate different colors with speclfic
effects on the body. Recently, the use of color has been studied to determine
its effect in health, wellness, and sport settings.
Exposure to d~fferentcolors has been hypothesized to have varying psy-
chological effects, such as on stress and state anxiety scores (Kmallek &
Lewis, 1990; Ainsworth, Cassell. & Simpson, 1993). Profusek and Rainey
(1987) found an increase in state anxiety scores when comparing participants
in red and pink rooms. Hoxx~erer.Ainsworrh, et al. (1993) showed no difter-
ence between state anxiety scores when subjects were placed in offices with
red, blue-green, or white walls. It has been hypothesized that blue light has
a calming effect when compared to red light or white light, although this
has not been consistently found i H a ~ n ~&d Newport, 1989).
Research has also shown that exposure to different colors can have vary-
ing physiological effects on the body, Including blood pressure, the nervous
system, and physical strength. The color red has been shown to have a stim-
ulating effect on the nervous system and it has been shoxx~lto increase state
anxiety (Profusek & Rainey, 1987). Additionally, the color red has been
shoxvn to increase hand grip strength (Green, Hasson, illohammed. Phillips,
Richards, Smith, & \Yhite. 19821. However, Keller and Vautin (1998) found
no link between mewed color and hand grip strength in their stud) using
- --

-Address correspondence to Robert E'. Hensarling. Samford University, Department of Exer-

cise Science and Sports Medicine, 800 Lakeshore Dr., Birmingham, rlL 35229 or e-mail
(rwhensar@samford.edui.
 COLORED LIGHT, LIUSCULrlR STRENGTH, AND POWER 959

four different color samples, including red and pink. The color blue is
thought to have the opposite effect of red, and has been shown to decrease
strength (Hamid & Newport, 1989). W'hen considering muscular power, Et-
nier and Hardy (1997) found no effect when subjects performed a Wingate
Anaerobic Cycle Test in rooms colored orange, green, and white.
A review of the available literature has showr~ninconsistent results regard-
ing the psychological and physiological effects of environmental color on the
body. This is likely due to the limited number of studies and the use of dif-
ferent sets of colors between studies. Additionally, while there are several
studies that have addressed the effect of environnlental color on muscular
strength, there are few studies that have considered the effect of environmen-
tal color on muscular power. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to as-
sess the effect of colored light on muscular strength and average power
across different color conditions, specifically red, blue, and white (neutral)
light.

Eighteen liioderately active, college-aged males participated in this study

(hl age=20.4 yr., SD=1.2; M height=179.6 cm, SD=6.5: M weight=84.5
kg, SD= 18.7). Prior to participation, all participants completed a health his-
tory form and signed an informed consent outlining the project and any as-
sociated potential dangers before participation. This study was approved by
the local Institutional Review Board for the protection of human subjects.

Hand grip strength was measured with a grip strength dyiianlometer

(Grip-A TKK 5001, Takei Scientific Instruments, Tokyo, Japan). Each par-
ticipant used the same grip setting during each test, gripping the hand dyna-
mometer at the second knuckle. This measure of grip strength has been
used in several studies related to strength and room color (Smith, Bell, &
Fusco, 1986; Halnid & Newport, 1989; Drmwroody, 1998; Keller & Vautin,
1998). The modified WTingateAnaerobic Cycle Test was performed on a cy-
cle ergometer (Monark 81SE, Vansbro, Sweden) to measure muscular pow-
er.

The study consisted of three counterbalanced trials. For each trial, the
testing room was lit with a different color: white, red, or blue. Each partici-
pant performed both a grip strength test and a modified Wingate Anaerobic
Cycle Test under each color condition. Trials were separated by at least 48
hours, but no more than 96 hours.
The testing site had no ~vindours,so all light was from the artificial
source. The testing site consisted of an 11- x li-foot cinder block area with
white paint on two of the walls, floor to ceiling partitions for two walls and
a white drop ceiling. The fluorescent light sources were four Sylvania Super-
Saver Cool White F40C\Y/SS 34K' bulbs controlled by an electronic ballast
to a\.oid lisual flicker. The cool white bulbs had a color rendering index
(CRI) of 60 and a color temperature (CTT) of 1200K. Room luminance was
changed to red or blue using colored filters consisting of translucent plastic.
All of the fluorescent lights in the room were covered with translucent col-
ored plastic which tinted the lights either red or blue. During the color tests,
an extra halogen light (Cooper Lighting Regent Model PbOO), which utilized
two 300W T-3 bulbs with the same translucent colored plastic, was added to
enhance the light intensity in the two colored-light conditions. The fluores-
cent room lights produced a light level of 33 lumens per square foot (355.2
LUX), measured at the mall the participant was viewing during testing. The
halogen lamp was positioned behind the participant at a distance of seven
feet. The fluorescent room lights and halogen lamp produced 19 lumens per
square foot (204.5 LUX) under the red condition and 15 lumens per square
foot (161.3 LUX) under the blue condition. The white light, normal room
lighting, was established as the control. The groups were not told the hy-
pothesized effects of the colors.
When performing the hand grip test. the participant held the dynainom-
eter in the dominant hand, All subjects used the same grip setting for each
test with the hand dynamometer. Grlp strength was determined by a maxi-
mal grip without swinging the arm. Each subject performed one trial with
the hand grip dynamometer during each room-color cond~tion.
Before thc modified KTingateAnaerobic Cycle Test, all participants per-
formed a 3- to 5-minute warm-up at 0.5 kg. For the cycle test, the resistance
on the cycle ergometer was 0.045 k g k g of body weight for each participant.
Participants were then instructed to pedal as fast as possible for 30 sec, in
order to achieve as many pedal rerolutions as possible. The number of pedal
revolutions during the 30-sec. exertlon period uras counted to calculate aver-
age anaerobic power: multiplyi~~g the flywheel weight by the distance and
number of rotations and di~idingby the time.
Differences in average anaerobic power and hand grip strength between
room-color conditions were analyzed using a repeated-measures multivariate
anal! sis of variance.
lbsucrs
Average power values (W) for the modified Wingate Anaerobic Cycle
Test for each room condition are shown in Table 1. A multivariate ailalysis
of variance revealed a main effect of lighr color (F2;,= 8.749, p = .001), with
an observed power of ,957 and a small effect size (34). Average power un-
 COLORED LIGHT, MUSCULAR STRENGTH, AND POWER 961

der the red light condition was significantly greater than average power under
either the white light or blue light conditions. Average power for the partici-
pants \ras 7.6% higher in the red light compared to the white light condi-
tion and 7.8% higher in the red when compared to the blue light condition.
Fourteen of the 18 participants (78%) had their highest power output on
the modified VC7ingate test while performing the test in the room lit with red
light.

WBL.E 1
MUSCUL.~R
STREKGTHAKD POWERUNDERE.CH LIGHT CONDITION
-
- -
-- . ~ ... - .-- --
Light Color Po~.erOutput (W) - Hand Grip Strength (kg)- -
~
Af
-- --
SD M SD
W'hite 448.7a 93.7 54.0" 7.4
Blue 44J.ja 75.3 51.7' 7.4
Red 482.0' 94.8 53.6 7.2
- - ~ -

Note.-Differing superscripts in columils indicate means significantly different at p c. .05.

Hand grip strength values for each room condition are shown in Table
1. h multivariate analysis of variance revealed a main effect of light color
(F2,,=3.20j. p = .053) with an observed power of ,574 and an effect size of
.16. The results revealed a significant difference in mean hand grip strength
between the white light condition and the blue light condition. Additionally,
13 of the 18 participants (72%) had their lowest performance on the hand
grip test in the room lit with blue light.
DISCUSSION
The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of lighting color on
muscular strength and average power output. The results suggested that light
had a significant effect on anaerobic power as measured by a modified W'in-
gate Anaerobic Cycle Test. Average anaerobic power was shown to be signif-
icantly higher w11en the test was performed in a room lit with red light com-
pared to rooms lit with either white or blue light.
For purposes of this study, white light was considered the control con-
dition since it was the light color of the room in an unaltered state. Thus,
the results indicate that the red light increased average power output, while
the blue light had no effect. However, there was no significant difference in
muscular strength in any of the color conditions.
The results of this stud) differ from the findings of Etnier and Hardy
(1997) who found no difference in average power between the different col-
ored roorns. Ho\vever, their study used orange, green, and white room col-
ors instead of red, blue, and white and it used colored walls instead of differ-
ent colored lighting. The Etnier and Hardy study reported an effect size of
less than .lo. similar to the current study (.I61 It is possible that red may