Listen up all you hardcore heavy metal music fans! A new study has shown that head banging at just the right angle may cause damage to your health.

Two researchers, Declan Patton and Professor Andrew McIntosh from the University of New South Wales, set out to find the risk of injury through head banging and also looked into possible ways to prevent injuries from happening.

Researchers attended various rock and roll concerts including performances by Motörhead, Ozzy Osbourne and Skid Row. They discovered that the up-and-down head banging style was the most common. They then made a model of this style to test out the range of head and neck motion and possible injury by head banging this way.

The researchers found that there is an increased risk of injury to the neck with tempos beginning at 130 beats per minute in relation to the range of motion through head banging.

It was found that the average head banging song has a tempo of 146 beats per minute. By head banging at more than a 75 degree angle, headaches and dizziness may soon follow.

As for the theory that head banging too much might make you unconscious, the researchers state that this probably can’t happen, unless a person is banging their head against a stage or with another person’s head.

To protect against these injuries, the researchers note that bands could play less ‘beat-oriented’ songs and instead play more mellow music. They also suggest that some record labels place anti-head banging warnings on the packaging.

“To minimise the risk of head and neck injury, headbangers should decrease their range of head and neck motion, headbang to slower tempo songs by replacing heavy metal with adult oriented rock, only headbang to every second beat, or use personal protective equipment,” said Professor McIntosh.

Neck braces at a heavy metal concert? Somehow I can’t see that happening any time soon.

Via InventorSpot