• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Abnormal Physical Strength In A Crisis (Hysterical Strength)

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to replicate this on demand under test conditions.
However, medical scientists do know that adrenalin alone can increase muscular efficiency and improve blood circulation. It's not that much of a stretch to believe it.
Lifting a car is well above normal human ability however. My car is roughly 1400k, no normal human is going to come close to lifting that. What I was reading from the Scientific American article James linked is the adrenaline/panic effects give an estimated 30-40% jolt to the lifting capacity. If I can (generously) lift 100kg, an adrenaline jolt is taking me up to maybe 140kg, not giving me a 1400 kg capacity. The typical car remains around an order of magnitude outside the adrenaline jolted capacity of a normal person.

The lifter is presumably taking advantage of the fulcrum with the wheels. Perhaps there is more leverage benefit in that than people realize, so these events are less remarkable than they seem?

Bystander's camera phones and cctv mean we should have a car lift on video before too long.

In any case, my point had been that science has apparently decided to accept as fact something that only has anecdotal evidence. It's worth raising eyebrows over. The adrenaline studies are used to justify the anecdotes (which are accepted as factual), they do not prove the anecdotes, only attempt a scientific justification of them. Many fortean subjects are like hysterical strength in that they have only anecdotal evidence. We can take ghosts as an example. There is a near infinite number of ghostly anecdotes. If science were to take the same approach to ghosts as it apparently does hysterical strength, ghosts would be accepted as factual and science would be looking at justifying their existence.
 
Lifting a car is well above normal human ability however. My car is roughly 1400k, no normal human is going to come close to lifting that. What I was reading from the Scientific American article James linked is the adrenaline/panic effects give an estimated 30-40% jolt to the lifting capacity. If I can (generously) lift 100kg, an adrenaline jolt is taking me up to maybe 140kg, not giving me a 1400 kg capacity. The typical car remains around an order of magnitude outside the adrenaline jolted capacity of a normal person.

The lifter is presumably taking advantage of the fulcrum with the wheels. Perhaps there is more leverage benefit in that than people realize, so these events are less remarkable than they seem?
Yes, lifting a complete car clear of the ground probably is beyond normal human limits.
But many of these anecdotes merely speak of someone lifting a car enough for someone trapped underneath to be pulled free. Not only the leverage (which depends on which part of the car is lifted), but the reactions of the car's suspension need to be taken into account too. As a very general rule, I'd recommend lifting the corner of the car nearest to where the casualty is trapped.
 
His lifting force in that situation is half the weight of the car.
I'm guessing there was probably no engine in the car or cables were used. Although I'm not doubting his immense strength.
 
I'm guessing there was probably no engine in the car or cables were used. Although I'm not doubting his immense strength.
In that ad, the engine block had been removed.
However, I seem to recall seeing him on that yearly strongman competition back in the 80s doing the same thing to a mini (with the engine left in).
His lifting force in that situation is half the weight of the car.
True - but that's the probable scenario in some of these legendary cases - they only lifted a corner or one end of the car, just enough for the victim to be removed.
 
I've no doubt that the mighty Jeoff Capes could lift a Mini but they are very light cars in car terms. An '80s Mini only weighs about 700kg.Jeoff could comfortably manage roughly half of that.
I was only questioning the Polo advert because it would just be easier and quicker to shoot using cables or removing the engine.
 
From today's news :

Charlotte Heffelmire is being celebrated as a hero after she lifted a pick-up truck off her dad - and saved her family from a dangerous fire.

Dad Eric was working in the family garage on a GMC pick-up truck when the jack propping up the car slipped and pinned him to the ground, with leaking petrol instantly catching fire.

Fortunately, the 19-year-old high school student from Vienna in Virginia, US, was able to use momentarily incredible strength to free him before propane tanks caught alight.

The pole vaulter, who is just 5ft 6in and weighs around 8st 8lb, ran to the scene barefoot and leapt into action.

Currently at the US Air Force Academy, she sustained a back injury which has so far kept her from returning, and also burned her feet.


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/teen-girl-uses-superhuman-strength-7155438
 
This 16-year-old football player lifted a car to save his trapped neighbor

Every now and then we find ourselves in the right place, at the right time. For one Ohio teenager, that time came while he was spending the afternoon doing some gardening with his mother last Saturday.

Lora Clark and her 16-year-old son, Zac, were in the front yard of their Butler home working on the flower beds when they heard a female neighbor call out for help, Lora told CNN.

Without skipping a beat, Lora said they both ran to the house, where they saw the woman's husband pinned underneath their Volkswagen Passat.
"I guess the jack broke or slipped and the car fell on top of him from the waist up," Zac told WJW. "Only thing I could see was his legs and he was struggling."

The 39-year-old father asked not to be identified, according to WJW. He said he usually uses braces, but didn't on this particular day.

"The car was pressing on his head and crushing his ribs, Lora said. "I said there's no way we can lift this car but I could see in Zac's face that he wasn't going to give up."

Zac positioned himself at the front of the car, near the hood, and managed to lift the car long enough for Lora and the neighbor's wife to pull him from underneath, according to Lora.

"He had a couple of cracked ribs and his face was messed up pretty bad, but the doctors told him if I wasn't there then he'd be dead," Zac told WJW. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/26/us/teen-saves-neighbor-car-trnd/index.html
 
Back
Top