Extreme Abilities: Amazing Human Feats and the Simple Science Behind Them
Pump it Lifting 18 men was just one of Louis Cyr’s incredible feats As a teen he lifted a large horse off the ground A decade later he resisted the pull of four horses two hitched to each of his arms Some people have called him the Strongest Man Who Ever Lived even though lots of other old-time strongmen were also impressing audiences around the world With stage names like the French Hercules and the Cannonball King they were tons of fun to watch Today people continue to astound us with seemingly superhuman strength Follow the World’s Strongest Man contest which has been running for more than 40 years and you’ll see men hauling two refrigerators at once flipping huge poles throwing heavy kegs over a wall lifting boulders and more And check out Canadian Kevin Fast In 2013 he managed to hike 11 people up on his shoulders the platform on which they were standing swaying like a raft at sea The total weight 777 9 kilograms 1,715 pounds Not Louis’s record but still mighty impressive Women have also racked up some jaw dropping achievements In the 1940s a time when few women lifted weights Abbye Pudgy Stockton had no pudge on her she was all muscle Living in Los Angeles California and known as the Queen of Muscle Beach she could lift her husband above her head Then there’s Varya Akulova Born in Ukraine in 1992 Varya could carry her 8 Chapter 1
father on her back by age seven and was already winning weightlifting events She’s been called the Strongest Girl in the World while Richard Sandrak also born in 1992 in Ukraine has been dubbed the World’s Strongest Boy Richard could lift three times his own body weight when he was still a kid FAST FACT Plant Power Trees don’t have muscles but they can still hold up their limbs That’s because they grow muscle-like wood cells that help them bear the weight The fibers in the cells on the top of the branch lie in a way that enables them to pull up the branch The fibers in the cells on the bottom of the branch lie in a different way pushing the branch skyward Together these cells keep the bough from drooping TEENAGER LIFTS CAR In 2013 American sisters Haylee and Hannah Smith aged 14 and 16 lifted a tractor off their father after it flipped over and trapped him In 2015 19-year-old Charlotte Heffelmire also from the States lifted a truck after a jack collapsed pinning her father under it How did these regular folks under extreme pressure develop a temporary strength they never knew they had First the stories are often exaggerated When someone claims to have lifted a vehicle they probably lifted only one corner Three tires remained on the ground greatly reducing the weight Think of your living room couch All by yourself you probably can’t pick up the whole thing But try lifting only one corner and you might find success Second in scary situations epinephrine also known as adrenaline rushes into our blood This hormone helps us react to fight or flight situations when we have to decide whether to fight something such as a bear or run away Our hearts beat faster and we breathe faster More oxygen goes to our brains making us more alert Additional nutrients flood into our bloodstreams Although our muscles don’t suddenly get as strong as a superhero’s fight or flight effects can take the abilities we’ve got and give them a slightly more powerful push MASTERS of MUSCLE 9
HOW IT'S DONE Tendon Attaches muscle to bone Muscle Fiber Made up of fast-twitch fibers for power and speed and slow twitch fibers for endurance Bone Your muscles are made up of two types of fibers Slow-twitch fibers are used for endurance sports such as long-distance running Fast-twitch fibers are powerful and used for quick explosive movements such as hauling a huge barbell over your head Your body and each muscle has its own combination of these two types This means you might be born to FAST FACT be a sprinter or maybe you’re more of a natural at carrying a platform of people on Where does strength nearly superhuman or just plain human come from For the most part it comes from our muscles which are activated by the brain and the rest of the central nervous system Together these form the neuromuscular system which produces movement Our muscles are made of millions of tightly packed fibers When you do an activity that stresses the muscle like lifting weights these fibers get damaged They repair themselves while you rest getting bigger so they can handle the stress better the next time Not all people who stress their muscles will get bulky and mind-blowingly strong though Each person has different quantities and types of fibers and your muscles probably won’t grow enough to enable you to lift a fridge Toss Me That Straw Scotland’s Highland Games is one of the oldest competitions for strongmen Introduced in the year 1040 they helped the king decide which men would make the best soldiers These days the contestants still vie to toss stones throw hammers and lob bundles of your shoulders Although you can train to make your slow-twitch fibers stronger and your fast twitch fibers last longer you pretty much keep the fibers you’ve got straw with a pitchfork 10 Chapter 1
STOP THAT Your body is filled with chalones No these aren’t a yummy Mexican meal They’re substances found in the cells of our tissues that regulate their growth In the case of our muscles the main chalone is a protein called myostatin As our bodies grow our muscles grow too Once these muscles get to their proper adult size there’s enough myostatin in them to kick into action Its job to tell the muscles to stop getting bigger Sometimes something turns out differently In the early 2000s researchers studied one child who lacked myostatin Even as a baby he was super muscly By age four and a half he could hold a 3-kilogram 6 6-pound dumbbell in each hand and lift his arms out to the sides This also may be how other young children can wow us with their age defying strength And was it Louis Cyr’s secret too No one knows Researchers are now working on how to use myostatin to our advantage not necessarily to create extra-powerful humans but to treat diseases like muscular dystrophy that waste away patients muscles So far they’ve been able to block myostatin in mice and macaques to give them bigger and stronger muscles But they haven’t yet tried it on humans MASTERS of MUSCLE 11 HAZARD ALERT Even if their muscles are packed with the right kind of fast-twitch fibers people who lift too much weight too quickly may strain or tear their muscles especially in areas like the shoulders or lower back And we’re not talking about the tiny kinds of damage that help the muscles get stronger but the bigger kinds that mean something’s gone wrong Extreme lifters can also tear their tendons the tissues that connect muscles to bone thanks to lifting heavy weights up and down up and down again and again
