1988 - Waialua, Hawaii - Warren Aramal, who
goes by the nickname of ‘Tiny’ for his short, yet stocky build, is supervising an
electricity company crew as they install utility poles in a remote pineapple field. Pilot Steve Kux is assisting with construction
by moving people, machinery and poles with his helicopter. Steve’s a local celebrity and his Hughes
500D helicopter painted in a distinctive black, red and yellow pattern is a familiar sight
around town. He’s even made several appearances flying
the helicopter on the popular TV show Magnum PI. As the afternoon wears on, Steve has trouble
wit%h the helicopter’s controls. He decides to perform an emergency landing. Steve carefully maneuvers the helicopter,
but just as it touches the ground it suddenly careens out of control, twisting and swooping
in the air. The helicopter plummets to crash on its side
in a muddy irrigation canal filled with 4 feet (1.21 m) of water. Immediately, Tiny and his co-worker Henry
race towards the smoking wreck. Steve’s unconscious, underwater and his
left arm’s been severely injured, nearly severed from his body. The helicopter’s alarm system frantically
beeps a warning-- the fuel tank’s been ruptured and is spewing gas into the water, the helicopter
could explode into flames at any minute! Tiny tries to pull Steve out, but realizes
he’s still buckled to his seat. While Henry holds Steve’s head out of the
water, Tiny unbuckles Steve and tries to pull him free of the shattered cockpit. To their horror, the men realize that Steve’s
stuck, his leg’s pinned under the 1,500 lb (703 kg) helicopter. Tiny, who had bonded with Steve over them
both being Vietnam Vets isn’t going to give up so easy. What happens next is extraordinary--while
Henry holds up Steve, Tiny grabs the helicopter and heaves. Using all his might, he’s able to lift it,
allowing enough space for Bernard, another co-worker, to reach under and pull Steve’s
legs free. While Steve sustained permanent injury to
his left arm, Tiny’s quick thinking and superhero like strength saved Steve from drowning
or being crushed to death. As it just so happened, a videographer had
been shooting PR footage of the construction for the power company; she catches Tiny’s
amazing rescue on tape. 2006 - Tucson, Arizona - On a warm summer
evening Tom Boyle Jr. and his wife are leaving a shopping center when they see a cyclist,
18 year old Kyle Hotrust get hit by a Chevy Camaro. Kyle and his bicycle are dragged 20-30 feet
(6 to 9 meters), the bike frame sending up a shower of sparks before the panicked driver
stops. Tom and his wife spring into action. They hop out of their pickup truck and run
towards the accident. Kyle lays screaming in agony, tangled in his
bicycle which is pinned under the car. As his wife calls 911, 6’4, (1.95 m) 300
lbs (136 kg) Tom crouches, grips the chassis of the 3,000 lbs (1360 kg) car and tries
to lift the front end. As Tom heaves, Kyle encourages him, yelling
“Mister! Higher! Higher!” The metal groans as it shifts; but inch by
straining inch Tom is able to lift the car high enough for Kyle to slide out. Unfortunately Kyle’s too injured to move
on his own. Both Tom and Kyle shout for the driver to
pull him out, but he’s frozen in shock. Finally after a couple of yells, the driver
jolts into action and reaches under the car to pull Kyle free. About 45 seconds after Tom first hoisted the
car, he drops it back on the street. Tom kneels and comforts Kyle as they wait
for the paramedics to arrive to take Kyle to a nearby hospital for his injuries. Tom’s astounding feat saved Kyle from further
injury during the precious minutes it took authorities to show up at the accident. 2014 - On a highway in Minnesota Bob Renning
and his girlfriend decide to pull over to help when they see a smoking vehicle on the
side of the road. Suddenly the SUV bursts into flames, Bob races
over while his girlfriend calls 911. He frantically tries the doors, but they’re
locked. He bangs on the window, the inside of the
SUV is filling with smoke and he can see the driver struggling to unlock the doors, but
the locks aren’t responding. Bob wedges his hand into the top of the door
frame, braces his foot against the door and yanks as hard as he can, peeling the door
frame back. The metal groans and bends in half, causing
the window to shatter. Bob quickly reaches in and pulls the driver
out of the SUV. Thanks to Bob’s quicking thinking and crazy
effort, the driver only suffers minor smoke inhalation and some light cuts from being
pulled through the broken car window. 2015 - Vienna, Virginia - 19 year old Charlotte
Heffelmire is home from her freshman year at college on Thanksgiving Weekend. She decides to wander into the garage to check
on her dad Eric, who’s been working on his GMC truck. When Charlotte opens the door to the garage,
thick black smoke billows out. She finds her dad lying on his back, pinned
under the truck. Eric had removed the front passenger side
tire so he could work on a corroded brake line, but the truck slipped off the jack. He lays pinned to the floor, the wheel hub
crushing his torso. Making matters worse, the truck falling has
knocked over a gas can, igniting a fire. Barefoot, 5’6 (170 m) and weighing about
120 lbs (54.4 kg) Charlotte dashes to the front passenger side of the truck and struggles
to lift it while Eric shouts encouragement. After a couple of tries, Charlotte manages
to tip the truck backwards several inches. She props it up with her right hip and grabs
hold of her dad’s shirt. Somehow she manages to yank Eric’s 6’3
(1.92 m), 280 lbs (127 kg) frame from under the truck. Charlotte opens the garage door. She then grasps her dad under the armpits
and drags him out of the garage and 20 feet (6 m) down the driveway. She props Eric up against the family’s other
car and then runs back to the garage. Luckily, the truck is parked facing the front
of the garage. Charlotte starts the burning truck and carefully
drives it out of the garage, the empty wheel well scraping against the pavement. Once the truck is away from the house, Charlotte
runs back to the house and alerts the rest of her family about the fire. She scoops up her baby niece and carries her
outside to join Eric. Her dad is dazed but lucid, he has some burns,
and severe bruising to his chest and shoulders. Once everyone is out of the house, Charlotte
calls 9ll from her cellphone and grabs a garden hose to fight the fire. Her quick thinking and miraculous strength
saved her dad’s life. This is just the tip of the iceberg; two moms
and a grandfather move a Renault Clio off a schoolboy after the car collides with him,
a grandmother lifts a riding mower which had toppled over onto her preteen granddaughter,
two teenage girls lift a tractor which had flipped over onto their father. While these deeds seem incredible and maybe
even unbelievable, they all happened. Some scientists think they occurred due to
a phenomenon called ‘hysterical strength’. Basically during times of crisis, danger or
fear, your primitive lizard brain induces a ‘fight or flight’ response. Adrenaline and other hormones flood your body,
activating your sympathetic system. In this hyper-aroused state your body readies
itself for confronting physical danger. Your heart rate goes up, blood flow to your
muscles is increased, while blood flow to the skin and extremities decreases. Your respiration system relaxes to maximize
breathing capacity, your brain begins to produce endorphins as a natural painkiller, etc. Non critical functions such as digestion slow
or stop. Ultimately, your entire body becomes optimized
for gross motor skills that use large muscle groups such as running or punching. As a result of these physiological changes,
some researchers believe that people are able to perform supernatural actions. Your brain is built to protect the machinery
of your body. You will stop performing a task when pain
tells your brain that you are in danger and something is about to break. However, the brain triggers this alarm early,
generally at around 65 % of your body’s maximum capacity for strength. Through training, athletes can generally push
past this normal threshold and attain a higher maximum, maybe optimizing themselves to use
upwards of 80% of their maximum muscle capacity. Kinesiologist Vladimir Zatsiorsky has studied
how stress affects the performance of professional weightlifters. He found that during a competition, i.e. under
pressure, weight lifters physical performance improves and their capacity for lifting increases. During very intense competitions Zatsiorsky
has measured some athletes were accessing an additional 12% muscle capacity or up to
92% of their body's absolute strength. It stands to reason that during hysterical
strength, your body bypasses the normal brain logic and taps into unknown strength. Other researchers think the idea of hysterical
strength is a load of huey. Personally, we’re somewhere in the middle;
we’re inclined to believe that there is some truth to the idea of hysterical strength,
but ultimately it’s governed by the laws of nature. For example, meet Kelly, she’s 25 years
old and 150 lb (68 kg). She gets some exercise, but doesn’t lift
weights. Using generic symmetric strength guidelines,
Kelly, who is untrained, can deadlift about 110 lbs (50 kg). So during an emergency, could Kelly access
untapped strength to try to lift a car off of her child? Possibly. Could she lift 100 lbs (45 kg) more than she
normally would be for a total of 210 lbs (95 kg) or about the same amount as an intermediate
class for a weight lifter of her size? Maybe. To save her child, could she come close to
lifting 450 lbs (204 kg), or the amount a world class weight lifter her size could handle? Unlikely, but that’s yet to be determined. Kelly’s strength is finite though. Even if she’s operating at maximum strength
capacity, at some point her musculoskeletal structure would simply fail. There is a maximum amount of weight any given
muscle can lift. It's physically impossible to lift above that
amount. Hysterical strength wouldn’t make Kelly’s
muscles stronger, it simply would relax or negate the psychological and possibly neurological
inhibitions her brain has for her body. Incredibly strong and well trained athletes
still fail at their desired tasks, sometimes severely or permanently injuring themselves. Unfortunately, there’s no easy or ethical
way to study hysterical strength. Researchers are forced to rely on retellings
of the story from eye witnesses or the people involved and footage, if it exists. Testimony is unreliable, as it’s likely
to be enhanced by emotion. Some of the people who have performed supernatural
actions have limited memory of what occurred. They were in the zone, time slowed during
the event and afterwards they can’t explain how they did what they did. As it turns out, Tom who lifted the car off
the cyclist is a weigh lifter on the side. He marveled at his own deed, saying that there’s
no way that he would have been able to lift the Camaro under normal circumstances. Later after the danger had long passed, some
heroes finally felt the effect of the event. In wasn’t until after Tom got home, that
he realized he had broken several teeth from clenching his jaw while lifting the car. After rescuing her dad from the burning truck
and garage, Charlotte was treated for burns and muscle strain that she hadn’t noticed
she had. Another point to consider is that the person
committing the supernatural feat of strength is most likely leveraging the object. Before they started, their brain frantically
ran scenarios and made an optimized, split second decision on the best way to complete
the task at hand. So they’re using leverage and gravity to
the best of their ability which might make their feat seem more supernatural than it
actually is. People are not lifting cars over their heads
and tossing them as a superhero might, they are hefting and/or shifting vehicles where
three tires or the back of the car remains on the ground, or bending to its natural breaking
point. So instead of lifting a 1,000 lbs (453 kg)
item, they are dead lifting or shifting a portion of the item’s overall mass such
as 400 lbs (181 kg) for a short period of time, often using their back or torso-- a
position a weight lifter wouldn’t be allowed to use during a competition. Also depending on circumstances, the object
may already be tilted at a useful angle for lifting. Don’t get us wrong, all the people mentioned
are heroes who committed amazing, selfless acts to save the lives of others and they
should rightfully be celebrated. But, any story where a person performs a super
deed should be taken with a grain of salt. As yet science remains inconclusive about
how super human these deeds actually are. Have you ever witnessed an amazing rescue? Let us know in the comments then perform your
own feat of super human strength by lifting that powerful finger of yours and clicking
on one of the two videos on screen right now. We know you can do it if you put your mind
to it so ready? 1… 2… 3… click!
