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!