It’s a funny thing, most of us go through life never doing any more with our bodies than the accepted parameters allow, but there are a few of us, who in times of stress perform incredible feats which they should never be capable of. It is impossible to explain some of these feats, because one would think a human body would tear itself apart trying to perform some of these acts. I’ve been hearing about incredible feats of strength ever since I was a little boy and some of them were performed by people who are completely the opposite of someone you would think was strong. About eight years ago Scientific American magazine ran an article entitled “When Fear Makes Us Super human.” It seems under extreme conditions of fear for oneself or others it is possible for our bodies to become super human, for a better term. It doesn’t happen to many of us, but off times when it does the results are spectacular.

A man was in a truck with his wife and was pulling out of his driveway when he saw a car go speeding by in the street in front of him. Sparks were flying from under the car and his wife screamed there is a bike under there. Apparently the car had run over a cyclist and his legs were sticking out as the car dragged him along underneath it. When the car stopped the man driving the truck jumped out and ran towards the car. He could see the person pinned under it and without thinking grabbed the back bumper of the car and lifted it enough so that the person could be pulled out from underneath. He didn’t think about it and never realized what he was doing was impossible under normal circumstances. Could this be the answer to super strength, not realizing we have a limit on what we can lift? It sort of reminds me of the placebo effect where a pill of no value can cure someone. Sometimes this type of strength is called hysterical strength.

About ten years ago a firefighter in another state came upon the scene of a car crash. As he looked around he could see one car had flipped over and landed on its side. Unfortunately for the driver when the car flipped over, somehow his arm was outside the car. As the car flipped his arm was wedged between the pavement and the car and he was pinned where he was. The car wasn’t just an ordinary car, it was one of the larger SUVs. The fireman saw this and without thinking ran over to the car and lifted the car off the ground. The other firefighters who were there couldn’t believe what they were seeing, but acted quickly to remove the trapped driver. How could this firefighter have lifted an SUV which weighed over 4000 pounds and picked it up over a foot, while the driver was being pulled out? Some say we are far more powerful than we think, but our brains don’t let us know this. Could it be there is a safety valve in our brain, because too many of these instances could shorten our life since our body probably is using a lot of its chemical reserves for just one feat of strength?

Some claim being put under hypnosis can bring out our bodies true capabilities. Did you ever feel like time slowed down you were in a certain stressful situation? It is said under hypnosis there has been thousands of cases of time distortion and when keywords are planted in our brain we increase our perception rate of time making us feel like it slows down, but let’s get to the part which deals with strength. It is said under hypnosis people can have their strength amplified. It is hard for us to tell, because when we see a hypnotist on the stage we tend to think they are like magicians who are performing tricks and truthfully most of them are, but it is said under scientific conditions when hypnotism is applied many times it can enhance our body’s abilities. I tend to think if this were possible why isn’t it being used by the military?

Super human strength under duress can be acquired not only by men but also by women. A man was working on his car, perhaps I should say he was working under his car, because he had it propped up on jacks. The car slipped off the jacks onto his chest. His adult daughter saw what had happened and was horrified. Without giving the situation even a second thought she ran over to her father, grabbed the chassis of the car and lifted it off of him. After doing this she administered CPR. She was able to keep her father breathing until help arrived. There is another story about a woman who was in a similar situation, only she had to hold the car for over five minutes until help arrived. Her son had been pinned under a car and it was not one of those compact vehicles.

The credit for these feats of strength is often given to adrenaline. Adrenaline is a hormone secreted by the adrenal glands and more of it is secreted in stressful situations. It is said to increase the rate of blood circulation, breathing and metabolism and prepares our muscles for exertion. Even though adrenaline gets all this credit there has to be some sort of brain connection. Perhaps the brain recalls some sort of ancient protection it used to survive animal attacks, which we have forgotten about. It could turn out our very ancient ancestors were a lot stronger than we are today, but over the years this need for strength faded and was somehow moved to our subconscious.

A man was working on his car and his eight-year-old son was watching. The boy cut his finger and ran into the house to get a Band-Aid. Little boys love Band-Aids, I know because I keep a box of them in the house, because my grandchildren will always seem to find they need one. The car the father was working on fell on him and eventually he passed out. The little boy was the only one around and he only weighed 50 pounds. It had taken the father and his other son who was seventeen-years-old and had left to Jack the car up to the lift. The little boy came out of the house, saw his father pinned under the car and somehow was able to Jack the car up off of his father before help arrived. At a later time the family asked the little boy to Jack the car up again and he was unable to do it.