What is the real limit of human physicality?

Starting from the Cold War period, the Americans and Soviets raced to conduct research to explore human potential power. But until now, more than 60 years have passed, the true limits of human physical health are still a mystery.

A state of " super strength "

Scientists call it " Hysterical strength " , roughly translated as " furious power " . The term is defined as: " extreme physical strength of a human being, beyond what is believed to be within their capabilities, usually occurring when humans are in – or perceive themselves or others are in a life or death situation ".

There is no shortage of similar stories in the world that prove the power of human rage. For example, in 2006, a woman in Canada fought a polar bear in a hand-to-hand fight to protect her son.

Lydia Angyiou , 41, discovered the white bear approaching her 7-year-old son who was playing hockey on the street. Immediately, she ran back to block the bear's face and shouted for her son to run away.

The bear - 2.4 meters tall and weighing 318 kg - then slapped Lydia in the face, causing her to fall to the ground. But in that moment of death, her strength suddenly burst out. Lydia kept punching and kicking the bear. Her legs kicked against its stomach in a bicycle riding position.

The woman, 1m52 tall and weighing 41kg, held off against a bear eight times larger than her body, long enough for a neighbor to borrow a gun and shoot into the air to attract the bear to let her go.

This guy then finished off the giant bear with 4 shots. Lydia only had a black eye and minor scratches on her body.

Lydia Angyiou, fought a polar bear to protect her son.

In 2019, in the US, a 16-year-old boy was honored as a heroic teenager after using his bare hands to lift a Volkswagen Passat to save his neighbor who was trapped underneath.

A boy named Zac Clark heard his neighbor's cries for help while he was at home gardening. Immediately, Zac ran over and saw the car crushing the middle-aged man. " I guess the car's jack broke or slipped off, causing it to fall on top of him ," Zac said.

Without a moment's hesitation, the boy ran to the front of the car, trying to lift it with his bare hands. A Passat weighs about 1.4 tons, the front of the car alone weighs about 850kg, but Zac was able to lift it up long enough for his mother and the neighbor woman to pull her husband out from under the car.

The man was rushed to the hospital with a severely deformed face and several broken ribs. Doctors said he would have died if Zac hadn't lifted the car in time.

The history of war is also full of stories about extraordinary human strength . For example, Seyit Çabuk, an Ottoman corporal, single-handedly carried three artillery shells, each weighing 276 kg, during World War I.

In Vietnam during the Resistance War against America, female militiawoman Ngo Thi Tuyen once loaded two boxes of ammunition weighing nearly 100 pounds on her shoulders. That year, Ms. Tuyen was only 19 years old and weighed only 42kg.

During the Cold War, Soviet scientists even conducted many studies to find ways to activate the hidden power in each person. Initial experiments were conducted with athletes, but who knows, whether they plan to apply it to their soldiers or not?

Leading the Soviet human maximum strength research program was Vladimir Zatsiorsky, a doctor of biomechanics and an acrobatic athlete, Olympic champion in 1960.

In experiments with marathon runners and weightlifters, Zatsiorsky discovered an opposite effect. " If you check the heart rates of marathon runners, you'll see that the highest numbers they hit were near the finish line. But the most elite Soviet weightlifters could hit their maximum heart rates. maximum, above 180 beats/minute, before performing any physical action ," Zatsiorsky revealed.

" They know how to put their bodies into this state, a state of extreme excitement. On the surface, they don't do anything, they don't need to run. They simply use their will to push themselves into this state. extreme point".

Zatsiorsky later wrote a long treatise called "The Science and Practice of Strength Training" , which asserted that most normal people are only using 65% of their maximum muscular strength.

But for some special people, such as elite Soviet weightlifters, they can push the number up to 95%.

Weightlifter.

According to Vladimir Zatsiorsky, elite Soviet weightlifters were able to exploit 95% of their muscles' maximum strength. The number for normal people is 65%.

Finding the true limits of humanity

Soviet scientists were not the only ones interested in the subject of human potential. Even in the 1960s, on the other side of the Iron Curtain, Americans were conducting similar research programs of their own.

Leading this effort is Professor Arthur H. Steinhaus, a physiologist, sports and exercise expert at the University of Chicago, and advisor to the Secretary of the Navy on fitness and health issues. Rehabilitation for soldiers.

In a series of experiments with 25 volunteers conducted in 1961, Steinhaus demonstrated that he could use psychological tricks to help volunteers increase their strength by up to 26.5% compared to their expected level. is their maximum.

Steinhaus's experiment began with volunteers pulling on a cable using the force of their forearms. He asked them to use all their strength to pull the cable as tight as possible. Each person's record pulling force was measured and recorded. Then Steinhaus will find a way to break it.

He walked around behind the volunteers, holding a gun - the type of gun that makes a loud bang and is used to signal the start for runners. Steinhaus fired a shot right next to the volunteer's ear, causing them to jump. Right at that moment, he shouted and asked them to pull back the cable.

During this state of fear, the volunteers' traction increased by an average of 7.4%.

Alcohol, adrenaline and amphetamines can increase your maximum strength by 5.6%, 6.5% and 13.5% respectively.

In another experiment, Steinhaus divided groups of volunteers and had them drink alcohol , inject adrenaline - a hormone derived from the adrenal gland and finally swallow amphetamine - a stimulant drug related to drugs. rock.

As a result, these stimulants helped volunteers increase traction by 5.6%, 6.5% and the highest 13.5% in traction.

But that's not all. The highest number Steinhaus achieved was from a strange experiment. In it, the volunteers did not use any stimulants, except their spirits.

Steinhaus said he continually encouraged the volunteers by telling them they were healthy. When the volunteers reached the critical state while pulling the cable, Steinhaus continued to encourage them:

" Keep pulling, break your own record. Every second that passes you are getting stronger. You can do it. You won't feel any pain. You can break the record."

As a result, the volunteers did, they pulled with a 26.5% increase in strength, twice as high as when using the stimulant amphetamine.

To convince himself that this increased power came from the mind, Steinhaus reversed the experiment. He "hypnotized" the volunteers by telling them they were too weak and that they should not pull the cable, it might hurt them.

This time, the volunteers' pulling power decreased by an average of 31.7%.

"Our findings support the hypothesis that psychology, not physiology, determines maximal human performance ," Steinhaus wrote in the conclusion of the study published in the journal Biology. Applied Physics in 1961.

 Arthur H. Steinhaus - physiologist, sports and exercise expert at the University of Chicago.

Arthur H. Steinhaus, physiologist, sports and exercise expert at the University of Chicago, advisor to the Secretary of the United States Navy on issues of physical fitness and rehabilitation for soldiers and Chief of Staff Physical Education and Health Activities at the U.S. Office of Education.

The next half decade saw hundreds of studies attempting to expand on Steinhaus and Zatsiorsky's ideas, in which scientists sought ways to " unlock " maximum physical strength for humans.

However, research in this new era faces a major barrier, which is the ethical issue. New ethical regulations in scientific research prevented experiments similar to Steinhaus's from being conducted publicly.

Dr. Paul Zehr, a professor of neurology and exercise physiology researcher at the University of Victoria, Canada, said:

" It's not that I want to be disrespectful to these scientists, but the methods they used to discover human physical strength are no longer suitable for modern application, due to the dangers [that they may pose to volunteers] and the ethical issues involved" .

In cases where rage power, or the maximum physical strength of humans, is recorded, Professor Zehr said they can only appear in cases of extreme danger. " If you are in the worst situation and can do something to stay alive, then you risk everything you have ," he said.

" Yet, trying to understand how much a person can activate their maximum power when faced with the death of themselves or a family member requires scientists to put them in a such a real situation. This is extremely dangerous and clearly unethical."

Many human potential studies of the past cannot be replicated in the present, due to new regulations on safety and scientific ethics when performing human testing.

The source of hidden power

Although it is impossible to recreate extreme situations in the laboratory to determine the extreme limits of human power, scientists like Paul Zehr indirectly acknowledge the existence of such a state.

Through records of real-life " rage" cases , scientists say that when people face life-or-death situations, they will activate their super-strength state.

" The same reaction can also occur when someone intervenes to protect another person who is in danger, so it is not just a state of self-defense ," said Dr. Massimo Testa, a member of the American Medical Association. American Sports School said.

Many scientists agree with a hypothesis to explain this super-strength state, revolving around the activity of the hypothalamus and hormones secreted from the adrenal gland.

Accordingly, when human senses detect a situation, such as seeing fire in a fire, smelling smoke, hearing screams, calling for help. it will immediately activate the hypothalamus. – the nervous system is responsible for controlling the balance and distribution of energy in your body.

When the hypothalamus perceives a dangerous situation, it will try to draw energy from parts that are less important for a life-or-death situation - such as the digestive system, reproductive system, and body temperature regulation system - To put all that energy into the senses, the nervous system and the motor system are determined to be more important.

Adrenaline and the phenomenon of furious power

Indeed, when faced with a life or death situation, digesting food, reproducing or regulating body temperature are secondary. You will need energy for your senses to assess the situation, your brain to make decisions, and your muscles to get out of the situation.

The hypothalamus does this by sending its command signals to the adrenal gland, an endocrine organ located just above your kidneys, to secrete adrenaline. Adrenaline is a hormone that has systemic effects.

Once secreted by the adrenal glands and mixed into the blood, adrenaline will cause your heart rate and breathing to spike. This is to help stuff as much oxygen into the lungs, which then absorb oxygen into the blood. Your heart beats strongly to push oxygen-rich blood to every muscle in your body.

Along with that process, the adrenal gland also secretes cortisol, a hormone that, along with adrenaline, quickly converts glycogen stored in the liver and muscles into glucose - or blood sugar - to provide energy for the body. active muscles.

Increased glucose plus oxygen helps you perform explosive aerobic breathing activities, creating a surge of strength in each muscle fiber, similar to how weightlifters do. This helps your muscles become incredibly strong.

The price to pay for the state of "super strength"

Scientists say the human body is not programmed to maintain a state of "super strength" for a long time. Instead, the adrenaline effect only occurs during a short period of time, which they call "the rush" - lasting anywhere from a few minutes to a few dozen minutes at most.

If adrenaline continues to stay in the bloodstream any longer, it will do more harm than good. Because adrenaline keeps the heart rate high, it can cause high blood pressure, putting pressure on the circulatory system and damaging the heart and blood vessels.

Next, adrenaline disrupts homeostasis, it puts all the energy into your musculoskeletal system, while draining blood from other parts such as the digestive system, or the reproductive system. That's why in dangerous situations, many people feel their stomachs growl, their heart rate increases, and they experience night sweats.

Over time, the blood deficiency and imbalance caused by adrenaline can damage the body's vital organs. On the contrary, excess blood to the muscles can also cause them to be damaged.

As Professor Zehr explains, your body is like a machine that is always running in an energy-efficient state.

The brain has the ability to limit its own energy expenditure and maximum muscle output, just like how an ECU chip in a car has been installed by the manufacturer to limit the maximum power that the car can produce. vehicle can be achieved.

"There's no reason to activate all your muscles just to pick up a cup of coffee, right? ", Professor Zehr said. " Your muscles, the way they're activated and moved, are actually very economical and efficient."

Thanks to this saving, your body is able to store the energy it takes in from food, turning glucose into glycogen stored in the liver and muscles to reserve for dangerous situations.

Therefore, the average person's muscles only grow to accommodate 60-65% of their maximum capacity. Even the most elite professional athletes can only develop their muscles to 80% of their maximum energy level.

When you are in an adrenaline rush and using close to 100% of your strength, it puts stress on the muscular system and makes them vulnerable to injury. This is no different from tuning a car, increasing engine power by intervening in the ECU, an action that will cause the car engine to degrade quickly.

Professor Hans Selye, the father of the field of stress research, proposed a model, called "General adaptation syndrome (GAS)" , which shows that after the adrenaline rush , if the human body does not slow down its heart rate, breathing and relax its muscles, it will soon fall into a state of exhaustion.

In this state, your energy will be drained. Symptoms of ischemia, vasoconstriction, muscle pain, and difficulty breathing will appear. Your immune system may also be weakened, causing your body to lose its ability to defend against disease.

" The body's successive reactions leading to rampage essentially remove the body's biological safety limits, so it is extremely dangerous ," Professor Zehr said. " If our bodies were running at their maximum all the time, we really wouldn't live very long."

That's why evolution has built in an ECU power level in our brains, to limit the maximum power our bodies can achieve. That's also why scientists during the Cold War couldn't simply inject adrenaline into their soldiers every day to create armies of superheroes.

Because of the danger after activating the "furious power" state, scientists like Professor Zehr today have given up the idea of ​​intervening in the human endocrine system to unlock the potential of super strength. that.

Instead, efforts are shifting to an entirely new area that would give humans the ability to establish super-strength norms from the ground up: human gene editing. Interfering with human genes is said to help us increase muscle mass, and the maximum strength that muscle can achieve.

In essence, exercising is training the body to gradually get used to the feeling of pain, when each of its limits is broken.

However, once again, this field of research is facing many ethical criticisms. So, until scientists can find a safer way to "hack" into the human body, the only way for us to "unlock" the source of our potential power - according to Buddhism Monk Zehr - still. practicing.

He said that in essence, exercising is training the body to gradually get used to the feeling of pain when each of its limits is broken. 

Through training, you can both increase your pain threshold - which helps you achieve a higher percentage of your maximum work output, and also increase the maximum capacity your muscles can produce. can produce, through regular breakdown of muscle fibers, causing them to continuously adapt by having to regenerate to grow bigger.

If you normally have a weak body, even with the help of adrenaline rushes, the maximum strength you achieve at 100% is still not equal to the average 60% of a person. People have healthy bodies thanks to regular and diligent exercise.

Exercise, therefore, is the key to unlocking people's true super strength. It will allow you to be more confident in physically demanding situations, such as when facing life and death inside a fire. As for the rest. don't worry, the adrenal adrenaline will help you.