Beginning in the Cold War era, the United States and the Soviet Union raced to conduct research aimed at unlocking the potential power of human beings. Yet, over 60 years later, the true limits of human physicality remain a mystery.
A State of “Super Strength“
Scientists refer to this phenomenon as “Hysterical Strength“, which can be translated as “Frenzied Strength“. This term is defined as: “the extreme physical strength of a person, exceeding what is considered within their ability, often occurring when a person is in – or perceives themselves or others to be in a life-threatening situation.
There are numerous stories around the world that demonstrate the frenzied strength of human beings. For instance, in 2006, a woman in Canada fought hand-to-hand with a polar bear to protect her son.
Lydia Angyiou, 41, noticed a polar bear approaching her 7-year-old son who was playing street hockey. Immediately, she ran to put herself between the bear and her son, shouting for him to run away.
The bear, standing 2.4 meters tall and weighing 318 kg, swiped at Lydia’s face, knocking her to the ground. But in that life-or-death moment, her strength suddenly surged. Lydia continually punched and kicked the bear, using her legs to push against its stomach in a biking position.
The woman, who is 1.52 meters tall and weighs 41 kg, managed to hold off the bear, which was eight times her weight, long enough for a neighbor to fetch a gun and fire a warning shot, causing the bear to release her.
This neighbor later killed the massive bear with four shots. Lydia sustained only a bruise to one eye and some minor scrapes.
Lydia Angyiou, fought a polar bear to protect her son.
In 2019, in the United States, a 16-year-old boy was hailed as a teenage hero after he lifted a Volkswagen Passat with his bare hands to save a neighbor trapped underneath.
The boy, named Zac Clark, heard his neighbor’s cries for help while gardening at home. Without hesitation, Zac ran over to find the car pinning down a middle-aged man. “I guess the car’s jack broke or slipped, causing it to fall on him“, Zac said.
Without a moment’s pause, he ran to the front of the car and attempted to lift it with his bare hands. A Passat weighs around 1.4 tons, with just the front end weighing about 850 kg, but Zac was able to lift it long enough for his mother and a neighbor to pull the man out from under the car.
The man was taken to the hospital with severe facial injuries and several broken ribs. Doctors stated he would have died if Zac had not lifted the car in time.
History is filled with tales of extraordinary human strength. For example, Seyit Çabuk, an Ottoman sergeant, single-handedly carried three artillery shells, each weighing 276 kg, during World War I.
In Vietnam, during the American War, female militia member Ngo Thi Tuyen once carried two crates of ammunition weighing nearly 100 kg on her shoulders. At that time, Tuyen was only 19 years old and weighed a mere 42 kg.
During the Cold War, Soviet scientists even conducted numerous studies to find ways to activate the latent strength within each person. Initial experiments were conducted with athletes, but who knows if they intended to apply this to their soldiers?
Leading the Soviet human strength research program was Vladimir Zatsiorsky, a Ph.D. in biomechanics, gymnast, and Olympic champion in 1960.
In experiments with marathon runners and weightlifters, Zatsiorsky discovered a contrasting effect. “If you check the heart rate of a marathon runner, you’ll see the highest number they reach is near the finish line. But the elite weightlifters of the Soviet Union can achieve a maximum heart rate of over 180 beats per minute before doing any physical action“, Zatsiorsky revealed.
“They know how to put their bodies into this state, a state of extreme excitement. On the outside, they seem to be doing nothing; they don’t need a run-up. They simply use willpower to push themselves to the extreme.
Zatsiorsky later wrote a lengthy treatise titled “The Science and Practice of Strength Training”, in which he affirmed that the average person is only utilizing about 65% of their maximum muscle strength.
However, for some special individuals, such as the elite weightlifters of the Soviet Union, they could push this number up to 95%.
Weightlifter.
According to Vladimir Zatsiorsky, the elite weightlifters of the Soviet Union could harness up to 95% of their maximum muscle strength, whereas the number for an average person is 65%.
Exploring the True Limits of Humanity
Soviet scientists were not the only ones interested in the topic of latent human strength. Even in the 1960s, across the Iron Curtain, Americans were conducting their own similar research programs.
Leading this effort was Professor Arthur H. Steinhaus, a physiologist and exercise specialist at the University of Chicago, who also served as an advisor to the U.S. Secretary of the Navy on fitness and rehabilitation issues 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% over what was considered their maximum.
Steinhaus’s experiment began with volunteers pulling on a cable using their forearms. He asked them to exert all their strength to pull the cable as tight as possible. The record pull of each individual was measured and recorded. Afterwards, Steinhaus would find ways to break that record.
He would go around behind the volunteers, holding a gun – a type that made a loud noise used to signal the start for runners. Steinhaus would fire a shot close to the ear of the volunteer, startling them. In that moment, he would shout and ask them to pull the cable again.
In this state of fear, the pulling force of the volunteers 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 produced by the adrenal gland, and finally take amphetamines – a stimulant related to methamphetamine.
The results showed that these stimulants helped the volunteers increase their pulling force by 5.6%, 6.5%, and the highest by 13.5%, respectively.
But that was not all. The highest number Steinhaus achieved came from a peculiar experiment where the volunteers did not use any stimulants other than their mental fortitude.
Steinhaus stated that he continuously encouraged the volunteers by telling them they were very strong. When a volunteer reached a critical state while pulling the cable, Steinhaus continued to motivate them:
“Keep pulling, break your own record. Every second that passes, you are getting stronger. You can do it. You will not feel pain. You can break the record…“
The result was that the volunteers succeeded, pulling with a 26.5% increase in strength, double compared to when using the stimulant amphetamines.
To prove that this increase in strength came from their mental state, Steinhaus reversed the experiment. He “hypnotized” the volunteers by saying they were too weak and that they shouldn’t pull the cable as it could cause them pain.
This time, the pulling force of the volunteers decreased by an average of 31.7%.
“Our findings support the hypothesis that psychology, not physiology, will determine the maximum performance that humans can exhibit“, Steinhaus wrote in the conclusion of his study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology in 1961.
Arthur H. Steinhaus – physiologist and exercise specialist at the University of Chicago.
Arthur H. Steinhaus, physiologist and exercise specialist at the University of Chicago, advisor to the U.S. Secretary of the Navy on fitness and rehabilitation issues for soldiers, and head of the Physical Education and Health Activities Office at the U.S. Department of Education.
The next half-decade saw hundreds of studies attempting to expand on the ideas of Steinhaus and Zatsiorsky, with scientists striving to find ways to “unlock” the maximum physical strength of humans.
However, research in this new era faces a significant barrier: ethical issues. New ethical regulations in scientific research have prevented experiments similar to those conducted by Steinhaus from being carried out openly.
Dr. Paul Zehr, a professor of neuroscience and a researcher in physical exercise physiology at the University of Victoria, Canada, stated:
“I do not wish to show disrespect to these scientists, but the methods they used to explore human physical strength are no longer appropriate for modern application, due to the dangers [they may pose to volunteers] and the related ethical issues.”
In cases documenting rage strength or the maximum physical strength threshold of humans, Professor Zehr noted that these can only occur in extreme danger situations. “If you are in the worst situation and can do something to survive, then you will risk everything you have“, he said.
“However, attempting to understand how far a person can activate their maximum strength when faced with the death of themselves or a family member requires scientists to place them in such real situations. This is extremely dangerous and clearly unethical.“
Many studies on human potential in the past cannot be repeated today due to new safety and ethical regulations when conducting human trials.
The Origins of Hidden Strength
Although it is impossible to recreate extreme situations in the laboratory to determine the peak limits of human strength, scientists like Paul Zehr indirectly acknowledge the existence of that state.
Through records of real-life “rage” cases, scientists indicate that when faced with life-or-death situations, humans can activate their super strength state.
“A similar response can occur when someone intervenes to protect another in danger, thus it is not just a state of self-defense“, said Dr. Massimo Testa, a member of the American College of Sports Medicine.
Many scientists agree with a hypothesis explaining this super strength state, revolving around the activity of the hypothalamus and hormones released from the adrenal glands.
Accordingly, when human senses detect a situation, such as seeing fire in a blaze, smelling smoke, hearing screams for help, it will immediately activate the hypothalamus—the part of the nervous system responsible for regulating balance and energy distribution in your body.
When the hypothalamus senses a dangerous situation, it will attempt to draw energy from less critical systems for the life-threatening situation—such as the digestive system, reproductive system, and thermoregulation system—to redirect all that energy to the senses, nervous system, and motor system deemed more critical.
Adrenaline and the Phenomenon of Rage Strength
Indeed, when faced with life-or-death situations, digesting food, reproduction, or thermoregulation becomes secondary. You will need energy for your senses to assess the situation, your brain to make decisions, and your muscles to escape from that situation.
The hypothalamus does this by sending its directive signals to the adrenal glands, an endocrine organ located just above your kidneys to secrete adrenaline. Adrenaline is a systemic hormone.
Once secreted by the adrenal glands and mixed into the bloodstream, adrenaline causes your heart rate and breathing to spike. This is to help pump as much oxygen into the lungs, which then absorbs oxygen into the blood. The heart beats rapidly to push oxygen-rich blood to every muscle in your body.
Alongside this process, the adrenal glands also release cortisol, a hormone that, together with adrenaline, converts stored glycogen in the liver and muscles into glucose—blood sugar to provide energy for active muscles.
Glucose combined with increased oxygen allows you to perform explosive aerobic activities, generating bursts of strength in each muscle, similar to how weightlifters operate. This makes your muscles extraordinarily strong.
The Cost of the “Super Strength” State
Scientists state that the human body is not programmed to maintain the “super strength” state for long periods. Instead, the adrenaline effect only occurs in a short period they refer to as an “adrenaline rush”—lasting from a few minutes to a maximum of several tens of minutes.
If adrenaline remains in the bloodstream for too long, it will cause more harm than good. Because adrenaline maintains a high heart rate, it can lead to high blood pressure, putting pressure on the circulatory system and damaging the heart and blood vessels.
Furthermore, adrenaline disrupts homeostasis, directing all energy to your muscular system, while drawing blood away from other parts such as the digestive or reproductive systems. That’s why in dangerous situations, many people feel their stomachs churning, their heart rates increasing, and they sweat profusely.
In the long term, the lack of blood and imbalance caused by adrenaline can harm vital organs in the body. Conversely, an excess of blood to the muscles can also lead to damage.
As Professor Zehr explains, your body is like a machine that always runs in energy-saving mode.
The brain can self-limit energy expenditure and the maximum output level of the muscles, similar to how an ECU chip in a car is programmed by the manufacturer to limit the maximum power the car can achieve.
“There’s no reason to activate all the muscles just to lift a cup of coffee, right?”, Professor Zehr says. “Your muscles, the way they are activated and move, are actually very economical and efficient.“
Thanks to this efficiency, your body can store energy intake from food, converting glucose into glycogen stored in the liver and muscles to prepare for dangerous situations.
Thus, the muscles of an average person only develop to match usage levels of 60-65% of their maximum capacity. Even the elite professional athletes can develop their muscles only up to 80% of their maximum energy output.
When you are in an adrenaline rush and utilizing nearly 100% of your strength, it will put stress on the muscular system and make it prone to injury. This is akin to modifying a car, increasing the engine’s power by interfering with the ECU, which will cause the engine to deteriorate quickly.
Professor Hans Selye, the father of stress research, proposed a model known as “General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)” or “Universal Adaptation Syndrome“, which shows that after an adrenaline rush, if the human body does not self-slow the heart rate, breathing, and relax muscles, it will soon enter a state of exhaustion.
In this state, your energy will be drained. Symptoms of ischemia, vasoconstriction, muscle pain, and shortness of breath will appear. Your immune system may also be compromised, causing the body to lose its defense against diseases.
“The successive reactions of the body leading to rage strength essentially remove the biological safety limits of the body, making it extremely dangerous“, says Professor Zehr. “If our body is always running at maximum threshold, we truly will not live long.“
That’s why evolution has hardwired an ECU power level in our brain to limit the very maximum strength our bodies can achieve. It’s also why scientists during the Cold War could not simply inject adrenaline daily into their soldiers to create superhuman armies.
Due to the dangers following the activation of the “rage strength” state, scientists like Professor Zehr today have abandoned the idea of interfering with the human endocrine system to unlock that super strength potential.
Instead, efforts are shifting to a completely new field, enabling humans to establish super strength benchmarks from the start, which is human gene editing. It is believed that gene intervention can help us increase muscle mass and the maximum strength that muscles can achieve.
Essentially, exercising is about training the body to gradually acclimate to the sensation of pain as each of its limits is broken.
However, once again, this research field is facing significant ethical criticisms. Therefore, until scientists can find a safer way to “hack” into the human body, the only way we can “unlock” our latent strength—according to Professor Zehr—is still… training.
He stated that essentially, exercising is about training the body to gradually acclimate to the sensation of pain as each of its limits is broken.
Through training, you can not only increase your pain threshold—an essential factor that enables you to achieve a higher percentage of work output compared to your maximum capacity—but also enhance the actual maximum power your muscles can generate. This is accomplished by regularly breaking down muscle fibers, prompting them to continuously adapt by rebuilding to grow larger.
If you typically have a frail body, even with the adrenaline rush, the maximum strength you can achieve at 100% will still fall short of the average 60% of a healthy individual who regularly engages in diligent training.
Thus, physical exercise is the key to unlocking the true superpower of humanity. It will allow you to feel more confident in situations that require physical health, such as facing life-and-death scenarios in a fire. As for everything else… don’t worry, the adrenaline from your adrenal glands will have your back.
