Brian,

A kempo guy in Oz called Tom Slaven did quite a bit of research into the "ladies picking up cars" stuff and found some instances that were true. What he also discovered though is that they were virtually crippled afterwards.

His findings were, (in layman's terms) that your brain tells you you cannot go beyond a certain limit (like a redline in a car) but, when some bigger danger/threat/problem arises the body will override the safety level and perform amazing stuff. Of course there is a price to pay, just as there is when you thrash a car.

I also watched my brother once get flung about 15 feet across the kitchen and dining room when he put a knife in the toaster. I was asking the physics prof about it at school and it's not the electricity that throws you at all...it's muscle contraction from the electricity. Now that means he did what is physically (for a normal situation) impossible to do i.e. a standing jump of 15 feet, due to the extreme circumstance.

Now, I don't know where he did the research etc but I know he spent years tracking the stuff down and was telling us at summer camp one year about his findings. Sounds viable to me.

Nick

Really interesting Nick.
Maybe that's why insane people who are in Mental Hospitals are "stronger" than regular people,their brains don't have the mental barriers that sane people have (not afraid of harming people or getting harmed).

Good point, Nick.

I think Steve Morris actually goes into the detail surrounding this phenomena (i.e. the brain limiting the body's max physical capabilities) on his website.

Golgi tendon reflex springs to mind... quick google:

http://www.morrisnoholdsbarred.co.uk/07mmtrainingtips.htm


Also


Performing what are intended to be explosive moves slowly in order to perfect a skill or gain accuracy, etc., is a mistake in that not only are you forming and strengthening the wrong impression of what effect you need to cause or prevent in your mind's eye and the wrong kinesthetic impression of those internally generated forces by which to do so, but you will have failed to train to overcome the Golgi tendon reflex. Unlike muscle spindles, which facilitate muscle contraction according to the rate of stretch or final length of stretch of the muscles in which they are embedded (myotatic reflex), the Golgi tendon reflex inhibits the contraction of those muscles within which the tendon lies if they are stretched too rapidly, so as to avoid injury. Learning to overcome the Golgi tendon reflex involves specialized practices, one of which is to use dumbbells to perform short duration, high intensity, rapid repetitive movement, including oscillatory movement, through ranges of motion resembling those of required of a given skill--a form of plyometrics. Another is, once you have formed an explosive impression in your mind's eye, not to hesitate but to instantly act upon it so as to bypass any feedback controls or the forming of a 'lesser' impression of release. In other words, once you form the impression, you pull the trigger, and the bullet, so to speak, is fired instantly, and the next bullet is already loaded in the chamber ready to do so again and again.



http://www.morrisnoholdsbarred.co.uk/07articlespsych.htm

Apparently, there are inhibitor nerve structures in your muscles which actually mean you can only use a small part of the potential strength of the muscle. This is a safety factor because if you could actually stimulate all the muscle to contract in one go then it would rip the muscle off the bone attachments. This would not be a good survival factor in nature.

If you get hit by lightning - or as in Nick's example of his brother and the electric shock - the external electrical stimulus causes a far greater contraction of muscle than normally possible. Apparently victims of lightning strikes get burns but also major muscle tears due to the degree of contraction.

In matters of training this leads to the fundamental difference between bodybuilding - i.e. building bulk specifically - and strength training - i.e. building actual strength. In the former, strength is a byproduct of mass building, in the latter mass is a byproduct of strength building. Each use different approaches and different physiological pathways to achieve their goal.

You copied that entire text from the boy next to you when teacher wasn't looking.

LOL at the insecure tall people trying to feel better by ridiculing their shorter, but more secure, counterparts.

Did you know there was a survey in the USA which found that 5'8-5'9 is the ideal height range for women when choosing a man? It's a well known fact that men six foot and over usually have trouble attracting a girlfriend. Beautiful, gorgeous, elegant women find tall guys too gangling and awkward. Wheras shorter men are seen as a status symbol, and are highly sought after.

Careful you don't bang your head on the ceiling, and watch out for that low bridge!

I have certainly seen people, either mentally ill or on drugs, who have displayed what appears to be super human strength etc. But not very often, and hardly to a car lifting standard.

As reagrds how many people have been crushed with their mothers nearby? Isn't the fact that they, themselves, are being crushed not enough to invoke this super human power for themselves?

I find it amazing that anybody gets injured at all...

...

Not being short I wouldn't know.

*Feels justifiably superior, doesn't sink to that level*