For the Rest of Us?
Feats of strength? Is this blog about Festivus, from Seinfeld? Well, no, but I couldn’t help but reference it to kick things off.
What’s your favorite Festivus tradition? The Festivus dinner or airing of grievances? For me, it’s got to be feats of strength. In the classic Seinfeld episode, this was a wrestling match where the head of household had to be pinned by an unlucky contestant (George).
But does it always have to be a wrestling match? Check out the bottom of this site for alternative contests to close out your celebration: Festivus Feats of Strength
Did you know one of the Seinfeld writers actually did Festivus with his family? It was a made-up celebration that his parents would spring on them some random day of the year. It differed in many ways from the Costanza traditions in the show, but it is fun to think that the episode is based on reality. Sort of.
But let’s explore why you’re really here. To be entertained and amazed by real feats of strength. Check out these stunning examples of strength in different categories:
Raw Power
Ray Williams squatted over 1000 pounds in a competition in 2016.
That would be like putting an average size grizzly bear on each shoulder (yes, 2 of them), bending all the way down to a squatting position, and standing back up again. Of course, the weights weren’t clawing and biting at his face, so maybe that’s a bad comparison.
Kevin Fast – At one time, this Lutheran minister held all of the following Guinness records:
- Most cars pulled at once (15)
- Heaviest vehicle pushed over 100 feet (over 24,000 lb)
- Heaviest vehicle pulled over 100 feet (218,000 lb)
- Heaviest house pulled. A 40 ton house was pulled about 39 ft.
- Heaviest plane pulled.
Zydrunas Savickas – 500lb log lift – In a World’s Strongest Man competition, he locked out a log overhead that weighed an astonishing 503lbs, a record that isn’t even approached by other strong men
Jen Thompson – How about a 43-year old woman bench pressing 325 lbs? No other female comes close. Watch her show off in a football team’s weight room below.
Hysterical Strength
We’ve all heard the stories of a desperate mother miraculously lifting a 2-ton vehicle to save her child. Urban legend? Or a phenomenon known as hysterical strength, where adrenaline and other physiological phenomenon take hold of the body in a crisis?
Hysterical strength can’t be scientifically validated, because of the nature of the scientific method. There’s no way to run a controlled, repeatable test of life-and-death scenarios. But there’s enough documented cases for me to be a believer. Here are just a few examples (there are many more):
Lydia Angiyou – Don’t mess with mom! Angiyou saved her children in Quebec by fighting off a polar bear with her bare hands until hunters arrived to assist. The really cool story can be read here.
Seyit Çabuk – Seyit, a corporal in the Ottoman army, during a WW1 naval bombardment by the British, loaded up multiple 608lb shells when the other gunners around him had been injured or killed, and the crane to lift the shells had been damaged.
Marie “Bootsy” Payton – was cutting her lawn in High Island, Texas, when her riding mower got away from her. Payton’s young granddaughter, Evie, tried to stop the mower, but was knocked underneath the still-running machine. Payton reached the mower and easily tossed it off her granddaughter, limiting Evie’s injuries to four severed toes. Curious, Payton later tried to lift the mower again and found she couldn’t move it. (account copied from this article)
Lauren Kornacki – Her father was working on his BMW when the jack slipped, pinning him. After the 22-year-old Lauren lifted the car off him, she performed CPR to save his life.
Cecil Stuckless – At 72 years old, he lifted a jeep to save his pinned son-in-law.
Incredibly Strong Men of History
Milo of Croton
Late 6th century BC – The famous six-time Olympic champion and noted warrior was well-known for showing off his feats of strength. The wrestler is known for his training method of carrying a calf every day on his back until the Olympics returned, by which time it would be a full-grown cow. He then carried the full-grown cow the length of the stadium, then proceeded to kill, roast, and eat it.
Imagine being the first wrestler to have to face him after watching that!
According to Wikipedia, Milo is known for showing off the following feats of strength:
- He would hold his arm out, with fingers outstretched, and challenge people to attempt to bend his little finger
- He would stand a greased iron disk and challenge people to push him off of it.
- He would hold a pomegranate in one hand, and challenge others to take it from him. Nobody ever could, and despite him holding the fruit very tightly, it was never damaged.
Samson
The book of Judges, chapters 13-16, tell the story of the heroic but tragic judge of Israel, Samson. It recounts stories of how he tore a lion apart with his bare hands, struck down 30 Philistines at Ashkelon who had betrayed him, tied the tails of 300 foxes together (in pairs) and set them on fire to burn down the fields of his enemies, and struck down a thousand men who’d come to kill him, using the jawbone of an ox.
But then he met Delilah. Ah, the power of a woman. He hadn’t learned his lesson from his first wife who’d betrayed him. He gave away the secret of his strength to Delilah. The Philistines were able to subdue him, blind him, and once again enslave the Israelites.
But Samson had his revenge, with one final feat of strength, when the Lord granted him a burst of power. Mocked during a feast to the Philistine god Dagon, Samson crumbled their temple’s pillars, killing himself and all the Philistines in attendance. A hysterical strength event, perhaps?
See it to believe it:
I have to throw in this incredible act of strength and balance from America’s Got Talent:
2 responses to “Amazing Feats of Strength – Raw Power and Hysterical Strength”
My dad pushed our car up a ramp to get it off my mom. The car rolled down the ramp when she went to the bottom to open the garage door to the basement and the car pinned her to the brick wall. He saved her life!
Wow!