Unlocking Superhuman Strength: The Science Behind Hysterical Strength

You’ve probably seen viral videos of a teen deadlifting a car to save a neighbor or a mother fighting a polar bear. These aren’t mere anomalies; they are examples of a phenomenon known as hysterical strength.

Hysterical strength refers to an extraordinary display of physical strength beyond what is believed to be within one’s capacity. It usually occurs when people are in life-or-death situations. This unusual reaction is believed to be caused by the body’s stress response, triggering an adrenaline rush.

Notably, the feats of strength performed in these high-pressure situations are nearly impossible to reproduce by the same people in calmer circumstances.

As a personal trainer with over 17 years of experience, I’ve always been curious about what makes hysterical strength possible and how we can harness it without being in emergencies.

Although hysterical strength isn’t about bulking up in the gym, there might be ways to unlock your extraordinary strength potential by combining physiological and physiological training. In this article, we delve into the science behind hysterical strength, the physiological mechanisms that trigger it, and how training can help us access this hidden superpower.

The Physiology of Hysterical Strength

Here’s what’s known about how hysterical strength works:

Fight-or-Flight Response: Your Body’s Emergency Boost

The fight-or-flight response has been the superpower that has helped Homo sapiens survive and thrive over the centuries. Whenever you face danger, your heart races, your breath quickens, and your muscles tense up. Plus, your adrenal glands pump out adrenaline, along with other stress hormones like cortisol, which acts like rocket fuel for your muscles. (1)

Muscle Fiber Recruitment

Our muscles comprise thousands of fibers. However, our body uses only a fraction of them for everyday tasks. This all changes when we are in an emergency. Hysterical strength is like slamming the pedal to the metal, recruiting a much larger percentage of muscle fibers, which helps drastically increase the force you’re able to produce.

Pain Inhibition

Adrenaline is one of the key hormones responsible for hysterical strength. Besides the benefits mentioned above, it temporarily numbs pain, allowing you to push your body beyond its normal capabilities.

However, this pain inhibition is temporary, and the pain from your heroics will return with a vengeance once the danger has passed. Remember the kid who deadlifted the car? He had a sore back and legs for days after the incident.

Hysterical strength is a fascinating testament to the incredible things the human body is capable of if operating at its maximal potential. However, there is a lack of scientific data about hysterical strength, as it is nearly impossible to ethically create an actual life-and-death situation in a controlled laboratory setting.

“Hysterical strength is an excellent anecdotal series of case studies to say if your brain is in the right spot, and you have the right levels of adrenaline, and a good control of arousal, you can do way more than you ever think that you could.” — Mitchell Hooper (2023 World’s Strongest Man)

Training to Unlock Your Hidden Potential

As a veteran personal trainer, I can attest that we all have reservoirs of strength that we barely tap into. At the same time, the right training can help unlock that superhuman potential.

Add the following modalities to your training to boost your overall performance:

Overcoming Isometrics

The overcoming isometrics approach takes conventional isometrics one step forward and involves pushing or pulling against an immovable object with maximal effort. The object could be a wall, a sturdy bar, or the floor. The goal is to exert as much force as you can safely.

This method maximizes muscle contraction without needing joint movement, which can help avoid strains and pains. More importantly, this helps desensitize the Golgi tendon organ (GTO), a protective mechanism that inhibits muscle contraction when it senses excessive tension. Desensitizing it allows for greater force production, potentially leading to the kind of extreme strength seen in hysterical strength scenarios.

Neural Charge Training

This training method is the mirror opposite of the previous one and involves moving heavy weights explosively, with maximum power and speed.

Since most hysterical strength encounters involve a display of power and strength, your training must force your nervous system to adapt and increase the rate and force at which your muscle fibers fire. It will help you lift heavier and faster.

Other Training Methods To Improve Hysterical Strength

I advise against putting all your eggs in one basket. You must diversify your training regime to keep your muscles guessing and avoid strength and muscle plateaus.

We have already covered plyometrics, isometrics, and Olympic weightlifting above. Besides these, you should also include high-intensity interval training (HIIT) in your regime. Traditional strength training with progressive overload can also be a game changer.

Mind-Muscle Connection

Hysterical strength isn’t just physical — it’s mental, too. In fact, many experts believe the most impressive feats of hysterical strength come down to mindset, as you are willing to put everything on the line.

Sport psychology involves training the mind for competition through mental skills training (MST) and has been shown to moderately improve performance. (2)(3)

Your body is the control center, and with the right tools, you can optimize for maximal strength output. These are the things you must consider:

Visualization

It involves mentally preparing for a workout and thinking about the desired results. See yourself lifting that weight, pushing that incredibly heavy object, or overcoming a huge obstacle. This primes the nervous system and strengthens the neural pathways.

Positive Self-Talk

Most people shoot themselves in the foot with negative self-talk. You must shun your inner critic and replace it with affirmations of your power and capabilities to explore your maximum potential.

Goal Setting

Set SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound) goals to stay motivated and measure your progress, pushing you to new heights.

Stress Management

This is the tricky part. Cortisol is a contributing factor to hysterical strength. However, too much of this stress hormone can sabotage your strength gains in the long term. Techniques like meditation, deep breathing, or yoga can help manage stress and boost performance.

People struggling with mental health issues should seek professional help to improve their overall health and well-being.

Safety Precautions

Training to build superhuman strength comes with its own risks. While the ultimate objective is to lift heavier weights explosively, you must avoid ego-lifting. Warm up properly before a workout, start light, focus on picture-perfect form, and gradually increase the training volume.

I highly recommend hiring a personal trainer, as they can help monitor your form and spot you during heavier sets, which can significantly lower your injury risk.

That said, you must also give your muscles enough time to rest and recuperate so they can grow back bigger and stronger. Doing too much too soon can be catastrophic. Focus on your sleep and eating a high-protein, balanced diet.

You must also learn to listen to your body. Feel free to pull back the intensity if you feel tired or exhausted. Remember, there are no awards for pushing through pain and suffering every day.

Risks and Ethical Considerations

Unlocking our maximal potential can be a lot like hitting the nitro-booster on a supercar; it is thrilling but dangerous. Plus, exploring hysterical strength is fraught with ethical dilemmas that require careful consideration. Here is everything you should know about the subject:

Physical Risks

As explained above, training for hysterical strength requires pushing beyond your limits, which is inherently risky. It can strain muscles, tear ligaments, and hurt joints. Do it for too long, and eventually, something will give.

Even if you somehow manage to escape injuries, the repeated stress of maximal exertion can lead to chronic pain, overuse injuries, and a diminished quality of life. You must assess if training for hysterical strength is worth all this pain and suffering.

Psychological Risks

To train for hysterical strength, you must really think about life-or-death situations during your workouts. However, many experts believe putting yourself in this mental state may lead to unintended consequences like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and distorted relationships with your loved ones.

Is the juice worth the squeeze for you? That’s for you to decide.

On the other hand, if you are a trainer reading this — you have a moral obligation to prioritize the safety and well-being of your clients even when training for hysterical strength. Remember, pushing clients beyond their limits, even with the purest intentions, can have devastating consequences.

That said, if you aren’t fully pushing your clients to the brink of breaking, you aren’t really training for hysterical strength.

If this isn’t an ethical dilemma, what is?

As a professional, you must set clear expectations with your clients before embarking on a hysterical strength training program.

Conclusion

To put it briefly, hysterical strength is a temporary surge of power that can defy human limits and harness our full potential. While it is not something you can tap into on a daily basis or at will, understanding the intricacies of this phenomenon can help you inch toward maximizing your physical performance.

Training for hysterical strength can be especially important in fields like emergency response, athletics, or personal safety. Use the training tips laid out in this article to ethically and safely uncover your maximum strength potential and optimize performance.

If you have any questions about hysterical strength, drop them in the comments below, and I’ll be happy to help!

References:

1. Thau L, Gandhi J, Sharma S. Physiology, Cortisol. [Updated 2023 Aug 28]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024 Jan
2. Hammermeister, J., & VonGuenthner, S. (2005). Sport psychology: training the mind for competition. Current sports medicine reports, 4(3), 160–164.
3. Lochbaum, M., Stoner, E., Hefner, T., Cooper, S., Lane, A. M., & Terry, P. C. (2022). Sport psychology and performance meta-analyses: A systematic review of the literature. PloS one, 17(2), e0263408.

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