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We all know the feeling of an adrenaline rush whether it be from a steep drop on a roller coaster, a horror movie or a life threatening situation like a car going the wrong direction right towards you. Adrenaline is part of the “Fight-or-Flight” instinct, meaning that in the threat of danger we choose one of those two options; fight the threat or run away from it. When adrenaline is released we are capable of running very fast, become much more alert of our surroundings, and have increased strength. Adrenaline also increases your heart rate and blood pressure and causes your pupils to dilate. Adrenaline can only last for a few minutes before the effects start to wear off. Adrenaline rushes also use much more energy than your body normally does.
Here is an example of when an adrenaline rush can be used to save someone else’s life. The article is titled “When Fear Makes Us Superhuman” by Jeff Wise. The article tells a story of how a man lifted a car that weighs 3,000 pounds off of a cyclist who had been run over by the car. The man who lifted the car, Tom Boyle, was an experienced weight lifter so his training gave him more of an edge than an average person might have in the same situation. It is noted in the article that Boyle’s heaviest dead-lift was 700 pounds and the world record dead-lift is 1,155 pounds. While those are extremely impressive numbers they do not compare to the 3,000 pound Camaro Boyle lifted off of the cyclist. So it is clear that adrenaline is the driving force as to why Boyle was able to lift the car. Vladimir Zatsiorsky, a professor of kinesiology at Penn State has studied the bio-mechanics of weightlifting. Zatsiorsky states that our muscles have “absolute strength” which is the maximum amount of force they can theoretically generate, and “maximal strength” which is the maximum amount of force we can consciously generate with our muscles. Zatsiorsky also states that the average person can use about 65 percent of their “absolute strength” during a training session and a trained weightlifter can use about 80 percent. The amount of “absolute strength” an athlete produces can increase during the heat of competition, which is why many world records are broken at major events such as the Olympics. Adrenaline is an incredible chemical that is released in our body during stressful situations and it has the power to give us “superhuman” abilities even if it is only for a short time. Adrenaline can be very exciting in short doses. I myself am somewhat of an adrenaline junkie. I love the rush of riding my skateboard, snowboard or bike very fast down a hill or the rush of accelerating fast in a car. I’m sure there are plenty of you that love the rush of adrenaline too, but let’s just hope we don’t have to use it to lift a car.
Here is a YouTube channel you might enjoy if adrenaline is your thing
I love doing things that give me an adrenaline rush, so this post was one that I liked reading a lot. Personally, my roommate and I like to go cliff diving and do other things that give us this “Fight-or-Flight” instinct. It is an extremely unique feeling whenever you are jumping off a 30 foot cliff into water below.
here is a video of me throwing my Go-Pro to my roommate as he jumped off of a local cliff.
Adrenaline certainly is a crazy, exciting thing. I really appreciated your post, because it brought up the point that people get “super human abilities” when adrenaline is pumping through their body. I remember the first time when i went on my first real Roller-coaster. I had the biggest smile on my face and my hands began to tingle as I was about to take off from the adrenaline rush I was getting from the experience.
I thought this was interesting because I have heard of experiences where adrenaline helps someone do something they originally would not have been able to do. In my high school district of Fairfax County in Virginia this happened to a girl my age. When she was home from college over Thanksgiving break, her dad was working on his truck when the lift slipped and the truck fell on top off him. During this incident, gasoline fell and the car caught on fire. The girl, Charlotte, heard the commotion and came to help. She then lifted the car off of her father, pulled him out, and then drove the flaming truck out of the garage. This is an instance where adrenaline helped someone do something extraordinary.
If you want to read the article about what happened you can click here.
I enjoyed your post, because it reminded me of my favorite movie “Crank”. Crank, is an action film about the main character ( Jason Statham) trying to keep his heart rate from dropping in order to stay alive. Throughout, the movie he goes through spontaneous scenarios in order to eminitae the bad guy and stay alive. If this sound sinteresting to you, you shoul dvheckout the trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEXsOqdzYhE
This post was very well done. I personally love watching Youtube videos of people accomplishing feats that normally seem impossible. The only real explanation would be the intense adrenaline rush that occurs when we see someone in need. Here is a link to a newspaper article that describes a 5’3 woman lifting a car off her child!
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