The largest weight that a person has lifted. weight lifting

Ant

10 grams (0.01 kg)

If you build a scale of carrying capacity not in absolute, but in relative terms - relative to its own weight - far ahead of a man and an elephant. He can lift objects several times (up to 50!) heavier than himself.

True, and this is far from a record: it is believed that rhinoceros beetle capable of lifting up to 850 of its masses.

266 kilograms

Such is the record Olympic champion Leonid Taranenko in the clean and jerk (one of the two main lifting techniques), listed in the Guinness Book of Records. It was installed 20 years ago, but still has not been beaten by anyone.

1 ton

Elephants are the largest land animals. Male African elephants can reach a height of 4 meters and a weight of 7 or even 10 tons.

How much can an elephant lift? There is no doubt that he is the biggest heavyweight (in absolute terms), but in relative terms he is far from not only an ant, but also a man: an elephant can lift no more than 20–25% of its weight.

No one holds official competitions between animals, reports about their capabilities in different sources are different and not always completely reliable: sometimes the abilities of animals are exaggerated, but more often they report not about maximum, but about ordinary loads. Since Indian elephants (smaller than African ones) are tamed and have long worked just as carrying heavy loads, more is known about them. An Indian elephant can lift 200–250 with its trunk kg; grasping the rope with his teeth, he can drag a load of up to 500 kg. Putting it on tusks and holding it with its trunk, an elephant can carry logs weighing up to 700–800 kilograms.

African elephants if necessary, they pick it up with a trunk and carry their cubs, which already at birth weigh about a centner. Weight Limit, which they can "take", according to various sources, is from 1 to 2 tons.

10 tons

Greece, circa 5th century BC

Plutarch relates that in response to King Hiero's request to demonstrate how a heavy load could be moved by a small force, Archimedes "took a three-masted cargo ship, which many people had previously pulled ashore with great difficulty, put a lot of people on it and loaded it with ordinary cargo. After that, Archimedes sat down at a distance and began to effortlessly pull the rope thrown over the chain hoist, which is why the vessel easily and smoothly, as if on water, “floated” towards him.

Perhaps this story is fictional, but the ancient Greeks really widely used simple mechanisms for lifting weights - levers, blocks and chain hoists.

(from Greek poly many + spao to pull) - a load-lifting device, consisting of a system of movable and fixed blocks, enveloped by a rope or chain. The chain hoist gives a gain in strength by distributing the weight of the load over several branches of the rope, while reducing the speed of lifting the load and the distance it travels.

365 tons

The most powerful dump truck: Liebherr T282B(Germany, end of XX-beginning of XXI century). This machine weighs 220 tons, and can carry up to 365 tons - one and a half times its own weight. The height of the dump truck is 7.4 meters, and even its wheels are two human heights (3.5 meters in diameter). The dump truck is driven by two electric motors, the alternating current for which is generated by a diesel engine with a capacity of 3650 horsepower (2725 kilowatts). The same electric motors operating in generator mode are also used for braking.

Such machines are used in large quarries, they transport coal or ore from the mining site to the processing site. There are no technical obstacles to the creation of even more lifting machines, but so far there simply has not been an application for them.

1000 tons

Rosenkranz K10001(Germany, 1971). This is the first crane in the world that has surpassed the 1,000-ton lifting capacity (land cranes have already been built that can lift 3 times more). This crane exists in a single copy; he worked in construction Olympic Stadium in Munich, then built bridges, power plants, etc. in several European countries.

The crane is transported on a platform, but during operation it is installed motionless. The maximum height of the crane is 200 meters, however, it reaches a lifting capacity of 1000 tons only with a mast height of 97 meters.

Weightlifters lift impressive weights, but there are other animals in nature that can plug weightlifters into their belts. Paul Anderson may have been one of the strongest men to have lived on Earth. He could carry eight people on his hump or drive a nail through two boards with one blow. In 1957, Anderson is said to have lifted 2.8 tons on his back. This temporarily earned him a world record, but the recording was subsequently deleted due to lack of supporting evidence.

No one ever, though getting close, could not surpass the feat of Anderson. At least a person. But there are creatures in nature capable of amazing feats of strength.

For a long time, people used beasts of burden to transport goods. In the west, packhorses have been used since the Stone Age to carry heavy loads over rough terrain.

While a 2008 study suggested that light horses should carry no more than 20% of their body weight, their heavier counterparts were specifically bred for strength.

By selectively breeding large animals, humans have created such giants as the Shire and Clydesdale horses. These heavy horses are known as "heavy horses" because of their pulling power. They helped people push through the Industrial Revolution, first pushing carts and carts, and then barges and wagons of railroad material.

In fact, when the first steam engines appeared, they were comparable in power to draft horses.

Scottish engineer James Watt developed the concept of horsepower based on an experiment involving horses working on a millstone in a brewery. He calculated that one horse could lift 15 tons to a height of one foot (about 30 cm) in one minute. This is sometimes seen as an overestimation of the strength of the average draft horse, but a 1993 study concluded that Watt was practically right. In any case, his measurement was accepted, and it is still used to account for the power of the engine.

Draft horses are still used in some places, in traditional breweries, for example, and to attract tourists. They were also used for forestry, as they cause less disturbance to the environment than heavy equipment.

“Shirre horses have the same musculoskeletal system as other horses,” says Angela Whiteway of the Shire Horse Society in Market Harborough, UK. “Nevertheless, it is believed that closely spaced hind legs allow them to use power more efficiently than wide-legged horses.”

Whiteway says it's generally accepted that working Shires can comfortably pull twice their weight. That is, a horse weighing one ton can pull two tons of weight. This is impressive, but there are other animals capable of even more.

In the east, Asian elephants have been used to transport people and goods for thousands of years. Historically, they were the main feature of logging ability as they could haul heavy logs through difficult jungle terrain. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Administration, an elephant in Sri Lanka typically carries 3-4 tons per day.

John Hutchinson of the Royal Veterinary College London, UK, has studied the locomotion of Asian elephants. He attributes their strength to several features.

While many mammals' skeletons make up about 10% of their body mass, elephants have this figure closer to 20%, giving them a stronger frame. Hutchinson also says that their straight limbs allow them to resist downward gravity better and hold their own mass plus any load.

And there is a wonderful trunk. It contains no bones or cartilage, only 150,000 bundles muscle fibers. This multi-functional appendage allows elephants to communicate over vast distances, lift individual twigs, strengthen social bonds - and lift significant weights.

As with our own records, the maximum lifting weight for an elephant is unknown. An elephant can lift up to 300 kilograms with its trunk alone. African elephants can weigh a ton more than their Asian counterparts, so they may well be even stronger.

In terms of sheer tonnage, elephants may well be the strongest living animal. But of course they are quite large on their own. This means that the strongest animals must also be the smallest.

Ants are known for their powerlifting abilities in the animal kingdom. Their strength varies from species to species, but some ants are capable of lifting 10 to 50 times their own weight.

In 2010, an Asian tailor ant (Oecophylla smaragdina) was filmed lifting 100 times the ant's own weight by researchers at the University of Cambridge.

When lifting weights, humans rely on their back muscles, while elephants use their trunks. Ants, on the other hand, lift weights with their powerful jaws. Ondontomachus ants have such powerful muscles in their jaws that if they rest their mandibles on the ground and cling to it, they can throw themselves into the air.

There is another group of insects with a talent for lifting weights: beetles.

From an insect named after the ancient demigod Hercules, you can expect serious strength. But the old tale that the Hercules beetle (Dynastes hercules) can lift 850 times its body weight is as unfounded as Paul Anderson's record.

Hercules beetles belong to the group of rhinoceros beetles. Insect movement expert Roger Crum of the University of Colorado at Boulder, determined to find out the truth, put rhinoceros beetles to the test. And found that they can only carry 100 times their weight.

In 2010, the new strongest beetle in the world was crowned. As is customary in stories about the humble origins of human champions, he lives in uncomplicated conditions. The horned dung beetle (Onthophagus taurus) can lift up to 1141 of its own weight.

Rob Nell of Queen Mary University in London discovered the power of dung beetles while researching their mating tactics. Males use their horns to fight off rivals, pushing them out of tunnels and away from females.

Proportionately, only the armored mite (Archegozetes longisetosus) can compete with the strength of the horned dung beetle. It is microscopic, weighing only 100 micrograms, and lives in the forest soil. In 2007, scientists discovered that he could lift 1,180 of his weights.

The unusual power of these creatures is explained by the quirks of physics.

Galileo Galilei was right when he wrote in his 1638 book The Two New Sciences that small animals are proportionately stronger and more durable than large ones. It's all about the ratio of strength to weight.

Larger animals may have stronger muscles, but since most of the force is used to support the animal's own weight, extra weight not much remains. In contrast, tiny creatures need to carry less mass, so they can put more power into lifting weights.

There are several additional biological factors that favor small animals. For example, the larger an animal, the more energy it needs to support important functions like respiration and circulation. By having a simpler and more compact internal system, smaller animals like beetles can invest more energy they get from food into building strong exoskeletons that lift weight better than soft tissues.

This means that although insects can show amazing proportionate strength, it cannot be scaled to human size and expected to be preserved.

The mass of the ant will increase according to its volume, so the dimensions will be cubed. But the strength depends on the surface area of the muscles, which means it will be a square.

"An ant the size of a human would be incredibly weak because the cross-sectional area of its legs would expand much less than its body volume," says biologist Claire Asher. “He can’t even stand. And breathe. Ants use tiny holes - spiracles - to distribute oxygen in the body, but in human size, these tubes will be too small to provide oxygen to the entire body.

These principles apply to all animals, and each body type can only work within a limited range of sizes. Neither giant killer ants nor King Kong could exist.

And so, the strongest animals now living on Earth may represent the strongest animals that have ever lived in principle. The earth was also home to - but these animals could hardly be stronger than elephants. Strength has its limits.

There is such a photo circulating on the net, under which they usually write that it is the Kazakh wrestler Baluan Sholak holding a bull weighing 816 kg.

Of course, all this information has come down to us from legends, but maybe before people were really much stronger. Is it really possible from a scientific point of view for a person to lift such a weight? I quickly "googled" and found out that there was one person who lifted a generally fantastic 2800 kg.

Don't believe? Let's go under the cat...

To begin with, let's decide that the photo is still not Baluan Sholak, but some kind of Mongol.

The photo is quite modern, and the bull in the photo weighs about 100-120 kg. But Baluan Sholak lived in the 19th century. Here is the information about him.

In 1864, a son was born in the Baimurza family from the Sambet clan. The baby was named Nurmagambet. It so happened that in childhood the child injured his hand, disfiguring his fingers. Since then, they called him Sholak - fingerless. Sholak spent his childhood and youth in Kokchetav, where his father made a living by making wooden handicrafts. The father worked tirelessly, and the family did not need anything. Young Sholak already then had a daring disposition, was in no way inferior to the older boys, selflessly fought and fought, was a ringleader in everything. Possessing extraordinary strength and agility, he had no equal in any competition.

Already in his youth, Sholak became famous as an invincible wrestler and was awarded the honorary title of Baluan. Baluan Sholak did not yield to anyone in horse riding, demonstrating real circus tricks: at full gallop he stood on a horse, circling in the saddle, he could sit down on the horse’s belly without reins ... But the horseman’s main hobby was singing, playing the dombra. He sings the songs of Birzhan and Akhan-Sere, so much so that they told about it all over the steppe. Baluan Sholak easily held a log with twenty horsemen on his shoulders, at the age of 35 he lifted weights of 51 pounds (816 kg) at fairs and, of course, fought well, justifying his nickname Baluan - a wrestler.

Already at the age of 14, the future strongman overcame 20-year-old boys. At competitions in Omsk, on the occasion of the arrival of the heir to Tsar Baluan, Sholak put the famous wrestler Sevres on his shoulder blades. At the age of 49, our hero at the Koyandinskaya fair accepted the challenge of the famous strongman Karon and during the duel broke his rib. They say that Haji Mukan himself wanted to measure his strength with Baluan Sholak, but, having got to know him better, he abandoned this idea. Even greater glory was brought to the hero by his songs. Having lived only 55 years, he left behind dozens of songs: "Galia", "September", "Taldy-Kul", "Saryn" and others. And this despite the fact that the work of akyn has not yet been sufficiently studied. Baluan Sholak traveled around the villages, gathered gifted youth around him, even organized an "ensemble". For the first time, the steppes hear familiar songs in choral performance, they are surprised at the well-coordinated playing of several dombras.

At twenty-six, Sholak already had a real troupe, which included dombra players, singers, storytellers, riders and wrestlers. Sholak himself sang songs and demonstrated his colossal strength - he broke horseshoes, fought with several horsemen at once, lifted incredible weights. Baluan Sholak had a special relationship with women: he was always fond of beauties and, as befits a poet, was amorous. Bright appearance, prowess, incredible power, strong voice made the akyn the most desirable man in the steppe. But only one woman left an indelible mark on his life. Her name was Galia. And she was the daughter of a wealthy Argyn merchant Tleu. The tall, fair-faced beauty, as a child, was betrothed to the wealthy but unloved Birzhan. She married him. And then Baluan Sholak met her. The lovers met in secret. Until the deceived husband found out about it. Severely beaten, wearing only a shirt, Galia returns to her parents' house. Baluan Sholak was ready to marry his beloved. But the offended husband, through the court of biys, demanded the return of the kalym.

Monument to Baluan Sholak in the village of Tole Bi, Shui district, Zhambyl region.

Not believing the judges, the batyr went to Kokchetav to collect the required amount of cattle. In Kokchetav, he was accused of stealing cattle, and he ended up in prison, while Galiya won the court case. Now she was free, but nothing is known about her beloved. Steppe rumors convey different things to her: Baluan Sholak fled, he is a polygamist, and now a convict, driven to Siberia forever ... Galia is in despair, at the behest of her father, she marries again. Now she is the second wife of a famous person in the city. And Baluan's friends agreed to transfer him to the prison of the city where Galiya lived. Akyn himself is not himself, waiting for a meeting with his beloved. It was then that the most famous song of Baluan Sholak was born - "Galia". But Sholak and Galiya never found family happiness. Baluan Sholak remained a favorite of fellow countrymen until the end of his life. He fought against injustice, and each of his noble deeds aroused admiration among the people. On the eve of the October Revolution, the batyr helped the Bolsheviks hide in the villages, supplied them with horses, helped them in every possible way.

Until the end of his life, Baluan Sholak was not afraid of anyone and always helped the weak and disadvantaged. His songs are often heard in concerts and on the radio today. About Baluan Sholak, singer, composer, famous wrestler, Sabit Mukanov wrote a story, and now the Sports Palace built in 1967 in Almaty is named after him.

Is it really possible to lift that much weight?

People who are seriously interested in bodybuilding most likely know what was the biggest weight lifted by a person, and who did it. We are talking about the famous strongman Paul Anderson, who in the middle of the last century was considered the most strong man world and was called in the press "crane".

Paul Anderson was born in 1932, and started training with a barbell when he was 20 years old. The largest ever lifted by a man was recorded in 1957. It was a bar with "pancakes", the total mass of which was 2,844 kg. (during one of the speeches, he tore off his shoulders from the racks). And Anderson's record has not yet been beaten by any weightlifter.

In the early 50s. of the last century, the athlete began to perform in the professional arena. Moreover, a case is known when in one of the nightclubs in Las Vegas he squatted three times with a barbell, the weight of which was 526 kg. And for Anderson, this was not unusual - after all, squats with weights were his favorite exercise.

But the athlete did not like the bench press too much. However, this did not prevent him from achieving excellent results here as well. In particular, Paul could squeeze 11 times right hand 136 kg, and do the same with the left 7 times.

At professional demonstrations of strength, Anderson managed to tear off the platform and lift 1600 kg to his knees. In addition, he performs an incomplete squat - “short squat” with a weight of 952.5 kg, walks with 700 kg on his chest and squats by all the rules with 590 kg.

After the Olympics, Anderson announced that he was leaving amateur sports, believing that tournaments were too exhausting physically and mentally. He began to give performances with numbers with a demonstration of strength in various US cities. In powerlifting, he showed the following results: squats with a weight of 544.5 kg, bench press - 284 kg and deadlift- 371 kg (with straps-453.5 kg), (without equipment and doping). Anderson also performed an incomplete squat with a weight of 952.5 kg, and during one of the performances, he tore off a weight of 2,844 kg with his shoulders from the racks. He could hold weights of 127 kg each with his little fingers outstretched. Squeezed out with one hand standing dumbbell weighing 172.5 kg.

There was also this famous person:

Let's then remember another famous strong man:

So how much can a person lift? Answer: 266 kilograms. This is the record of the Olympic champion Leonid Taranenko in the clean and jerk (one of the two main methods of lifting the bar), listed in the Guinness Book of Records. It was installed almost 30 years ago, but still has not been beaten by anyone.

And here is such an unusual topic, what do you think

There is such a photo circulating on the net, under which they usually write that it is the Kazakh wrestler Baluan Sholak holding a bull weighing 816 kg.

Don't believe? Let's go under the cat...

To begin with, let's decide that the photo is still not Baluan Sholak, but some kind of Mongol.

The photo is quite modern, and the bull in the photo weighs about 100-120 kg. But Baluan Sholak lived in the 19th century. Here is the information about him.

Already in his youth, Sholak became famous as an invincible wrestler and was awarded the honorary title of Baluan. Baluan Sholak was not inferior to anyone in horse riding, demonstrating real circus tricks: he stood on a horse at full gallop, circling in the saddle, he could sit down on a horse’s belly without reins ... But the main hobby of the horse rider was singing, playing the dombra. He sings the songs of Birzhan and Akhan-Sere, so much so that they told about it all over the steppe. Baluan Sholak easily held a log with twenty horsemen on his shoulders, at the age of 35 he lifted weights of 51 pounds (816 kg) at fairs and, of course, fought well, justifying his nickname Baluan - a wrestler.

Monument to Baluan Sholak in the village of Tole Bi, Shui district, Zhambyl region.

Is it really possible to lift that much weight?

People who are seriously interested in bodybuilding most likely know what was the biggest weight lifted by a person, and who did it. We are talking about the famous strongman Paul Anderson, who in the middle of the last century was considered the strongest man in the world and was called the "crane" in the press.

But the athlete did not like the bench press too much. However, this did not prevent him from achieving excellent results here as well. In particular, Paul could press 136 kg with his right hand 11 times, and do the same with his left hand 7 times.

After the Olympics, Anderson announced that he was leaving amateur sports, believing that tournaments were too exhausting physically and mentally. He began to give performances with numbers with a demonstration of strength in various US cities. In powerlifting, he showed the following results: squats with a weight of 544.5 kg, bench press - 284 kg and deadlift - 371 kg (with straps-453.5 kg), (without equipment and doping). Anderson also performed an incomplete squat with a weight of 952.5 kg, and during one of the performances, he tore off a weight of 2,844 kg with his shoulders from the racks. He could hold weights of 127 kg each with his little fingers outstretched. Squeezed out with one hand standing dumbbell weighing 172.5 kg.

There was also this famous person:

Let's then remember another famous strong man:

And here is such an unusual topic, what do you think

About a third of the population in Europe and the United States suffer from excess weight. Doctors around the world are sounding the alarm, noting an increase in the number of obese patients, even among infants. Millions of people torture themselves with diets every day in the hope of losing weight.

In today's Top 10 hit heaviest people in the world, whose weight exceeded the unthinkable mark of 400 kg.

10. Manuel Uribe

The maximum weight of Manuel was 597 kg, however, with the help of doctors and nutritionists, he managed to lose more than half of his heavy burden. Since February 2012, Uribe weighs 200 kg.

9. Walter Hudson

Hudson life years: 1944-1991. Its maximum weight was 543 kg. Walter holds the record for having the largest waist in the world with a girth of 300 cm. One of the heaviest people in the world ate 12 eggs, a loaf of bread, two chickens, 4 potatoes, a large sweet pie, 4 hamburgers and 17 liters of water per day.

8. Rosalie Bradford

Rosalie has two entries in the Guinness Book of Records. At first, she was listed there as the heaviest woman in the world, and then as the woman who lost the maximum amount of fat. Already at the age of 14, Rosalie weighed 92 kg, by the age of 40 her weight had reached 544 kg. However, thanks to diets, Bradford managed to lose 416 kg.

7. Michael Hebranco

Michael managed to lose weight from 411 kg to 90, reducing his waist size from 290 to 91 cm. However, to keep more or less normal weight Hebranco couldn't. A few years later, he already weighed 500 kg.

6. Patrick Duel

The maximum weight of Patrick was 410 kg. For 12 months of enhanced dieting, Duel managed to lose 240 kg. He is one of the few who managed to keep his weight at the reached mark of 170 kg for a long time.

5. Robert Earl Hughes

Hughes' years of life: 1926 - 1958. At the age of 6, Robert weighed 92 kg, at 10 - already 171 kg. The maximum weight of a man was 486 kg. He died of acute renal failure.

4. Mary Rosales

The maximum weight of a woman was 470 kg. Obesity helped Mary avoid prison. She was accused of killing her mother and sister, however, the court considered that the woman was too fat to commit such acts.

3. Kenneth Brumley

Brumley's maximum weight was 468 kg. However, he managed to lose 76 kg in 40 days, following a diet in which the calorie content daily ration should not exceed 1200 kcal.

2. Mills Darden

Darden's years of life: 1799-1857. Mills is considered to be one of the most heavy people in history. Its weight ranged from 450 to 500 kg. The height of the man was 2.3 meters, he would be envied by the world.

1. Carol Ann Yager

Carol was heaviest woman in history with a maximum weight of 550 kg with a height of 170 cm. During the three months of her stay in the clinic, the woman managed to lose 236 kg, but the weight quickly returned back. Carol died at the age of 34 from acute renal failure.