Lifting weights. The highest weight lifted The heaviest weight lifted by a person

Weightlifters lift impressive weights, but there are other animals in nature that can plug weightlifters in the belt. Paul Anderson was arguably one of the strongest men on earth. He could carry eight people on his hump or drive a nail through two planks 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 record was subsequently removed due to a lack of supporting evidence.

No one ever, even though they got close, could surpass Anderson's feat. At least a man. But in nature there are creatures capable of amazing feats of strength.


For a long time, people have used pack animals to transport goods. In the west, pack horses have been used since the Stone Age to carry heavy loads over rough terrain.

And while a 2008 study suggested that lighter 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 created giants such as Shire and Clydesdale horses. These heavy horses are known as "draft horses" because of their pulling power. They helped people to squeeze through the industrial revolution, first pushing carts and trolleys, and then barges and wagons with material for the railways.

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


Scottish engineer James Watt developed the concept of horsepower from an experiment involving horses working on a millstone in a brewery. He calculated that one horse can 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 a conventional 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 force 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, since they bring less disturbance to the environment than heavy equipment.

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

Whiteway says it is 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 that can do even more.


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

John Hutchinson of the Royal Veterinary College in London, UK, studied the movement of Asian elephants. He attributes their strength to several traits.

While the skeletons of many mammals make up about 10% of their body weight, in elephants this figure is closer to 20%, which gives them a stronger frame. Hutchinson also says their straight limbs allow them to withstand downward gravity better and hold their own weight plus any load.

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

As with our own records, the maximum lifting weight of an elephant is unknown. An elephant can lift up to 300 kilograms only with its trunk. 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 most powerful living animal. But of course they are pretty big on their own. And that means that the strongest animals should 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 10-50 times their own weight.

In 2010, an Asian tailor ant (Oecophylla smaragdina) was photographed lifting 100 times its 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 push their mandibles against the ground and catch on to it, they can throw themselves into the air.

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


Named after the ancient demigod Hercules, an insect can be expected to have some serious power. 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 locomotion expert Roger Crum of the University of Colorado at Boulder, determined to find out the truth, put rhinoceros beetles to the test. And he found that they can only carry 100 times their weight.

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

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

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

The unusual power of these creatures is due to the quirks of physics.


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

Larger animals may have stronger muscles, but since most of the strength goes into maintaining the animal's own weight, there is not much left over for the extra weight. In contrast, tiny creatures need to carry less mass, so they can allocate more force to lift weights.

There are several additional biological factors that favor small animals. For example, the larger the animal, the more energy it needs to maintain important functions like respiration and circulation. Having a simpler and more compact internal system However, smaller animals like beetles can invest more of the energy they get from food to build strong exoskeletons that lift weight better than soft tissue.

This means that while insects can exhibit amazing proportional strength, it cannot be scaled to human size and expected to persist.


The ant's mass will increase in accordance with 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 man will be incredibly weak because the cross-sectional area of ​​its legs will increase significantly less than its body volume," says biologist Claire Escher. “He can't even stand. And breathe. Ants use tiny holes - spiracles - to circulate 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 this means that the most powerful animals living on Earth today can represent the most powerful animals that have ever lived in principle. The land was also home for - but these animals could hardly be stronger than elephants. Strength has its limits.

There is such a photo on the network, under which they usually write that it is the Kazakh wrestler Baluan Sholak holding the bull with weight 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 for a person to lift such a weight from a scientific point of view? I quickly googled and found out that there was one person who lifted a fantastic 2800 kg in general.

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

To begin with, let's decide that in the photo it's 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 what information has been preserved about him.

In 1864, a son was born in the Baimurza family from the Sambet clan. The kid was named Nurmagambet. It so happened that in childhood, a child injured his hand, disfiguring his fingers. Since then, they called him Sholak - bespaliy. Sholak spent his childhood and adolescence in Kokchetav, where his father made a living making wooden crafts. The father worked tirelessly, and the family did not need anything. Even then, young Sholak was distinguished by a daring disposition, in no way was inferior to the older boys, selflessly fought and fought, was a ringleader in everything. Possessing outstanding strength and agility, he was unmatched in any competition.

Already in his youth, Sholak became famous as an invincible fighter and was awarded the honorary title of Baluan. Baluan Sholak was in no way inferior to anyone in horse riding, demonstrating real circus tricks: he stood on a horse at full gallop, whirled in the saddle, could go down on the horse's belly without reins ... But the main hobby of the horseman was singing, playing the dombra. He peo songs of Birzhan and Akhan-Sere, so much so that they talked 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 weighing 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 prevailed over 20-year-old boys. At the competitions in Omsk on the occasion of the arrival of the heir to the king, Baluan Sholak put the famous wrestler Sevr on his shoulder blades. At the age of 49, our hero at the Goyandinsky fair accepted the challenge of the famous strongman Karon and broke his rib during a duel. They say that Hadji Mukan himself wanted to measure strength with Baluan Sholak, but after getting to know him better, he abandoned this venture. Even greater fame 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 the akyn has not yet been sufficiently studied. Baluan Sholak traveled around the auls, gathered gifted youth around him, even organized an "ensemble". For the first time, steppe dwellers hear familiar songs performed by the choir, they are surprised at the well-coordinated playing of several dombras.

At the age of twenty-six, Sholak already had a real troupe, which included dombra players, singers, storytellers, riders and wrestlers. Sholak himself performed songs and demonstrated his colossal strength - he broke horseshoes, fought 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. A tall, fair-faced beauty, as a child, was betrothed to a 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, Galia returns to her parents' house in one shirt. Baluan Sholak was ready to marry his beloved. But the offended husband demanded the return of the kalym through the court of biys.


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

Not believing the judges, the batyr went to Kokchetav to collect the required number of cattle. In Kokchetav, he was accused of stealing cattle, and he ended up in prison, while Galia won a court case. Now she was free, but nothing is known about her beloved. Rumors of the steppe convey different things to her: Baluan Sholak fled, he is a polygamist, and now he is a convict, driven to Siberia forever ... Galia is in despair, at the behest of her father she is getting married 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 Galia lived. Akin is not himself in anticipation of a meeting with his beloved. It was then that the most famous song of Baluan Sholak, "Galia", was born. But Sholak and Galia never found family happiness. Baluan Sholak remained a favorite of his fellow countrymen until the end of his life. He fought against injustice, and his every noble deed 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, and 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 today in concerts and on the radio. 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 realistic to lift such a weight?

People who are seriously interested in bodybuilding most likely know what the biggest weight lifted by a person was, 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 a "crane" in the press.

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

In the early 50s. last century, the athlete began to perform in the professional arena. Moreover, there is a known case when in one of the nightclubs in Las Vegas, he sat down three times with a barbell, the weight of which was 526 kg. And for Anderson, this was not unusual - after all, weighted squats 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. In particular, Paul could squeeze 11 times right hand 136 kg, and 7 times do the same with the left.

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


After the Olympics, Anderson announced that he was leaving amateur sports believing that tournaments are too exhausting physically and mentally. He began to give performances with numbers of demonstrations of power in various cities in the United States. 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 a weight of 2 844 kg with his shoulders from the racks. outstretched arms weights of 127 kg each with only little fingers. I squeezed a dumbbell weighing 172.5 kg with one hand while standing.

There was also such a famous person:

Let's then remember another famous strongman:

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

And here is such an unusual topic, as you think

Ant

10 grams (0.01 kg)

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

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

266 kilograms

This is the record of an Olympic champion Leonid Taranenko clean and jerk (one of the two basic techniques of lifting the bar), entered in the Guinness Book of Records. It was installed 20 years ago, but still hasn't been beaten by anyone.

1 ton

Elephants are the largest land animals. Male African elephants can grow up to 4 meters and weigh 7 or even 10 tons.

How much can an elephant lift? There is no doubt that he is the largest heavyweight (in absolute numbers), 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.

Nobody 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 normal loads. Since Indian elephants (smaller than African ones) are tamed and have long worked precisely to carry heavy weights, more is known about them. With its trunk, an Indian elephant can lift 200-250 Kg; gripping the rope with its teeth, it can drag a load of up to 500 Kg... Putting it on its tusks and holding it with its trunk, the elephant can carry logs weighing up to 700-800 kilograms.

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

10 tons

Greece, circa 5th century BC

Plutarch says that in response to King Hieron's request to demonstrate how a heavy load can be moved with little force, Archimedes “took a three-masted cargo ship, which before that with great difficulty was pulled ashore by many people, seated many people on it and loaded it with ordinary cargo. After that, Archimedes sat down at a distance and began to effortlessly pull on the rope thrown over the pulley block, which made the ship “floated” to him easily and smoothly, as if on water ”.

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

(from the Greek poly many + spao to pull) - a lifting device consisting of a system of movable and fixed blocks, bent by a rope or chain. The polyspast gives a gain in strength due to the distribution of the weight of the load on several branches of the rope, while the speed of lifting the load and the distance traveled by it decreases.

365 tons

Most powerful dump truck: Liebherr T282B(Germany, late XX-early XXI century). This machine weighs 220 tons and can carry up to 365 tons - one and a half times its 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, for which alternating current is generated by a diesel engine with a capacity of 3650 Horse power(2725 kilowatts). The same electric motors operating in generator mode are also used for braking.

These machines are used in large open pits, they transport coal or ore from the place of extraction to the place of processing. There are no technical obstacles to the creation of even more lifting machines, but they have simply not been used for them yet.

1000 tons

Rosenkranz K10001(Germany, 1971). This is the first crane in the world that has overcome the lifting capacity of a thousand tons (overland cranes have already been built, capable of lifting 3 times more). This crane exists in a single copy; he worked in construction Olympic stadium in Munich, then he built bridges, power plants, etc. in several European countries.

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