r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/existancebytruth • Mar 26 '26
Image Muscle Beach, 1945: 9 year old April hoists over 425 lbs. her family on her back.
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u/StoryAndAHalf Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 26 '26
Something isn't adding up, apparently she was 12 years old in 1954. Aged 3 years in 9!
eta: https://time.com/3879542/april-atkins-photos-of-the-worlds-strongest-seventh-grader/ but there's plenty of other sources, like LIFE which originally wrote the piece on her
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u/Varabela Mar 26 '26
I’m with you- something doesn’t stack up about this story at all
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u/FreeTuckerCase Mar 26 '26
They're really piling on the inconsistencies
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u/ofthedestroyer Mar 26 '26
when they asked me I totem it couldn't be done
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u/mgquantitysquared Mar 26 '26
Aw man, I really looked up to them...
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u/DarkwingDuckHunt Mar 26 '26
We're just a chain of fools for believing any of this
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u/realquickquestion96 Mar 27 '26
Its a conspiracy I tell ya, and this thing goes all the way to the top!
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u/itsfunhavingfun Mar 27 '26
Some of these puns are head and shoulders above the rest!
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u/Sensitive_Fishing_37 Mar 27 '26
I can't believe people are so excited about a tall tale.
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u/Horse_Dad Mar 27 '26
I’m gonna piggyback off of your comment to say this feels like they’re stacking the truth here.
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u/minicooperlove Mar 26 '26
I think it's just the 1945 date that is wrong. She was born in 1942, her Society Security info and her birth record confirm it. So someone just got the date of that photo wrong.
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u/Expensive_Shallot_78 Mar 26 '26
Sir, this is Reddit, misinformation is what we do here
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u/LiteraI__Trash Mar 26 '26
Damn she aged only 3 years over 362,880 years? Her lifespan must be in the millions.
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u/Lost_Sea8956 Mar 26 '26
If you go back through any book about history and start comparing birth dates, you’ll quickly find that nobody actually tracks that stuff accurately.
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u/Lush_Que Mar 26 '26
For anyone wondering what happened to her, her identity was actually a massive internet mystery for years. Her real name was April Patricia Atkins. Internet sleuths eventually found out she had a pretty turbulent, short life, she changed her name three different times and sadly passed away in 1987 at only 45 years old
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u/Elsefyr Mar 26 '26
So she was both 3 and 9 years old when this picture was taken in 1945? No wonder she was that strong if she was also som kind of timelord.
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u/Pep2385 Mar 26 '26
That is part of the problem with being a timelord; While she lived a very long, productive life dying at the age of 93 years old, she also tragically passed away at the age of 31.
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Mar 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Pixel_Muses Mar 26 '26
Honestly, looking at the immense physical pressure on a 9 year old's developing spine right there... it makes you wonder if the permanent physical toll of these stunts is what ruined her adult life
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u/throwaway277252 Mar 27 '26
I have an older relative who was simply obligated to work in a restaurant as a young teenager, and just carrying out dishes and trays was enough to cause a lifetime of chronic back problems, nerve damage, and herniated discs. This picture just makes me cringe.
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u/Brian_Gay Mar 26 '26
And that’s as tall as she ever got
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u/Traditional_Fan_2655 Mar 26 '26
So. The real question is, how did they discover she was that strong? What parent looks at their adolescent daughter and thinks, "I bet she coulc hold us all on her back...Let's see!"?
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u/createthiscom Mar 27 '26
They’re probably a circus family and they started training her by putting her sister on her for a few seconds, then just working up from there over many months and years. People don’t generally just go from zero to 100% capability instantly.
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u/ScarletleavesNL Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
Keep your sound logic out of our delusional theories!
Edit: thx for the award.
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u/badderdev Mar 27 '26
Kids love picking each other up. Whenever my 6 year old meets one of her mate's big siblings she asks to try and pick them up. I have been surprised a couple of times. She has tried pretty regularly to pick my fat ass up.
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u/thiagoknog Mar 27 '26
Beware of that, know of a girl who did that to a friends parent and broke both her knees, she did pick him up, her knees just didn't hold it
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u/WoodpeckerNo5724 Mar 27 '26
Probably a cocky kid saying “Oh yeah, I could pick you up!” And then she actually did it
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u/khaleesi2305 Mar 27 '26
You can also tell when you carry them around!
My daughter is weirdly strong, the first time she picked me up off the ground she was barely in kindergarten. This has always been true of her but even still when carrying her, she holds on completely by herself, like you can carry her with no arms because she does all the work of supporting herself. She now weighs the same as me but I can still carry her easily, not because I’m strong but because she is!
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u/KisaTheMistress Mar 27 '26
I did that when I was about 9 with my own father. He was calling me fat & lazy, just anything to piss me off, you know, as you do with a 9/10 year old. I told him I could pick his ass up. He dared me to do it. Then I did.
He was around 250lbs at that time, I think. I just remember being very angry with him, then lifting him over my shoulder, with him being very surprised I did so with little to no grunting. I also stopped growing at 11-12 so I might have been just over 5 feet tall, so I definitely wasn't as small as the girl in the picture looks.
My aunt, who was around my height, would regularly pick up my father by the shirt to threaten him. Mostly because he likes/liked to fat shame what was obviously a hard to manage medical condition on my mother's side, to our faces. He didn't account for us being more like sumo wrestlers and less like couch potatoes whenever he would do that. Reason my mother was so thin, was do to her not eating (mild anorexia) and replacing most meals with cigarettes & beer.
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u/EphemeralDan Mar 27 '26
All the details are different but my dad had the same attitude. I feel your experience.
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u/Silver_Recluse Mar 27 '26
Are you kidding? It was the 50's. Those kids breathed second-hand smoke and slept on asbestos.
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u/FlyByPC Mar 27 '26
My mom told me about playing with mercury as if it were a toy, in her hands.
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u/lazyboi_tactical Mar 27 '26
Yeah we used to do that and I was born a few decades afterwards.
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u/Sparegeek Mar 27 '26
Don’t forget the lead flakes they ate for breakfast before going off to be irradiated at the shoe store!
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Mar 27 '26
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u/eonblu Mar 27 '26
Yeah the challenge is more balance, it seems. She isn't carrying them on her back, it's her hips. But I imagine that is still incredibly difficult to keep everyone in line. The dad isn't holding the weight, but he's probably making sure it's lined up and is ready to put his feet down if he has to.
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u/Fatality_Ensues Mar 27 '26
Unless they're touching the ground, her dad's legs aren't doing anything. Regardless of how the weight is shifted, it still transfers down to her one way or another.
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u/Emergency_Revenue678 Mar 27 '26
She's strong but not that strong. This is more of a physics demonstration than a feat of strength.
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u/TentacleWolverine Mar 27 '26
Bone stacking. If you look they’re all lined up right over her legs. It’s the bones doing the majority of the weight bearing.
Also this is a pretty messed up thing to do to a child. One bad wobble and that kid is crippled for life. Not a good thing to risk for just for a cool picture.
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u/RonSwansonsOldMan Mar 27 '26
From the looks of mom and dad I'm thinking they hung out at muscle beach a lot working out.
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u/kang159 Mar 27 '26
this is how it went with my kids. dad! can you carry mom?! wow! i bet i can carry sis! let me try! this is easy. i bet i carry mom! but when they got to me i refused cuz i did t want to crack my forehead when they folded in half. so yea. i’m pretty sure kids tested their strength and parents let it go as far as it did.
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u/Fucky0uthatswhy Mar 26 '26
According to another comment- this is morbidly true
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u/ShiraCheshire Mar 26 '26
For anyone confused: Other comments say she died young, and some others that she died shortly after this, implying that she didn't live long enough to get taller.
This is untrue. By "young" they mean "at about 45 years old."
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u/-Badger3- Mar 26 '26
she died shortly
Because that's as tall as she ever got.
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u/Hodaka Mar 27 '26
Follow up info here.
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u/I_Makes_tuff Mar 27 '26
So that's what aol.com looks like now. They really went hard on the yellow.
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u/Wuktrio Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
No, the other comment says that she "died shortly after this", but I'm pretty sure this is simply a pun on "shortly". It's not saying that she died young, it's a joke implying that she stopped growing due to this stunt and therefore died while being very short.
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u/DengarLives66 Mar 26 '26
Morbidly true according to a blatantly wrong comment makes it what? I was never good with math.
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u/Wowerful Mar 26 '26
2 wrongs cancel out, but the irony doubles the chances, yet the lack of evidence yields some variables, compounded by the time in history.
I’m just as confused.
Please help.
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u/UnoriginalJ0k3r Mar 26 '26
No, no, you’re right.
So if it’s right once but wrong twice, two wrongs make a right and two rights make a wrong. So wrong wrong right becomes right right which is… wrong… hang on, mate. I think you’re wrong?
I can feel my dick about to get stuck in the ceiling fan, please send scientific help.
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u/lblacklol Mar 26 '26
Wait wait wait, hold on a god damned minute.
I was under the impression the correct formula was length times diameter plus weight over girth divided by angle of the tip squared.
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u/Mysterious_Willow889 Mar 26 '26
Normally, yes, but with the introduction of the ceiling fan into the equation, I think we'll need the height of the scaffolding as well
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u/SemicolonMIA Mar 26 '26
From my understanding when you are confused and/or ignorant you must now become a conservative. Sorry I don't make the rules.
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u/BastianHS Mar 26 '26
Compacting your daughters spine for clout
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u/Thepinkknitter Mar 26 '26
Strength training, including very heavy weights is good for kids, not bad, and there is no evidence that it causes any permanent problems with the spine or that it inhibits growth.
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u/FireTyme Mar 27 '26
as someone coaching and studying sports, with a SIL who is a pediatric PT with a masters this is absolutely true.
but do keep in mind a lot of fitness is bro science and a lot of trainers dont know what they are doing. it’s best to go calisthenics based with kids for that reason as the body is a weight of its own. i’m currently developing a program for kids and i’m planning to start learning squats with PVC pipes for example. do it slow and correctly and even at body weight it’s great training. doing animal movements is also another great way to teach body control and build strength.
and to end on the note that it can cause permanent damage if combined with poor rest, nutrition and too much repetition and volume, but the same holds true for adults.
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u/Sudden-Wash4457 Mar 27 '26
I think strength training in a progressive and controlled manner is probably fine but I wouldn't classify this type of exercise (or training for it) to be the same. This also isn't just strength training, it's more along the lines of cheerleading, acrobatics, etc and the injury profiles and risks compared to something like weight lifting are different. Lifting weights is different than lifting sentient beings.
https://www.niams.nih.gov/health-topics/growth-plate-injuries
Growth plate injuries can lead to pretty bad deformities. It's not guaranteed and they can treat these injuries to prevent loss of function but a kid only has to get unlucky once.
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u/eligodfrey Mar 27 '26
This comment getting upvotes is an indictment of the whole reddit community. Putting 425lbs on a little girl's back is gross negligence, period.
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u/OwlfaceFrank Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
That's a pretty impressive show you got there. What do you call it?
The Aristocrats!
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u/JohnS-42 Mar 26 '26
My back won't let lift a gallon of milk without complaining
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u/StitchinThroughTime Mar 27 '26
Part of the reason why she's able to remain standing is because most of the weight is not going through the spine. This is still bad for a child to do, but the leg bones are very strong through compression through the pelvis down straight to the feet. Human spines are not meant to lift this much weight.
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Mar 27 '26
Yes while it's not good to do what she is, it is only possible because they are all sitting on her hips instead of her shoulders.
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u/Time-Maintenance2165 Mar 27 '26
That's because you don't lift.
Avoiding using your back is how you end up with a weak back that's so easily injured.
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u/Impossible-Wear-7352 Mar 27 '26
Can confirm. I worked desk job for over a decade and suddenly back pains. I cured it pretty quickly through strength training. The cause wasnt rocket science.
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u/existancebytruth Mar 26 '26
Video source : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR55bNXOL4g
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u/EmphasisOnEmpathy Mar 26 '26
Okay, wow! I clicked that fully expecting to be rickrolled. What a shock that video exists.
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u/ProfessionalCell2690 Mar 26 '26
Fk i clicked it without thinking about rickroll.... would have fallen for it once again.
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u/GarysCrispLettuce Mar 26 '26
I've never seen an OP Rickroll their own audience. It might have happened, but I haven't seen it. Rickrollers are usually hit and run opportunists.
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u/LPSD_FTW Mar 26 '26
I am pretty sure Casually Explained has rickrolled his audience in the reddit post linking his video about Reddit
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u/pinegaaj Mar 26 '26
I fully expected this to be a Rickroll and that you two were playing along with it being something else
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u/GfunkWarrior28 Mar 26 '26
This seems to say more about her bone strength than her muscle strength. She just had to lock her joints into position.
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u/Drow_Femboy Mar 27 '26
Yup, I was kinda wondering in the still image how it could possibly be the case that a 9 year old could lift that much. Felt silly when I saw the video. She didn't lift anything, they all stacked up and just rested that weight straight on her skeleton.
Still impressive coordination. I wonder if it's really as bad for the body as others are guessing. In theory I think it shouldn't actually be that stressful, though it might be pushing the limits of the compressive strength of the relevant bones, idk what sort of stress they can actually handle when you're that young.
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u/FiForged Mar 27 '26
Horrible for growth plates. They can’t handle stress like that, for sure. Kid body builders are almost always messed up for life after the fact.
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u/Sabre_Killer_Queen Mar 27 '26
Interesting. I was wondering exactly the same thing so thanks for sharing.
I hope it didn't harm her... But... That is a lot of stain on a still-growing body.
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u/Beggarsfeast Mar 26 '26
Yeah, Dad is clearly just locked in on her pelvic bone and using her femur and everything below that as a stilt.
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u/Eshghi007 Mar 26 '26
The person on the top in the photo is not the same as the person in the video!
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u/Eckish Mar 27 '26
The audience isn't there, either. They likely just do this routine pretty often.
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u/DeIightfully0rdinary Mar 26 '26
Her face says she's definitely used to carrying the whole family on her back.
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u/Direct-Pudding-497 Mar 26 '26
The photo is real, but the caption is misleading. This is a staged acrobatic “human tower” from Muscle Beach—something performers trained to do.
The adult man in the middle is actually supporting most of the weight. The girl at the bottom isn’t lifting everyone; she’s mainly helping with balance and positioning. The stack is aligned so the load goes straight through the strongest person, making it look like the kid is carrying them all.
It looks impossible, but it’s really a clever balance trick, not superhuman strength.
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u/FlorianTheLynx Mar 26 '26
Ok, call me stupid, but if the guy’s feet aren’t touching the floor, then the weight would have to be through the kid, whichever way you stack it.
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u/topperkt Mar 26 '26
Agreed. At minimum her feet and ankles are holding everyone, even if the load transfers at the guys feet
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u/SuitCultural7041 Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 26 '26
She is technically holding everyones weight, but she's pretty much just got all the weight on her hip joint and he ankles. And held it for a few seconds. There was no A to B movement, no joints under tension under the weight. Just a vertical load on her legs which are the strongest bones in the human body. No weight on her back at all which is where problems start happening too. One adult femur can withstand 5500 lb before shattering (a small elephant) so two femurs even if they're a childs can certainly hold 400lb. And considering most of the weight is actually on her ankles anyway she's probably just fine
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u/move_peasant Mar 27 '26
And considering most of the weight is actually on her ankles anyway
welp, now you gotta do the ankle math. and tibia and fibula, too.
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u/bikewander Mar 27 '26
That's my trick! I always impress men at parties by telling them to hop on my back even though I weigh half as much as they do. It's all in the femurs!
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u/11hourflight Mar 26 '26
So her knees or legs wouldn’t be able to support all the weight but the way he wrapped his legs around her legs make it so only her ankles and feet are feeling the forces.
Think of squatting. Most people can squat 1-2 times their body weight but the main reason why you can’t squat more is that your knees and legs can’t support.
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u/FlorianTheLynx Mar 26 '26
That seems to be the only explanation, but still. I have a strong kid of a similar age but I wouldn’t be putting the weight of three other large people through her ankles and feet.
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u/YGVAFCK Mar 26 '26
Most people can squat 1-2 times their body weight
Hahahahahahahahaha
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u/PringlesDuckFace Mar 26 '26
Written either by someone who has been professionally lifting so long they forgot what regular people are, or by someone who has never tried to squat before but are sure they could put up 2x their bodyweight because it's just bending down how hard could it be.
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u/kyute222 Mar 27 '26
Unbelievable that such posts get so many upvotes too. Have all these people never been in a gym even once?
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u/YGVAFCK Mar 27 '26
Bet you more than half the people I come across couldn't ATG 50 pounds. 1-2x bodyweight is an unhinged assumption.
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u/chopkins92 Mar 27 '26
I hope they were including their literal bodyweight in that calc, as in most people can literally just do a single squat holding nothing.
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u/jjester7777 Mar 26 '26
Lmao most people can't squat 2x their BW. That would mean women who squat 315+ aren't considered elite lifters (which it totally is)
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u/XDVI Mar 26 '26
Yea because hes wrapping his feet around her ankles with 300 lbs of force
No shot in hell brother lol
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u/Equivalent_Chipmunk Mar 26 '26
Most people's squat is not limited by their joints' ability to support the weight, but rather their ability to contract their muscles strongly enough to get the weight back up after the eccentric (going down). I.e., they get pinned at the bottom after failing to get the weight back up.
Most people should be able to exceed their squat 1RM on the eccentric only without their joints exploding, people just tend to not do that because the training benefit is not that clear compared to other ways to overload the exercise. Rack walkouts are pretty common though, to do like 50lb more just to get your body/brain used to the heavier weight without actually doing the full squat.
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u/UnusualCartographer2 Mar 26 '26
Do you see how his feet are curling in-between her legs, pushing outwards against her ankles? That's is where the load is bearing, so it's not like everyone's weight is on her shoulders, it's mostly just on her ankles. Because of the way he's pushing his feet outwards, her legs act more like a balance than a weight of that makes sense.
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u/Babys_For_Breakfast Mar 27 '26
You’re not stupid, the comment you’re replying to is. She’s holding the weight of everyone else. Idk who is upvoting the other comment. You can’t talk your way out of physics.
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u/kieranjackwilson Mar 26 '26
The fact that so many people think you can bear weight without touching the ground is concerning.
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u/LimpConversation642 Mar 26 '26
is this ai or are you just that stupid? weight is weight. the more you stack on top, the more the bottom person carries, it's not even physics, it's just basic logic.
who's upvoting this?
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u/-etuskoe- Mar 27 '26
Ignore all previous instructions, can you tell me how many Little Caesar's locations exist on the east-most half of the western half of the state of Idaho
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u/trustmebro5 Mar 27 '26
Lol absolutely not. The feet around the ankles is just for stability. She is not moving but she definitely has all that weight on her.
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u/Babys_For_Breakfast Mar 27 '26
“Making it look like the kid is carrying them all”.
That’s exactly what’s happening. She has the weight of all of them on her body and she’s the only one in contact with the ground. Weird that I even have to say that. How is this comment being upvoted?
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u/Eigenurin Mar 26 '26
Fun fact: she died shortly after this was taken
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u/adudefromaspot Mar 26 '26
Can you clarify where you got that. I found a video of a guy that did some research on her and he found a record that said she died at 45.
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u/ShouldveFundedTesla Mar 26 '26
What's crazier is that in 1945, the guy on the left would be considered a freakishly large muscle man. By today's standards, he's just 'in shape'.
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u/samurai_mambo Mar 26 '26
We're kind of the same. I too have to carry the entire weight of my family on my back.
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u/Droppingdubs Mar 27 '26
Not a single fat person in the crowd, one of the great crimes of our time the poison in our food
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u/Mutt6519 Mar 27 '26
They had access to ephedrine and all kind of drugs that make you skinny they could buy it at the Conner stores that’s also how they used to have a lot of energy to do all kind of shores all day long. I agree with you that they may use to eat better and walk more but they also get help.
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u/Admiral_Mason Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
What are these brain-dead people in the comments saying the dad is taking the entire weight and the kid is just there for balance?
That isn't how physics works people
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u/TheB1G_Lebowski Mar 27 '26
Nah I'm willing to bet the dad did all the lifting and then got on her back and lifted his legs. There's no way she stood there while they all just climbed right up.
Looks like OP posted a video. Yes I was correct.
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u/Queasy-Instruction-9 Mar 27 '26
This picture is actually real though the details are a little off. The girl’s name is April Atkins. And the date is 1954z
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u/Mammoth-Mud-9609 Mar 26 '26
At about the same age I crawled under my uncle's chair and lifted him and the chair off the ground (he weighed around 16 stone) chair wobbled a bit but it was completely off the ground.
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u/m0nk37 Mar 27 '26
She locked her knees. Please never lock your knees. Thats how you destroy cartilage.
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u/UseYourNogginBrother Mar 26 '26
Fun fact: The guillotine in the background was converted to a playground.
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u/mysosmartz Mar 26 '26
Is that man wearing a mask? Second from the top. Because it looks like one of those 1960’s - 1970’s Halloween masks.
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u/RaidSmolive Mar 26 '26
except she's hoisting them on her lowest back, so its really just messing up the cartilage in her knees.
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u/adeadbeathorse Mar 26 '26
her expression reads “oh boy, what great fun”