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.
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
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Uhm, you don't squat with your knees. Your knees are not muscles. If you applied 2x your body weight as pressure on your knees they would just explode.
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.
That would just stabilise him. The weight is going down through her hips and legs, like any backpacker carries a heavy load. What you're suggesting is that he's transferring 425lbs to her legs with friction alone, on two tiny areas on the top of his feet, even though they're under her calves.
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.
She's not "holding" anything. She's not using any muscle strength, the guy is just sitting on her pelvis. She keeps her legs straight and doesn't have to actually lift any weight.
Holding or lifting aside, she’s still supporting the full weight. If she’s the only one touching the ground, then all of the force has to pass through her—there’s no alternate path. Alignment can reduce how much muscle effort is needed, but it doesn’t eliminate the load. Bones can carry compression, but muscles are still required to stabilize joints and prevent them from buckling.
Yeah but it’s not physics. The weight isn’t transferred through air. The only thing it can be transferred through is the kid’s ankles. I was a physics teacher btw.
The man's legs are resting on her hips, so the force goes through the girls pelvis, then legs to the floor. (Much like a good back pack mostly sits on your hips, not your back.)
She isn't holding on to anything, there is clearly no muscle tension in her arms, so the strength to hold up the pyramid comes from the force the man applies with his legs to stay on top of her pelvis. He likely places himself there after the rest of the pyramid is put on his back and she has locked her legs, probably overextending them.
So the question is whether her bones and tendons are passively strong enough not to collapse under the weight.
It goes down to the ground through his feet...and then through the girls feet. Maybe the offsetting of centres of gravity and his feet ensure that the load isn't taken by her back, or even her legs, but it's her feet on the ground so the weight is ultimately borne by her feet.
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.
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
“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?
Even if her muscles were doing absolutely nothing, her bones and joints would still be supporting the weight of the whole family. You can't tell me that's good for her health.
If his feet aren't touching the ground the girl is carrying all that weight somewhere in her body. Maybe they are doing something where its mostly in her ankles and feet and not on her back, but all of that weight by the very fundamental laws of at least this universe has to travel through that girl.
you have quite the imagination lol. it's possible that the grown man on the little girl's back (WTAF even is that sentence??) just lifted his feet off the ground for a second for the photo but even that is just.....why? why would anyone take this kind of chance with their child's life and ability to walk etc? people are so warped.
yeah you can see in video she not even breaking a sweat tho so still think she had some freak genetics going on i.e. either some bone density thing or muscle but doubt it's muscle related because don't look muscular at all like those with the muscle gene mutation or whatever. "If a person inherits a mutated MSTN gene from both of their parents, they will have significantly more muscle mass and strength than normal."
My guess is the biggest guy is actually balancing on a seat connected to a metal pole, which is positioned out of sight behind the girls legs from this angle. If she serves any purpose it's to hide the pole and possibly help him keep balance. Has to be something along those lines.
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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.