27 Mar 6 Superpowers You Didn’t Know Your Body Could Develop

We’ve all wanted to be a superhero at some point during our childhood. Actually, come to think of it, some might have been tempted to go down the evil genius route, or were more of a princess and tea party type, but that’s besides the point. So, most of us were great fans of superheroes, but then kind of grew out of the whole notion when faced with the harsh realities of life. I had to face the fact that I would never grow metal claws or develop telekinetic powers when I was 9, but I still saw the potential in applying myself and becoming a Batman or a Punisher style superhero, until I simply gave up the whole vigilante dream around the age of 12 when I learned more about the legal repercussions and the toll that this lifestyle would take on my body – punching criminals in the face isn’t all that fun when they fight back. However, my fascination with superheroes led me to some very interesting facts about real life super powers that the human body is capable of developing, given the right circumstances, and here are some of the coolest ones.

1. Reinforced Skeleton

As anyone who has watched the legendary Van Damme film The Kickboxer and then proceeded to shin kick a tree will tell you, human bones are kind of weak and frail, and hitting them against something solid, say some thug’s skull, hurts like hell. Well, we have our sheltered and comfortable lives to thank for this. You see, the body is a wonderfully adaptive machine – when you put it through a lot of stress, to the point where it can barely handle the force, it regenerates and grows back a bit stronger and bigger. When you train at the gym, you are tearing muscle tissue, and the body compensates for this given that enough nutrients and adequate rest are provided. The same can be done with the bones in the body in a phenomenon known as Wolf’s Law.

Essentially, you keep hitting your bones against increasingly harder and on harder surfaces over time, with light force, and they eventually become incredibly strong. Martial artists do this to toughen striking and blocking surfaces, and combined with calluses that develop on the skin, this can make your body tough as nails. Take it too far though, and you’ll end up with hideously deformed knuckles and sandpaper skin on your hands.

2. Super Healing

Now, while you can’t really get the Wolverine levels of instant regeneration, it is possible to greatly boost your body’s healing capabilities, and even live through very serious illnesses and injuries. It sounds a bit like an 80’s movie cliché, but the secret to this power is believing in yourself, or more accurately, being absolutely certain that you can and will get better.  I’m guessing you’re familiar with the placebo effect, where people who believe that they have been given something that can heal them will show signs of recovery, even if what they have been given doesn’t actually work. And here’s the kicker – the placebo effect works even if you know it’s a placebo. So, in theory, you should be able to hack your body into healing itself from all kinds of things, just as long as you have a little bottle of sugar pills labeled Super Healing Tablets, or you pull a Monty Python Black Knight and convince yourself that it’s merely a flesh wound.

3. Night Vision

You can’t spark fear into the hearts of your adversaries from the darkest shadows of the night if you can’t see where you’re going, and you definitely don’t want to mistake an unfortunate club-goer relieving himself in a back alley for a criminal and unleash your personal brand of justice, the painful kind, on some random civilian. This is why night vision can really come in handy, but you don’t have to spend your hard-earned cash on the latest night vision goggles, because your body has an incredibly low-tech solution for you.

It’s a trick that pirates supposedly used when boarding another ship – you keep one eye closed, or use an eye patch, when running past a well-lit area, and open it up once you’re back in the darkness – you don’t have to wait half a minute for it to adjust to the darkness.

4. Phonebook-Ripping Grip

There is an old strongman routine, where they would take a phone book or a deck of cards and rip it down the middle. When people hear this, they imagine it would take a very huge person to do this, but the truth is, it’s all about the grip and forearm strength, and these can be trained. Even a lot of the people you see at the gym don’t have an especially strong grip, and it is only because they never actually train for this, apart from the isometric hold they have on the barbell during certain exercises.

However, there are several types of grip you can train for, including pinching something between the thumb and the rest of the fingers, crushing something in the hand – like the famous Captains of Crush hand grippers – and extending the fingers. It takes several years of practice to strengthen the hands, but people have been known to bend iron bars and straighten horseshoes. The best thing about it is that you can be an average-sized person with a very strong grip, and no one would suspect that you have this crushing power at your disposal.

5. The Classic Comic Book “One Punch Knockout”

The most iconic superhero imagery is that of a muscular costumed man or woman punching out a bad guy. Batman would often run up to a group of thugs and knock them off their feet with a single blow. Now, although you wouldn’t normally think it, there is actually a bit of realism in some of these comics. For one, the hero is shown putting their whole body weight into the punch, often combined with a lot of momentum generated when running up to an opponent, and there is also the very important element of surprise. There is no getting around it – if you want to throw super-effective punches, you need to learn to throw a good punch.

Once you have the mechanics down, you need to train for explosive power, as well as precision. The best way to get a knockout is to land a hard strike to the jaw or along the jawline, and as Mike Tyson puts it: “the punch that knocks you out is the one you don’t see coming”. As you can see, being a vigilante hero is as much about trickery and deception, as it is about hard training. Those inhumanly strong bones and callused fists also come in handy, as they allow you to hit hard without breaking your hand.

6. Spider Sense

Spidey’s ability to sense imminent danger is what got him out of a lot of potentially catastrophic situations. However, as any self-defense expert worth his salt will tell you, if you’re dodging punches at the last moment, you’ve probably already made several big mistakes to get into that situation. Raising your overall awareness is an important factor in seeing troubles a mile away, and it can provide you with the time to react appropriately. It comes down to understanding that trouble is always a possibility, but a small one in most cases.

Knowing this means that you will be looking around before you put the key into the lock, becoming a bit more cautious when approached by a stranger, understanding common criminal behavior and body language, developing better peripheral vision and so on. If you are switched on and paying attention, raising your level of caution as the situation dictates, you’ll be able to instinctively pick up on bad vibes, and it will seem like you have a sixth sense.

We may not have the power to fly, teleport or read minds, but if you’ve always preferred the brute superheroes who like to jump into the fray and get their hands dirty, there are a number of superpowers that you can actually develop with some time and effort. These won’t be terribly useful against modern criminals with guns, and vigilantism is incredibly illegal, so you may want to approach them simply out of intellectual curiosity.