Especially with that fabulous Wade van Niekerk breaking the world record – how awesome is that.
All those athletes participating must be really fit, strong and tough – don’t you think?
Strength is actually a funny thing.
No matter how strong a person is – you would imagine that everybody is strong enough to crumple up a few pieces of paper – right?
Here’s something to try out – to see how strong you really are.
You need five full sheets of newspaper to do this experiment – and you better make sure your family has read it first!
This is what you do…
Hold your arm out straight and hold one piece of newspaper in just one hand.
If you are right-handed use your left hand. If you are left-handed use your right hand.
Now crumple up the paper into a tiny ball – using just one hand.
Do it again with the next piece of paper – and again and again until you have crumpled up all five pieces of newspaper.
Is your arm tired?
I bet it is.
See, we don’t use those muscles in our arms to do hard-crumpling jobs very often so your crumpling muscles tire out quickly.
If you practice crumpling newspapers up like that – your whole arm will grow stronger. (Maybe you better do it with both arms though – otherwise you might land up lopsided!)
We all have about 656 different muscles in our bodies.
Exercise increases their size and strength but will never add to their number.
Even something as simple as walking involves 200 different muscles.
Here’s something to think about… you use 40 muscles when you frown… but only 15 when you smile!
Here’s your funny fact for the week… the fastest muscles are those that blink your eyelids.
They allow you to blink up to 200 times a minute.
We normally blink without thinking.
Actually it is really hard NOT to blink and impossible to manage not to blink for as long as a minute.
Go on – grab a friend and time each other trying not to blink for more than a minute.
Keep smiling!
Sibo
