I, like Sci-Fi writers, have no sense of scale

Well, maybe not no sense but a very poor one at least. Long story short I'm working on a character with Super-Strength and since I'm trying to keep things reasonable I've decided to go with them being able to easily lift two times their body weight and bench press twice that (of course in 'oh crap someones going to die unless you lift something right now' situations all bets are off since I heard about a woman who weighed about eight stone lifting a car weighing twenty times that off her friend). Since they weigh 11 1/2 stone (161 lbs), most of which is muscle by the way, this equals 322 lbs and 644 lbs respectively. The problem is that I don't know what those weights would translate into. I mean, I've already got them throwing people around like ragdolls but beyond that I'm stumped.

An average car weighs about 2000-4000 lbs, so if you're going for "Superman Car Lift" level strength, you might want to aim higher.

I'm not going for 'lift a car' level strength. As I said above, I'm trying to keep things semi-reasonable.

^^^ Those weights are doable by normal humans. I myself have done 200 lbs on the bench press and I know guys who can do at least 100 more than that in weight.

Then you have Olympian level strength tests. Some of those guys damn near put old Superman comics to shame.

I know that they're doable by normal humans which is why I went with them, although due to the aforementioned poor sense of scale I don't know if they fit with some of the stuff I've got the character in question doing, which include picking up people twice their size without any major effort, throwing people around (Alex is a fan of the second type of Grievous Harm with a Body), rugby tackling someone who was in Implacable Man mode at the time, and routinely picking up a, admittedly much smaller, friend one handed. Of course given that all that is so far just in my notes and/or head rather then the actual story so if it's too over the top it may change. It should also be noted that they don't really look as strong as they are, being long limbed and lean rather then bulky.

edited 22nd Jan '11 10:01:05 AM by Weaver

EDITS: Oh, missed teh part where you said you weren't aiming for car-lifting. Take what I say below and scale it back a bit as you see fit.

Lifting a car, you are only lifting part of the full weight - maybe half or somewhere in that range - the rest of the car's weight is supported by the other two wheels or whatnot. Basically, enough to flip the car over onto its side or something. Group of guys can do it, and if it's say, a small car, a group of guys can MOVE the car.

Plus, be aware that grabbing a car by a small section of fender and trying to lift it, if you even were strong enough, is a great way to rip off a fender, sending the rest of the car back to the ground. Especially if it's a modern car with lots of plastic body cladding and stuff. You'll have to grab the vehicle by a jacking point or somewhere along it's frame so you can safely lift the vehicle.

Now, if you're looking to lift the entire car off the ground, add those concerns to the equation and consider balance. Balancing while holding a heavy load is no small feat, and even if you can manage it, if you almost drop it and try to recover, you can easily throw out your back, tweak a muscle or sprain yourself in the effort to avoid dropping the weight.

Just a few things to think about. I bet the character will have some pretty big hands - more surface area with which to grab heavy things for a better grip and all that.

edited 22nd Jan '11 2:50:43 PM by pvtnum11