Super Powers Under the Skin: Discovery Channel

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A ROCK CLIMBER GETS KNOCKED DOWN by a boulder, but he manages to shove it off his body before it sends him flying off a cliff. He's no world class bodybuilder, but sometimes just being an average Joe is enough. "Human Body: Pushing the Limits," a four-part series that debuts on the Discovery Channel this Sunday at 9 p.m., takes a look at what muscles, bones and brains are capable of, especially in extreme situations. Executive producer John Grassie aims to give viewers a peek at the function and performance of nature's greatest invention.

» EXPRESS: We all have bodies, so how can they be so surprising?
» GRASSIE: We take them for granted. Your mind isn't only listening to me. It's thinking about thousands of other things. There's not a computer that's ever been designed that can keep up with that. So we wanted to take the audience on a journey to explore these amazing properties. Think of how strong our bones really are. There's a young man who was ripped through the roof of his home and thrown over a quarter of a mile and was completely uninjured.

» EXPRESS: But people are injured all of the time. Isn't he more of an exception?
» GRASSIE: We're taking specific properties and looking at the potential. If you absolutely have to harness your body in a certain way, you can. The police officer in the show sprinted faster than many Olympic athletes [to escape a fire]. If you ask him to do it again, he couldn't. But we have the potential to do so if called upon.

» EXPRESS: Is there a way to tap into these powers without facing certain death?
» GRASSIE: There's nothing to stop us from trying and exploring our own ability to focus our senses in the way we need to. Isn't it somewhat humbling just to take a moment and realize that the potential is in us? In the episode on sensation, there's a sequence on Shaolin monks who've mastered mind over body. They can subject themselves to excruciating pain and not be fazed by it. People stand on them, they balance on the tips of swords. It's not a demonstration of theatrics, but of their discipline.

» EXPRESS: Pain isn't something most people should ignore though, right?
» GRASSIE: What's important to recognize is that pain can actually be a lifesaver. It's one of the body's built-in protections. If you look directly into the sun, you feel pain. No one's hitting you. So how does your body translate that into pain? Think about that amazing mechanism.

» EXPRESS: What does science still not understand about the body?
» GRASSIE: The more we explore, the more we have to explore. Do you ever dream you're flying? The subconscious has the ability to put ourselves in situations that are impossible. We are blessed with the ability to reason and speak, but how does a thought translate into a word coming out of your mouth? What you'll find is this amazing ability of our mind to take in info and make key decisions, and we're not even aware of it.

» EXPRESS: Is there one body part, beyond the mind, whose power blows you away?
» GRASSIE: If you think about the muscles, they're thousands of very small miniscule movements that multiply into amazing strength. It's almost a sublime interaction that, taken in toto, provides us with movement, strength and the ability to survive.

Photos courtesy Discovery Channel