There’s A Viral Chair Challenge On TikTok That Only Women Can Do
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Featured Image Credit: TikTok
Short-form video app TikTok has brought us some absolute gems of late. There was the iconic women doing interpretive dances to their exes abusive voicemails and the emergence of the girl who looked absolutely identical to Ariana Grande.
But the latest viral video might just be the most fascinating. There's a new 'chair challenge' that women appear to be able to do while men can't - and it's baffling people across the world.
The trick involves standing three feet away from a wall and bending over at a 90 degree angle with your head against it. You then have to stand up again while lifting a chair at the same time.
Sounds pretty easy, right?
But oh, no. While most women are managing to do the challenge, try as they might, men keep failing.
The trend was started on TikTok, and has now been replicated all over social media with the same results.
Krystyna Sorrentino, 32, and her fiancé Devin, 29, (from the video above) were one pair who tried to take a stab at it.
And while Krystyna was successful on her first attempt, Devin found it a lot harder, wobbling and struggling to stand upright while lifting the chair.
Devin eventually managed to lift the challenge, but only when concentrating extremely hard after several attempts.
Explaining the science behind the confusing challenge, US scientist Jeremy Johnson says: "Interestingly enough, many girls can successfully complete this challenge, while most boys cannot.
"Why? Again, it's all about the centre of mass.
"The centre of mass for most girls is lower to the hips, while the centre of mass in boys is much higher.
"Therefore, for most girls, the centre of mass while bent over the chair is above their feet, while the centre of mass for most boys is above the chair."
Meanwhile, Professor Brian Ford at Cambridge University, believes it could actually be more to do with the size of men's feet.
made my coworker do the chair challenge and??? LMMAOOK pic.twitter.com/RQ6d0IeRdH
- auntie nay (@maddynay_) November 27, 2019
Tried the tik tok chair challenge cause i thought it was fake...... #TikTok #ChairChallenge pic.twitter.com/5Nf5NYsMAt
- Izzy Sam (@SamTwizzy5) November 20, 2019
Had everyone trying the #ChairChallenge @ office today & the gals could all do it, but the guys could not. Not even if they played football at West Point Sad. // @CaptainCons pic.twitter.com/rfffNq8tOC
- Kate (@katebarstool) November 19, 2019
He told The Sun: "It is true that women have a lower centre of gravity than men, by several centimetres, but that has no bearing on this crafty little trick.
"Men have longer feet than women. Two paces back for a man would be some 60cm, for a woman it's more like 50cm.
"So to begin with, the man is forced further away from the wall."
He adds that as the man is further from the wall, he is likely leaning further forward, which makes the lifting harder.
Whatever the science, we're all for a challenge where women reign supreme!