The Health Benefits of Wind Tunnels

It had been sometime since I had gone to the wind tunnel to get some exercise.  In order to maximize the experience I decided to get there a bit early so that I could watch some of the other people in the tunnel during their workout.  As with many things there is quite a wide variation in skill level across the individuals within the tunnel.  It does not really matter how good one is, what matters is that you have a good time and learn something new every time you go.

Some of the people in the wind tunnel were doing more advanced inverted moves within the tunnel and I tried to study their positioning and method of balance.  In each position there are a number of ways in which to stabilize the body and make it so that one can maintain a controlled position while inside the wind tunnel.

A few of the people were practicing flying on their back which although looks quite easy is quite difficult at first.  It is not so much that getting into position is difficult it is that people tend to rush the moves in order to get to where they want to be instead of slowly finding the correct positioning and moving subtly around inside of the airspace.  I have learned that in order to ensure safety and truly understand control within the tunnel one must learn how to perform the exercises slowly and be able to move softly and gracefully inside the tunnel.  Once this is achieved then quicker transitions, starts and stops, can be employed in order to put everything together.

It was my turn to enter the tunnel.  After a quick pre-sport warm-up before entering I was able to work on my foundation more readily than I had before and I am guessing that studying what other people were doing had a large part in accomplishing this.  I started to get to the point to where I would think about what I wanted to do and my body would just do it and move forward.  For example, if there is a glass on the counter in the kitchen and you want to get a drink you just think something like, “Take a sip.”  You no longer need to think about how you are going to walk over to the glass, pick it up, bring it to your lips, and swallow without spilling a drop.  This is how I was beginning to feel inside the tunnel and it is an incredibly liberating feeling.

We decided to go to the wind tunnel with some friends from my girlfriend’s work.  They had never been in one before so it was bound to be a great time.  The temperature outside was extremely hot as it typically is in this part of Arizona.  We drove down from Phoenix separately so my girlfriend and I could continue on to Tucson after our little adventure.  I was especially excited to go into the tunnel since it had been a little while since I could find the time to go.  The two guys were a bit nervous as we entered the main floor and watched some other individuals enjoying themselves in the tunnel.

It is a bit funny in that once you get into the tunnel no one on the outside of the tunnel matters at all.  In many ways you are like a fish in a fish bowl on display for everyone to watch your successes and failures.  I entered the tunnel first and was really getting the hang of things, which reinforced and built confidence in my skydiving skills.  Skydiving is a completely different sport and should be taken a bit more seriously than the wind tunnel; however, the habits developed in the wind tunnel do transfer over so it is important to improve every time.

My girlfriend was next and she was really improving.  I would say that her abilities would probably surpass mine in no time if she decided to take it a bit more seriously.  I am her biggest fan and think that she is much more graceful than I am when it comes to most any activity.  She listened well to the fitness instructor, which was surprising as she tended to do what she wanted anyway.

The two friends had rather extensive difficulty at first as most people do when they enter the tunnel but each of them were extremely eager to get back in once it was their turn.  They developed some good foundational skill and were able to maintain near-steady positioning by the time we were done.  It is amazing to me how much body control and strength it takes for people to simply stay in one place in the air.  Although there were a few exciting moments where people got a little out of control, there were no injuries.

When our time was up, everyone was moving a little bit slowly and deliberately trying to stretch their muscles a bit as it was a bit more of a workout than they had expected.  The conclusion was that they loved it and could not wait to go again.  I am always up to go so I am sure we will see them there again.

We decided to invite some family members to go to the wind tunnel with us for some additional fun.  It was good to share the experience with some additional people.  Two of us had been in the wind tunnel before and we knew what to expect.  The other two were in for an unexpected learning experience that they would not soon forget.  The instructor gave everyone a briefing on the basic positioning as they do for any other first time participant in the wind tunnel and then it was time to get in and get the fans fired-up.

I started off in the hope of making it look easy to maneuver around inside of the tunnel.  My first three minutes were pretty good and I had remembered most of what I had gone over in previous trips.  My girlfriend was next and did a solid job as she typically does early on in the tunnel.  Her flexibility tends to require her to use more muscle in order to maintain the positions rather than natural tendon resistance.  She did really well, which helped to boost the confidence of the others joining us that day.

My girlfriend’s brother was next and he jumped in full of confidence which led him to flail all over the place losing his positioning and causing the instructors to come to his aid and get him calmed down.  He had a giant smile on his face as the reality of a new domain set in as he started to simply try and maintain a steady position within the tunnel.  He tended to drift toward the wall without much control, which is quite natural for people that enter the wind tunnel for the first time.  He thought that all of his skateboarding experience as going to make it easy.  It probably made it easier for him but it did not make it easy as it is a completely different sport.  He exited a bit high when he left the tunnel and received a little bit of counseling from the fitness instructor on safety etiquette.

Next up was my girlfriend’s sister in law, who is quite small so they turned the wind tunnel down so she simply did not fly away.  She was a little unsettled from watching her husband fly all over the place uncontrollably but seemed to get the hang of things quite well due to her caution.  She had difficulty maintaining the position within the tunnel but had good body position and tended to listen more to the instructors than her husband.

We all had a great time and were hungry as could be by the time we were done.  It was time for a barbeque and we could not wait to get the grill going.  The two novices could not stop talking about their experiences all of the way home.  My girlfriend joined in the conversation when we could; otherwise we just smiled at each other.

After having a decent base from the few trips to the wind tunnel I decided to take my girlfriend down to Eloy, Arizona once again as a healthy couple’s activity.  I was starting to feel like a fish in a fish bowl and could get around pretty well, which was great.  I felt like I had pretty decent control on my belly.  My girlfriend was a bit behind in her fitness development but she was gaining her bearings and was coming along quite well.  Again it was just the two of us with three minutes on and three minutes off, which is a pretty good workout pace.

I was getting to the point to where the instructor could fly in the tunnel with me so I could follow his movements.  We got a DVD again and I was amazed as to how well I was able to keep up.  The instructor and I were doing formation flying going in all sorts of directions.  I learned a few new techniques and reinforced the techniques I had been developing.

My girlfriend’s should was getting sore from an old sports injury about mid-way through the session.  I gave her the buck-up soldier speech, which was of course caught on the video.  As a result, I ended up having some extended sessions which were amazingly fatiguing.  By the end the instructor was trying to get her to put her hands under her chin parallel to the ground and she was so flexible and fatigued that the best she could do was have her hands together over her head.  It looked like an over extended ballerina position, which was quite comical.  The instructor kept trying to get her to do the move and she would shake her head no like she was trying to be defiant but she wasn’t.  She just could not get her arms down into the right position.  What she needed to do instead of fighting the air was to drop her elbows and bring her arms down.  Instead it was like she was trying to use muscle to lift her head above her arms rather than simply bringing them down under her chin.  We laughed about this all the way home.

By the last session I became aware of the camera, which is positioned away from the door so for most of the video all you get to see is the backside of your body.  I turned around and practiced the arch, reach, pull a few times really working on stabilizing the reach portion used in skydiving to open the parachute.  I was able to navigate fairly well in the reach position, which really builds confidence for safe skydiving.

I like to think that I was doing sort of a, “Signing-off for the health and fitness benefits of wind tunnels for ESPN…” type of thing.  It was pretty cool.  As before, we were both incredibly hungry and fatigued from the experience.  It felt great.