Many people perform a skydiving tandem jump one or two times in their lives. But some people enjoyed their first skydive so much that they want to repeat it every day. However, is skydiving a good hobby?
In order to decide whether skydiving would be a good hobby for you or not, here are nine advantages of skydiving on a regular basis.
- Skydiving Is A Good Physical Workout
- You Build Mental Strength When Skydiving
- Skydiving Has Health Benefits For Your Body Beyond Exercising
- Skydiving Is One Of The Best Ways To Relieve Stress
- You Will Find Many New Friends In The Skydiving Community
- Other People Will Find You More Interesting And Want To Know More
- You Have A Regular Sense Of Achievement
- Skydiving Is Safer Than Other Extreme Sports
- Skydiving Never Gets Boring
Skydiving Is A Good Physical Workout
The first great advantage of picking skydiving up as a hobby is that you will have regular physical workouts. Although skydiving does not burn as many calories as for example running, it still burns more than many gym activities. For example, skydiving burns 285 calories per hour while weight lifting only burns between 180-244 calories per hour. In contrast to other calories burning activities, skydiving does not feel like being a workout.
You are usually so caught up in the moment that you do not feel your physical exhaustion which makes it not only more enjoyable but also easier to motivate yourself to do it on a regular basis.
Skydiving is also a full-body workout that trains different muscles all over the body and strengthens the core muscles. During freefall, skydivers need to be able to hold themselves in a stable position for which they need good body tension and strength in their shoulders, arms and legs.
Even though it often goes unnoticed by skydivers, jumping regularly will improve body tension and the core strength. Core muscles are not only important for succeeding in many sports but also essential for good health. Training the core muscles regularly improves the posture, prevents back pain, and reduces muscle injuries.
Furthermore, skydiving improves your sense of balance. You need to track through the air constantly and to manoeuvre quickly. Manoeuvres can include doing stunts such as flips or turnarounds or moving from a head-down position to a belly-to-earth position. In order to perform these, you will develop good body control and a great sense of balance.
Formation jumps are the supreme disciplines of skydiving. They require the highest possible sense of balance to be able to hold the formation. Formation jumps also require skydivers to react quickly to any changes from their co-jumpers.
Last but not least, skydiving incentivizes people to do more stretching in their free time. Regular stretching increases the blood circulation in muscles and makes them more flexible. This flexibility reduces the likelihood of muscle injuries drastically and also helps skydivers in case of any turbulences.
If one’s leg gets entangled with a line of the parachute, being able to pull the leg close to the body makes it much easier to resolve the entanglement. You are also less likely to receive long-lasting injuries from angle twist during high-impact landings.
If it weren’t for hard landings, skydiving would also be extremely easy on the joints and strings. As you do not have any hard resistance when moving in the air, your joints are not stressed and do not have to absorb much pressure (which is the case if you are running).
The more experienced skydivers get, the better they become with their landings and the healthier it is for their joints.
Are you curious about the other physical effects of skydiving to your body, check out my post about it. You’ll learn all about how this thrilling activity can impact your physical and mental health in surprising ways.
You Build Mental Strength When Skydiving
Skydivers learn to face and overcome their fears with every jump. They are still a little bit scared and nervous before every jump even if they have performed hundreds of jumps before – and they learn how to deal with this fear.
Skydivers know that fear is not a bad habit but helps us to protect ourselves and to deliver peak performances.
Skydivers are also able to connect their fear with the positive feeling during and after the jump – the excitement during the exit, the freedom during freefall and the sense of achievement afterwards. Skydivers know that they often have to be courageous first and then will be rewarded for it later.
Another great habit that skydivers regularly train is staying focussed and calm under pressure. When jumping from 16,000ft any mistake can be fatal for them and others. Although skydivers only freefall for around 30-60 seconds before they deploy their parachute, they need to constantly observe their environment, move in the right body position and deploy their parachute at the right time.
If they alter from any of these steps, they might collide with others or their parachute might not open properly.
After the parachute is deployed, skydivers will ride the parachute between 5-15 minutes. Although they can enjoy the beautiful scenery during this time, they need to stay focussed in order to navigate to the dropzone and to avoid collisions with other skydivers.
During the complete skydive, skydivers need to keep their focus up in order to be ready to resolve any problem that might occur to them or their parachute. Being able to do that and still enjoy the ride can also be called stress resistance (something that skydivers train automatically).
For example, research has found out that the single most differentiator between normal soldiers and special forces is not physical capabilities but the ability to stay calm and focussed under pressure. Due to this ability, elite soldiers are twice as likely to survive any enemy contact as “normal” soldiers. They are also able to maintain their focus for a longer period of time and do not drop below normal concentration levels afterwards.
Are you interested in knowing how elite forces use skydiving in their operations? Is it similar to what it looks like in Hollywood movies? If yes, in my article “do special forces use wingsuit”, I demystify the common myths about military skydiving operations. The answer will surprise you!
Managing your fears, turning fear into a positive experience and staying focussed and calm under pressure is commonly known as mental strength. And mental strength will help you in your other areas in life – be it as a parent, in your job or in other sports.
Will Smith gave a really great speech about these habits and how skydiving helped him establish them. You can watch it below.
Skydiving Has Health Benefits For Your Body Beyond Exercising
Skydiving does not only have health benefits due to the physical workout. Research and studies have shown that adventure sports boost our lymphatic system and thereby improve our immune system.
One of the reasons why skydiving is good for our immune system is because it increases our blood circulation and trains our body to handle fast-changing environments. Similar to taking a cold shower in the morning, skydivers are exposed to strong temperature differences which can be between 50-75°F (10-25°C) during a skydive.
In addition, the air density is also fundamentally lower at 16,000ft than at the ground. Being exposed to such quick-changing conditions trains your body and boosts your immune system.
While skydiving is good for healthy bodies, you should never go skydiving when being sick. If you are interested in knowing about 7 things that can go wrong if you skydive while being sick, check this article.
Your immune system will also be boosted due to the adrenaline spikes of your body. Adrenaline is released during the so-called fight-or-flight response of the body. It allows you to think faster, be stronger and be more pain resilient. It also helps to fight viruses and little bacterial infections.
However, too much adrenaline can also be unhealthy – specifically when you are exposed to it daily. One of the reasons why chronic stress is so unhealthy is in fact because of the daily adrenaline spikes. Chronic stress is often a result of a temperamental and unpredictable boss who puts a lot of pressure on his employees. For example, when people are being shouted at by their boss, their bodies will initiate the fight-or-flight response and send out adrenaline to their body.
Humans can not only initiate the fight-or-flight response in cases of a feasible threat but also in the anticipation of it. As a result, having an unpredictable boss can mean that people constantly put themselves in the fight-or-flight response and therefore release adrenaline too often. This is extremely unhealthy and increases the likelihood of heart attacks.
A positive effect of skydiving can be that your body will realize its own overreaction to every day’s stress and stops sending adrenaline out in response to it. Skydiving shows your body knows what real threats look like and you become more likely to stay calm in these situations. You and your body know that having pressure at work will not kill you.
Studies have also proven this effect and have shown that people who perform adventurous sport are less likely to have high blood pressure or heart attack.
Skydiving Is One Of The Best Ways To Relieve Stress
Besides putting perceived threats back into perspective, skydiving makes people more stress-resilient and offers a great way to relieve stress.
Going on a skydive will help you to be present at the moment and to forget everything else in your life. Whenever I skydive, I focus on my environment, on bringing my body in the right position and on navigating safely to the dropzone. It does not matter whatever has happened to me in the week before, I am just there – at the moment, alone in the air. In that way, it has similar effects as meditation to me.
The body will also send out chemicals during and after the skydive that make people feel energized, happy and confident. These feelings are known to reduce stress levels significantly.
Skydiving often helps people to put their lives and existing problems back into perspective. When jumping out of the plane at 16,000ft, people face their own mortality. They know that any mistake can be fatal. If you embrace this effect, any other challenge in your life will seem easier.
Most of the problems (or perceived threats) that we are confronted with and continuously worry about will not decrease our quality of life. They will also not kill us when remaining unsolved. And skydiving will continuously remind you of this.
Skydiving is known to give people more confidence in their daily lives as well. Knowing that you will be able to cope with every challenge that is being put towards you, releases stress and helps you become more resilient to it. You might also pick up the positive habit of connecting anxiety and stress with the positive feelings during skydiving and thereby initiating “positive” stress – the so-called Eustress.
In contrast to negative stress, positive stress increases your energy level, creativity and endurance. You will also act more autonomous and are more likely to motivate others to follow you.
You Will Find Many New Friends In The Skydiving Community
Doing sport is a lot about socializing and sharing exciting moments with friends. Skydiving is not different. Once you start jumping regularly you will become part of the community quite quickly and will find many friends.
Not only is the skydiving community very welcoming, but people are also very diverse and interesting. Skydivers do not come out of just one different social class. The community is composed of people with different backgrounds who share the fascination for freefalling.
I usually love it to hang out with my fellow skydivers at the dropzone and to talk about the jump or previous jumps. Skydivers love to share their stories about incredible past jumps and it can be quite amazing to listen to it.
Another reason why you will find new friends quite quickly is that skydiving is a bonding experience. Not only do you share an amazing experience but you also rely on each other. Skydivers trust each other that they help each other in case of any problems such as injuries during the landing process. Skydivers also trust each other to not make any mistake such as opening the parachute when other skydivers are close.
Novice skydivers often also enjoy that skydiving gives them the opportunity to practice it alone or in groups. Sometimes you do not want to be around people and be just for yourself. While you will be together with the people on the airplane, you will be alone once you leave it and can enjoy your ride alone.
If you are more into team sports, you can also perform formation stunts.
Stunts like formations not only look cool but are also difficult to perform, given the limited freefall time. In a stunt, every movement has to be near perfect, otherwise, skydivers might miss the right height for parachute deployment. Learn more about how long the freefall time for skydivers is and the surprising ways to manipulate it, check out my article about it.
Other People Will Find You More Interesting And Want To Know More
Most people dream of skydiving once in their life-time. While some people might fulfil this dream and perform one or two tandem jumps in their life, most people will not – not to speak of performing a solo jump.
People are often scared of heights and the idea of jumping out of an airplane frightens them. It is a great mental challenge for them to overcome their fears and to finally jump.
Skydivers, in contrast, have already overcome their fears and you keep on overcoming them with every jump. This is impressive! Most people will want to know more about you and your hobby if you start jumping regularly.
Skydiving is a dream for many people. And you are living this dream.
You can also motivate other people with your experience and with the description of the amazing feeling during free fall. If you are able to help other people go on a skydive, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime-experience for them which they will always connect with you. This increases your bonds and can be a start for a great friendship.
I, for example, still remember my first tandem instructor and I am quite happy every time I see him.
You Have A Regular Sense Of Achievement When Skydiving Regularly
Having a regular sense of achievement is a strong confidence booster. It will always be a little frightening to jump out of an airplane but you always manage to do so. You are always able to deploy your parachute properly and to steer the canopy safely. Succeeding in this will give you confidence in your own abilities and will help you to embrace and enjoy them. This confidence often also comes with a sense of humility and endurance.
Skydiving shows you that the key to a successful skydive is proper preparation, continuous and right execution and cooperation with others – principles that you can transfer to other areas of your life as well.
Confidence is so important for your life not only because it makes you happy and satisfied with yourself but also because it comes with a lot of optimism. Studies have shown that self-esteem fosters experimentation and persistence after failure.
Persistence and optimism help people to try more things and take on challenges that seem to be impossible at first. Studies have shown that successful startup founders often have a high level of optimism and persistence.
Would you like to know how skydiving boosts your confidence and helps you channel your fear into something thrilling? Here’s my post about it where I talk about the 7 reasons to skydive when being scared of heights.
In other words, skydiving will not only impact you during the sport but will improve your life in general.
Skydiving Is Safer Than Other Extreme Sports
One of the greatest advantages of skydiving is that it is an extreme sport. Extreme sports are not only physically exhausting but mentally enhancing as well. However, most of the other extreme sports are either extremely dangerous or require years of preparation before you can do them.
Mountaineering, for example, is physically one of the most demanding extreme sports. Novices need to train their strength and cardio for months and adjust to lower oxygen levels before they can climb a high mountain successfully. They also need to learn a lot about different environments and weather conditions.
While skydiving is also exhausting and requires people to understand different weather conditions, it is much easier to learn. You also do not need any preparation time (if you have an average fitness level). If you want to learn skydiving, you can sign-up for an AFF-course and learn it within two weeks.
Although skydiving seems to be very dangerous, death rates are extremely low. The likelihood of dying is 0.00045% i.e. one fatality in every 220,301 jumps. The death rate for high mountain climbing, in contrast, is 0.006% ie. one in every 15,400 climbs.
In fact, skydiving is even safer than many normal sports. For example, you are more likely to die from boxing or to die during a bike cycling accident.
Speaking of accidents, did you know that skydiving is so much safer than driving? Would you like to know what other daily activities are more likely to kill you than skydiving? I have written a full article examining the likelihood of dying from a skydiving accident. You’d be surprised by the facts!
Skydiving Never Gets Boring
Last but not least, skydiving does not get boring even after hundreds of jumps. If you do not feel challenged and amazed by normal jumps anymore, skydiving has many subforms which give you more variety.
For example, you can start performing formation stunts with fellow skydivers or put on a wingsuit. Wingsuits will allow you to track through the air more quickly and to cover greater distances.
Wingsuit is a subdiscipline of skydiving that requires a different set of skills and gear. If you’d like to know more about the difference between skydiving and wingsuit flying, read my article about the 11 stunning differences between skydiving and wingsuit flying.
You can also jump with a snowboard under your feet and surf through the skies (this is called skysurfing).
While some people might jump less frequently after a while, I have not met someone who regretted starting skydiving and stopped jumping for real.
I hope you will start skydiving as a hobby soon. However, skydiving also has disadvantages that I do not want to keep back. If you want to learn more about the 9 disadvantages of picking skydiving as a hobby, read this post.
That being said, enjoy your freefall on a regular basis!
