Benefits of Adrenaline from Skydiving

The first thing people say when they hear someone is going skydiving is, “oh, so you’re an adrenaline junky!” Everyone knows that the adrenaline rush from jumping out of an airplane is one of the main draws of the sport. Skydiving adrenaline, like all sources of adrenaline, can be highly addictive. How do you think we got here?! 

The effects of skydiving on the brain are nothing short of amazing. Being able to tune into your environment for full immersion will make your skydive even better. Besides just being a ton of fun, we can even tell you about the health benefits of skydiving!

What is Adrenaline?

C₉H₁₃NO₃ … epinephrine. Or as you might know it, Adrenaline. 

Adrenaline is defined as a hormone secreted by the adrenal glands, especially in conditions of stress, increasing rates of blood circulation, breathing, carbohydrate metabolism, and preparing muscles for exertion. That’s an awful lot of words just to say: adrenaline is awesome!! 

This big hormone comes from two little glands that sit on top of each kidney, and boy does it pack a punch. Adrenaline’s purpose in our body is to fuel our fight or flight response, but here at Oklahoma Skydiving Center, we prefer to focus on the flight part. Hehe. 

Benefits of Adrenaline on the Body

The release of adrenaline turns our bodies into the stuff of comic books. Increased blood flow. Dilated air passages. Elevated heart rate. Heightened senses. Decreased sensitivity to pain. You. Are. A. Superhero. So why shouldn’t you fly like one?

Adrenaline quickly pushes our body into response mode. When our brain senses stress or danger, it automatically preps our bodies to address the threat. This makes it so that we can perform better when adrenaline is pumping through our veins and, hopefully, survive. 

The cool part is that if our brain thinks we are in danger, even if we are in an intentionally extreme situation like skydiving, it will still trigger the adrenaline rush. This means that you can experience the benefits of adrenaline without having to do something like jumping into a den of hungry lions. Skydiving allows you to initiate a stress response in your brain and body while actually just having a TON of fun! 

Benefits of Adrenaline on the Brain

Hormones of all kinds have a huge impact on our brain chemistry and how our command center operates. The main thing that adrenaline does for our brains is it decreases our response time. 

After you land from your skydive, you will likely remember everything in a much slower pace than it actually happened. If you get video (pro tip: get the video), you are going to be surprised at how much faster everything happened in real life than it did in your brain. This is because adrenaline heightens our senses and allows our brain to process the world around us faster than we normally would. 

The original function of this ability was for surviving in a world that wanted to kill us all of the time. Whether it was animals, weather, or other humans, we needed to be able to trigger a survival response if we wanted to stay alive. Now that we live in a world we have shaped for our comfort, we can use this advantage to do amazing things like jump out of airplanes. 

The adrenaline rush you will experience during your skydive will allow you to be more present, react to the new environment around you, and focus on the thrill in ways that will make the whole thing that much more enjoyable. Bodies are pretty cool, aren’t they?

Adrenaline and Skydiving

Skydiving is unnatural. There is no part of your life experience that will prepare your brain or body for what it will feel like to jump out of an airplane for the first time. The instinctual part of our brain wants absolutely nothing to do with exiting an airplane miles above the earth. 

Even though you know you aren’t careening toward the earth with no safety net, it’s very difficult to convince your amygdala that this thing you are about to do is a good idea. As soon as your brain realizes what’s going on (which, let’s be honest, is probably hours before you even arrive at the dropzone), it’s going to start responding to that stress. 

That’s where the adrenaline comes in. 

You will probably experience some effects as you arrive at the dropzone the day of your jump. Not the full response, but some priming for the main event. When you are finally in the door and about to jump is when the rush will hit you. The sky will become bluer, the air will smell cleaner, and all of your senses will take in every detail of the skydive. Instead of rallying against the perceived threat, your body will rise to the occasion and you will be flying high, in more ways than one. 

Once you come down from the adrenaline, you will feel sleepy and maybe even a bit wiped out. On the same day that you get the biggest rush of your life, you’ll also get your best night of sleep!

Experiencing, enjoying, and ultimately overcoming the stress response from the adrenaline rush will make you feel like you can do anything. It will boost your confidence and make you more apt to try other new or scary things. In a way, you really will become that superhero your body was telling you that you are all along! 

Ready to fly? Book your jump today!