As the summer theme park season kicks into
high gear, roller coaster enthusiast Pete Trabucco says there may be a health
benefit to the thrill rides that scare us senseless.
“It helps you mental health-wise in that you can actually overcome
your fear,” says Trabucco, author of “America’s Top Roller Coasters and
Amusement Parks” (2009, Tate Publishing) in a phone interview from Old Bridge,
N.J.
And that positive experience may translate
into conquering challenges in other areas of your life, adds the rider of more
than 1,000 roller coasters around the world.
“Once you’ve overcome one fear, you’re like, ‘Let’s look for the next
one,’ ” Trabucco says, be it speaking in public or jumping out of an airplane.
Being too frightened to get on a roller
coaster can transfer into other areas of your life, he adds.
“That fear becomes a fear of all things unknown,” says the New Jersey
resident who confesses he hated coasters as a kid. Pretty soon you’re thinking,
“From now on, I’m not trying anything I’m unsure of,” he says, and, “That
changes a person’s life a lot.”
Besides giving us a psychological boost,
Trabucco says amusement park visits can offer other health benefits like stress
relief or even some physical exercise.
“It gets you in a positive mood, it gets you to relax a little, even
for a couple of hours. In stressful times, that can be a godsend,” says the
aviation industry worker who is writing a second edition of his book to be
released in April of 2015.
Relax away
The idea of amusement park outings being
good for your health is a new one for Dick Andrew, vice president of marketing
at Lagoon in Farmington, who says he’s never seen any studies or research on
the subject.
But Andrew says, “Obviously it’s a pleasant
experience and a get-away from the norm, and I hope people find it relaxing and
refreshing. ... I presume that is the case or people wouldn’t keep coming
back.”
Historically, folks have always flocked to
parks with lakes, trees and picnic grounds to escape the stresses of everyday
life, says Trabucco, who talks about travel and vacation as a regular on the
USA Radio weekly program “Daybreak.”
Offering recreational opportunities to
employees, for instance, was the reason Milton Hershey started Hersheypark in
Pennsylvania, in the town he built for workers at the Hershey chocolate
factory.
“They needed a place to unwind and he created the park that was the
forerunner of Hersheypark,” Trabucco says. Hershey’s philosophy was “a good
worker is going to be a worker who is healthy, emotionally and physically,” he
explains.
Today, Trabucco says amusement parks can
fill this same need, whether it’s providing positive social connections with
family and friends or offering a little exercise.
“The average person who walks in an amusement park is probably going
to walk 5 to 10 miles,” Trabucco says. “You’re actually out in the sun walking
around getting your exercise without even knowing you’re getting your
exercise.”
Also, roller coasters subject their riders
to intense g-forces, making the author wonder whether they might even help you
get in shape. After all, he says, “you’re taking three, four, five times your
amount of weight.”
Health boosters
Michael Olpin, director of Weber State
University’s Stress Relief Center, agrees there can be some positive benefits
in an amusement park visit but says the simple act of riding rides does not
constitute exercise.
There’s no high-intensity interval training
or weight lifting involved, he says, or no aerobic activity that elevates the
heart rate for 15 to 20 minutes.
“That can’t happen at the amusement park unless you are jogging
around the park,” the professor and director of health promotion for the Ogden
university says.
However, Olpin says a day spent at Lagoon
or on vacation does provide stress relief by letting us recharge and relax from
the daily grind.
“Anytime you can vacate yourself from those situations that you find
stressful is a good thing,” he says.
Research on mind-body connections, in a
field called psychoneuroimmunology, shows that any time we engage in activities
we enjoy — say, riding a roller coaster — our immune system gets a boost, Olpin
says.
“You’re smiling and you’re laughing and you’re having great
experiences, it bumps up your immune system,” he says. “It’s therapy through
amusement parks, I guess.”
“Whatever your attitude is, your body’s listening to your attitude,”
he says.
Olpin agrees with Trabucco’s belief that
conquering fear can be a benefit of amusement parks. The Weber State professor
challenges students in one of his classes to do something they are afraid of
and once they do it, they always tell him they are going to tackle something
else.
“Small victories result in personal growth and willingness to try
other things,” he says.
Thrill ‘therapy’
Andrew, at Lagoon, says folks may indeed
get some exercise walking around the park’s 140 acres but exercise isn’t among
his list of things he thinks attract crowds to the Farmington park.
“They come for fun; they come to create memories with their families,
to share time with their families; to get away from the humdrum or everyday
life, to be entertained,” he says.
Sure, visitors have a chance to face their
fears on certain rides, he says.
“The illusion of danger is created so it kind of gets the adrenaline
running,” Andrew says. But as for there being any real danger, “That’s pure
fantasy. ... You’re infinitely safer riding the thrill rides like the wacky worm coaster at Lagoon than
driving in your car to get here.”
Although Trabucco has now ridden some of
the world’s top roller coasters, he says he didn’t become a fan until he had a
daughter of his own who needed a riding buddy.
“I actually did it to overcome a fear; it was more therapeutic,” says
the author.
He may have traveled the world to scream on
roller coaster rides but Trabucco has yet to take a spin on Wicked, Colossus or
any of the coasters at Lagoon.
Next time he visits Utah, he says he will
have to make a stop in Farmington.
