VACUUM III: Training for the void [PHYSICAL] (Patreon)

Today's question is:
"HOW DOES ONE CONDITION FOR A PERFORMANCE INSIDE A VACUUM TOWER?" 

Any circus act (or stunt, for that matter) requires specific conditioning.
If you've done any trapeze, you know that it takes time, pain, and patience to build up those necessary callouses on your hands so that you can hold the bar at all.
If you've done aerial straps, you know that it takes (a seemingly infinite amount of) time to build up some very particular, peculiar kinds of strength in small bits and pieces of your rotator cuff (in weird positions) in order to do even basic movements without tearing your shoulder to shreds.

Stunt performers will train a wide range of movement styles, martial arts, extreme sports, etc. in order to build up a broad repertoire of physical ability, hone their reaction times, learn how to fall/fail in a way that doesn't completely total your body, etc., so that when it comes time to do something tricky on camera, they neither (a) break half the bones in their body, or (b) 'choke' (aka, get scared and F it up). 

Today I'm looking at the PHYSICAL ASPECT of conditioning for VACUUM.

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There are some key utilization differences in VACUUM (vs using a vacuum device for recreational purposes) that present physical challenges to troubleshoot and work through.

The main goal of a vacuum bed or tower is to completely immobilize its occupant.
The main goal of my vacuum-tower-turned-circus-apparatus is to completely immobilize me cyclically, for short lengths of time, over and over again.

Most vac-beds are used as the name implies – horizontally, on a level surface – with the occupant laying on their back or side. Vac-towers and vac-cubes offer a little more option for physical orientation, and people generally kneel or stand within the volume.
I'm doing almost everything EXCEPT 'just' standing or kneeling within the volume. I'm balancing on one leg; I'm squeezing my 5'9" frame into a tiny space to find bridge shapes; I'm carefully navigating the durable-yet-fragile environment of the latex with long limbs in order to slowly, exactingly, find my way into various hand balancing positions.

I'm attempting shapes and positions that can compromise my airway and/or blood flow if I move quickly or do not settle in to the 'right' shape with a certain amount of speed.

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As a general statement, the vacuum tower is a challenging environment to physically tolerate: 

1. Evacuating air from a closed volume develops a pressure differential between the volume and the surrounding atmosphere. The physical structures of our ears are delicate, and the mechanisms that govern our hearing and balance are not designed for rapid pressure changes. The air pressure inside the tower is cycling and equalization must happen regularly, if not intuitively.

2. And it's VERY overwhelming. Neurologically, there is a massive amount of stimuli that has to be handled and process for the duration of my stay inside the apparatus. The noise, as previously mentioned; the pressure and contact on every available smidgen of skin surface area; pressure on your breathing and blood flow; mental focus to maintain the airway, as well as remember the choreography and navigate the volume without tearing the latex by accident ... the list goes on.

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NERVOUS SYSTEM REGULATION

• When we're in a situation that we perceive as dangerous or threatening, our sympathetic nervous system takes over. You've undoubtedly experienced this: it's the 'fight or flight' response that dumps adrenaline into your system, jacks up your heartbeat, pumps blood into your muscles rapidly, dilates your pupils, and gets your body ready to GO.  Our parasympathetic nervous system ('rest and digest') is responsible for calming us down. These two systems work together to maintain homeostasis / equilibrium.
  
• As I touched on above, there are quite a few factors that easily make the environment of the vacuum tower one that is easy to get worked up about – which in turn stimulates my sympathetic nervous system. Remaining in this state is physically taxing for the body. It's not somewhere I want to be if I'm about to dive into a long, challenging physical performance.
  
• There is an ironic, additional factor that aids in the nervous system aspect physical conditioning: having deep pressure applied to large areas of the body stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system. This means that – while I might be teetering on the edge of my sympathetic nervous system in the early stages of air evacuation (and certainly in the moments RIGHT before full evacuation), once the suction completely closes the latex around me I'm essentially in a weird version of a deep pressure stimulation therapy machine. Anecdotally, it is immediately a certain kind of calm, relaxing feeling that comes over me when we finally get to that moment of full suction. There's an awareness/background apprehension about some kind of breathing mechanism being compromised (which I consider a healthy amount of anxiety to maintain, to stay sharp...).

Basically, part of the physical conditioning for this act is familiarizing myself with the pattern of cycling back and forth through states of forced stimulation (sympathetic nervous system) and forced relaxation (parasympathetic nervous system). I have to be aware of and get used to the pendulum swing back and forth each time the volume is evacuated and re-inflates.

It is my own personal, pet theory that part of being a successful pursuant of contortion-level flexibility is the ability to feather the fine line between one's sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems; to stay calm in positions that your brain is telling you can't possibly be sustained; to maintain a physiological state in which you are not breathing heavily; etc. Four years of intensive, dedicated contortion training has already given me a degree of awareness and sensitivity towards what state my nervous system is in. The VACUUM project is just another level.

My years of competitive Muay Thai, as well as working in film & television as a stunt performer, made it necessary to learn early on how to control my mental and physiological state to the best of my ability. The way that these early-acquired skills continue to aid my circus career and weird/risky artistic endeavours is something I often think about.

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TECHNICAL ENDURANCE

• The tower does not allow for easy movement or effortless transition. When the suction is turned off at the end of a 'shape'/'trick', the volume does not rapidly re-inflate. This means that there is heavy rubber still pushing against me from all directions, and this pressure dissipates in a very gradual way. Instinctively, once the latex releases that maximal level of pressure, the temptation is to think, PHEW I can finally move again ... which is not the case.
  
  Not only do I have to hold the shape WHILE under maximal pressure (aka, at full suction), I have to hold a shape/trick for 3x to 4x longer than I normally would to accommodate the fact that even when the volume is only half-evacuated there is no room to shift or adjust a position. I have to hit my position, and STAY THERE.
  
• The way that the air is sucked out of the volume means that the latex draws inward  from the vertices of the tower. From a performative standpoint, if I want to create a certain image to the front of the apparatus, I must position my body in front of, or behind, the 'centre line' of the interior space. For example, if I want you to be able to see the entirety of a handstand shape, I might need to 'cheat' my body position inside all the way up towards one corner only; for another, where I want parts of my body to be obscured to the back of the tower, I might occupy the centre of the space. Unfortunately, this means that while the air is slowly drawn out of the volume, the different panels of latex are pushing unevenly on my body in certain shapes/tricks. It is one thing to hold a contortion handstand for one long minute with pressure being applied to your body in ways that make your muscles work harder than they might normally have to; it is another thing to hold a contortion handstand for one long minute with uneven pressure trying to shove only one arm upwards and outwards into an ugly bowed shape, or just out of position entirely.
  
  The amount of strength I need to perform shapes/tricks that I am confident and familiar with, inside of this apparatus, is wildly different than in a standard performance.
  
• A contortionist already has to use different breathing techniques than an aerialist or acrobat when in extreme positions. For example, deep belly-breaths are something to be avoided; my first coach, Serchmaa Byamba, always told me to 'sip' the air through my nose because deep breathing would make me light-headed and pass out (and I have watched other students fail to heed this advice and do exactly that in some classes).
  
  It's challenging to maintain a calm, measured, minimal-movement style of breathing within the volume of the tower.  I've found myself needing to revisit paying this aspect of performance more attention than I have in years, for VACUUM. Blacking out inside the vacuum tower is extremely low on my list of Things To Do.
  
  Practice makes perfect.
  
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  PHYSIOLOGICAL LEARNING CURVE / AWARENESS
  
  In simple terms – as with any circus art – part of the conditioning for VACUUM is literally just logging hours (inside the volume). Getting used to what the different degrees of pressure are; getting used to the sensation of what breathing inside it is, etc.  
  
  Rather than entering the latex envelope and just 'resting' (staying in a single, upright position) as one normally does in a vacuum device, I am (a) continuously moving inside the tower and (b) the air pressure inside is cycling back and forth repeatedly. Both of these things complicate adaptation to performing in this environment.
  
  One of the major learning curves has been in regards to which shapes are safe to attempt, and which ones aren't. While I won't rule it out in the long run, so far in my research I've found that really easy and basic contortion shapes – like a bridge, or a standing shape with my head and neck arched backwards – are big red flags inside the environment of the vacuum tower.
  Why?
  Well, even if my airway is protected, there's nothing protecting my neck from being squeeeezed as the volume reaches full suction. I've had a couple dicey moments where the latex fully shrink-wraps around me and I immediately think, Oh, this was a DUMB idea ... and spend the next ridiculously long-feeling three seconds waiting for the latex to release as black spots dance in front of my eyes.
  Basically, the apparatus is squeezing my carotid artery. Hello, blackout territory.
  I'm sure there's ways to make some of these shapes safe, but whether or not they would remain aesthetically pleasing after this is achieved is another story. For the time being, I'll be avoiding those shapes.
  
  I've also had a sharp learning curve in regards to which sort of head positions are ideal within the apparatus. The pressure is strong enough that it will try to shove the breathing tube up against my face, or pull it away from me (if I'm not holding the regulator bite firmly between my teeth). Having my head facing sideways or forward, with a slight downward tilt, is the most comfortable position. Unfortunately, most contortion shapes involve pulling your head up to look at the audience, or have your face up as you arch backwards in a shape. These latter two orientations unfortunately result in the breathing tube being crushed against my teeth and gums while the volume is in full suction, which is an intensely unpleasant and distracting experience while you're already trying to keep your cool.
  
  Finally,  here's a weird, not-one-you-think-of-often-in-circus necessity:
  Equalizing your ears.
  
• Our ears are delicate things. Changes in air pressure require us to equalize. If you don't equalize when the moment calls for it, you're inviting painful middle-ear barotrauma. SCUBA divers are familiar with this risk, and the painful sensation associated with having trouble 'clearing your ears' while underwater.
  
  Normal air pressure (at sea level) is 14psi (a hard, absolute vacuum – like space – would be 0psi). I'm working on calculating what the psi inside my tower might be at full suction (because I'm a nerd and I think that's fascinating), but here's an interesting little chart from the Divers Alert Network website detailing at what point ear trauma happens while underwater.
  
  

Remember that the deeper you go below sea level, the more densely packed air molecules become; for a diver, that means that you must take precautions not to rocket up to the surface after being at depth: if you are 60 ft below the surface, the air molecules you're breathing from your tank are more densely packed together due to the pressure being exerted on you from your environment; if you pop up to surface level rapidly, all those air molecules are going to expand rapidly, too.  Yikes. Lung rupture, anyone? I mean, amongst other terrible things that can happen that I don't need to get into here ... like the bends .   

In terms of ear health alone, it is necessary to equalize your ears early and equalize often when diving. As you descend, the pressure inside your ear causes the eardrum to stretch inwards, as the airspace behind it becomes smaller; if you don't equalize, the eardrum will stretch as much as it can and then ... rupture. To give a rough idea of how often that needs to happen, another dive site recommends "equalizing every two feet (.6 meters) of descent, but often that’s too late. At a fairly slow descent rate of 60 ft (18.288 m) per minute, that's an equalization every two seconds. Many divers descend much faster and should be equalizing constantly" (DiveIn).

Astronauts can get 'bent' too. Their space suits are pressurized, but a spacewalking astronaut must navigate the atmospheric pressure differences between their suits and the shuttle cabin after going on a spacewalk: "Most space suits operate at pressures below normal atmospheric pressure (14.7 lb/in2, or 1 atm); the space shuttle cabin also operates at normal atmospheric pressure. The space suit used by shuttle astronauts operates at 4.3 lb/in2, or 0.29 atm. Therefore, the cabin pressure of either the shuttle itself or an airlock must be reduced before an astronaut gets suited up for a spacewalk." (HowStuffWorks).

Now – I am neither deep-sea diving (AKA, in an environment that is around 800x denser than air), nor going on spacewalks (aka in an environment that is 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times less dense than air), for VACUUM, but I'm dealing with cycling air pressure nonetheless.
I'm equalizing my ears often while inside the volume. In these early days of research and creation I've noticed a very similar feeling in my ears after rehearsal to what I note after a day of doing 4 or 5 dives to around 60ft. My ears aren't damaged, of course – but they are 'sore' in a weird way. It's possibly a combination of the things that might contribute to the same effect after diving: all the soft tissue and small bits and pieces around the middle and inner ear fatiguing, and possibly equalizing too late / not often enough and not realizing it. I'm being cautious and attentive about this, moving forward.

A friendly party DM'd me on IG suggesting the earplugs that help people equalize on airplanes, or fully sealing earplugs. I might give those a go this week.

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I'll leave off here for now! Up next is mental/psychological conditioning for the danger-balloon.

xx. 

s