When Tyce Nielsen does a pullup, effortlessly rising and falling like a fitness metronome, the muscles in his arms look as if they are going to burst through his skin.
But Nielsen’s real strength isn’t in his mango-size biceps. It’s in his hands.
An aerial acrobat who performs on a trapeze bar a dozen feet above the audience, Nielsen counts on some of the smallest muscles in his body to keep him from falling. So does his wife, Mary Ellen Wolfe, because she’s frequently suspended from Nielsen’s vicelike grip when they perform in "CabaRAE," the variety show at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort.
"If you lose your grip, it’s over," Nielsen said. "That has to be the strongest part of your body."
Being fit is essential for an aerial acrobat, said Nielsen, a 26-year-old native of Salt Lake City. He and his wife have created a routine that’s physically demanding: With Nielsen hanging upside down, legs wrapped around the trapeze, the couple spin, twist and flip as they hold onto each other. "For 51⁄2 minutes it’s an all-out effort," Nielsen said. "The thing that is so hard is we don’t get to touch the ground. It’s extremely hard to rest while we are in the routine. We are constantly hanging. Your body is constantly tense."
By the end of the routine, they can barely open their hands.
"I have to hold her in really unnatural positions," he said. "By the end of the routine, we are exhausted. I’m sweating from head to toe, and our muscles are cramped up."
(And to answer the question often asked: He rarely drops Wolfe, who weighs just 112 pounds.)
Nielsen hasn’t done this long — about five years — but he came to it naturally.
His father, a professional magician, was athletic and loved the thrill of cliff diving. When he married Nielsen’s mother, he gave her a trampoline on their first anniversary. So Nielsen grew up bouncing endlessly with his four siblings and jumping off diving boards at the community pool. That evolved into 40-foot dives while performing at a Salt Lake City dinner theater and 80-foot plunges into tiny portable pools set up at county fairs. (The pools were 9 feet deep.)
"I don’t remember ever having any big fears doing that stuff," he said. "It was never that scary. I think it’s because we started so young."
Nielsen met his wife at the dinner theater, and it was her idea to give aerial acrobatics a try. They bought all the equipment and began watching YouTube videos in order to create their show. A gymnast friend offered a few tips, and off they went.
"We just sort of taught ourselves and got really good at it," Nielsen said. "Where we are from, there is no circus community. There is no one who does this. There isn’t anyone to teach it."
To stay in shape for the aerial routine, Nielsen works out four to five times a week, which doesn’t include the five shows he does with Wolfe from Wednesday through Sunday.
He and Wolfe work out together and start with 45 minutes of stretching before getting on the trapeze bar to work on moves from their routine for another 45 minutes. Then both of them lift weights for an hour and a half.
The way Nielsen contorts his body during a performance can tax his shoulders, so he spends a lot of time doing exercises that strengthen the smaller muscles.
His hands have gotten stronger through the simplest of routines: holding on to his wife whenever they practice or perform.
"Most of my strength comes from doing the act itself," he said. "Every move I do, I’m grabbing her in some way. That’s predominantly where my grip training comes from — doing the routine with her over and over and over."‘
“Good Fit” spotlights inspiring fitness stories of change, self-discovery and challenge, and other fitness-related topics. Tell us what motivates you and how you stay fit and healthy. Email features@staradvertiser.com.
