Over the top: Extreme fitness enthusiasts push themselves to the limit

Tuesday, July 10, 2001 | 8:33 a.m.

Psychologists call them "sensation seekers," those athletes who push themselves to extremes.

They climb a little higher than they should, and run a little faster than they should. They take great pride in challenging the limits of their bodies and their determination.

"There is a rush in pushing the body beyond the limits," says sports psychologist David Conroy, an assistant professor at Penn State University who periodically lectures at sports conferences held in Las Vegas.

"In one way it is like obsessive compulsive behavior, it has some of the features of it. You must be able to obsess to run 100 miles, you just can't do that unless you are obsessed."

Bruce Ogilvie, whom Conroy calls the father of sports psychology, says people who go to extremes in their sports and fitness routines "are people who find it necessary to put themselves to the ultimate test.

"Both subconsciously and somewhat unconsciously, it is a need to extend oneself, to test the absolute measure of themselves in terms of survival."

Ogilvie, who lives in the hills near Santa Clara, Calif., rides a bicycle 18 miles a day four times a week and works out with weights in the gym two hours a day, three times a week.

"I do a workout that would kill most 32-year-olds," he said.

Ogilvie is 80 years old and a semi-retired professor of psychology. During a telephone interview he said he divides his time among writing his memoirs, lecturing and staying fit.

"I've been doing resistance training since I was 18," Ogilvie said.

He began his clinical work in sports psychology in the early 1970s.

"All of my early research was in the area of high-risk men and women, (such as) the Grand-Prix race drivers," he said. "They have high emotional costs (in their sports), where death is possible."

Those he studied, Ogilvie said, were "on the cutting edge of exposing themselves to extremes."

Men (and women) of iron

Thirty years ago the first triathalon was held in Mission Bay, Calif. Today the three-event competition, which includes running, biking and swimming, is popular all over the world, many of them called Ironman races.

"My own daughter (Terry, 51), is a very fine competitor. Several years ago she competed in an Ironman race in the 40- to 45-year-old category and took a bronze," Ogilvie said.

He said he was on the medical team for that particular race and when it was over his daughter was brought into the medical tent and collapsed onto a cot. As a saline solution was pumped into her arm, Ogilvie rubbed her hand.

"I said 'How are you feeling sweetheart?' and she said, 'Daddy, I'm coming back next year and kick (butt),' " Ogilvie recalled. "I had tears coming down my cheeks.

"My daughter is like so many others. It is the joy of being able to experience oneself. (The extreme physical activity) is fulfilling an expression of oneself."

Ogilvie said people who carry their sports and their training to extremes are not exhibitionists.

"It isn't the glamour. They don't even brag about it," he said. "It is primarily a very, very personal challenge.

"It is the ultimate measure, to have the genes and physical ability to push yourself almost to the point of death.

"If you stand back as a truly rational human being, what (does) that constitute in way of proof (of worth)? But for these people, it is necessary that they subject themselves to this trial. They live through it and survive. It is a glorious moment of exhultation, standing at the highest elevation of Mount Everest with your arms outstretched."

When he began his research more than 25 years ago, extreme sports people were relatively uncommon.

"But in the last decade or more, we're seeing things like the challenges of Mount Everest by ordinary people," Ogilvie said.

Extremely extreme

Rick Nelson, a personal trainer at Gold's Gym on South Eastern Avenue, doesn't take people up Mount Everest, but he does take them to the Sierras.

"In the winter we snowmobile for eight hours up into the wilderness, set up camp and then early the next morning we strap skis onto our backs and put on snowshoes and hike for nine or 10 hours, straight up," Nelson said. "Then, we take off the snow shows, put on the skis and ski back to camp. That night we have a dinner and party and the next morning we snowmobile for eight hours out of the wilderness."

Nelson also takes people kayaking. "We start downstream and kayak up," he said.

Nelson's summer hikes into the mountains are marathons -- 12 hours of forced marches. There are only a few breaks -- 30 seconds to catch their breath, a few minutes to eat.

"This is super-conditioning," Nelson, a former fitness trainer in the Army, said.

The extreme activity, he said, gives his students a big edge over the competition.

"No matter what your sport is, extreme conditioning will enhance your ability by 70 percent," Nelson said. "Your sport will be 10 times easier."

He works with professional athletes, dancers, stuntmen and others who need to stay in shape.

"I start them off in the gym and after a few weeks of extreme training most people are ready for the extreme stuff outside," Nelson said.

Jennifer Toti, also a personal trainer for Gold's Gym on West Lake Mead Boulevard and Buffalo Drive, says getting out of the gym is important. For one thing it relieves the monotony of being indoors. For another, doing extreme activities outside enhances a person's physical conditioning.

"You can't do a lot of the stuff in the gym that you can do outside," she said.

Twice a year, in the spring and in the fall, she holds extreme fitness clinics. Once a week for five weeks athletes meet for about 90 minutes for intensive training that includes wind sprints, running up several flights of steps and going through an obstacle course.

"It increases your endurance and coordination, all the skills it takes to do whatever you need for your specific sport," Toti said.

Most of those who attend her clinics are training for various races, marathons, biathlons, triathlons.

Frank Butterfield, a trainer with Las Vegas Athletic Club on South Maryland Parkway, is noted for training athletes for Ironman races.

"I started teaching a triathlon class at the club as a way to get people more active," he said. "After a year people wanted to see what they could do with the training and so we entered the Ironman race at Lake Mead last year. We've done four Ironman races now and we're getting ready for Hawaii in September."

The Hawaii Ironman race is considered one of the most grueling of the hundreds held around the world, according to Butterfield. It includes swimming for 2.4 miles, bicycling for 112 miles and running more than 26 miles.

Ironman races, Butterfield said, are a way of applying what the people have done in the gym to the outside world.

"It gives the gym a purpose," he said. "It's a way of measuring what shape you are in. People training for a long time want to know the results of that training."

Scar wars

Michael Edwards developed a liking for extremes when he was growing up in Missouri.

"When I was 4 or 5 years old my dad would take me to a lake and we would jump off bridges 40 or 50 feet above the water," recalled Edwards, 30, who is in the cast of "Tournament of Kings" show at the Excalibur. "They knew me on a first-name basis in the emergency rooms."

Edwards' career involves a lot of stunt work, such as falling off horses. So he likes to complement his gym workouts with extreme activity on weekends in order to stay in the best possible condition.

"I do a lot of power hiking," he said. "We'll go up to Red Rock (canyon) and hike 2,000 feet pretty much straight up, and we move really fast. They are high-intensity hikes that last two to three hours."

He has run marathons, but gets bored.

"I would rather do high-intensity, short things," Edwards, who also has worked as a pirate at Treasure Island, said.

His highly physical lifestyle has resulted in a few injures (a dislocated shoulder, broken ankle, broken wrist) and plenty of scars, which he says women seem to like.

"If you're looking for scars, I've got tons of them," he said.

Born to be extreme

Steve Dietrich shares Edwards' love of extremes. Both men are among Nelson's trainees.

"I'm ready for any sport anytime, anywhere," he said. "A lot of my friends are like that. Anything from white-water rafting to skiing to volleyball. Any chance to go out and push myself, I do it."

Dietrich said he was born to be extreme.

"When I was a young boy I would jump off the roof of a house with an umbrella to see if it would work," he said. "Some of the most fun I have is to put on snowshoes and go up into the mountains and do a cross-country, all-terrain run."

Dietrich is a stuntman and dancer in "EFX Alive" at MGM Grand. He joined the cast in February. Before that he worked with Edwards at Excalibur.

" 'EFX' is physically demanding," he said. "I'm capable of doing it because of the extreme training."

Dietrich has been in Las Vegas almost three years. He began his stunt career in college and working at Medieval Times, a dinner theater/show similar to that at Excalibur which involves jousting and sword fights, in Buena Park, Calif.

"When I worked at Medieval Times I worked with a lot of guys who were adrenalin junkies -- sky diving, scuba diving and whatever else for the rush. It led them to careers where they push themselves beyond the limits that others can go.

"I tell people it's easier falling off a horse going 25 or 30 miles an hour than staying on."

Similar to Edwards, Dietrich's love of extremes has resulted in several injuries, such as a broken hand and a dislocated shoulder.

"But most of my injuries I didn't get while working," he said. "I like skiing just past the speed where I should be, in terrain that is a little bit too rough, in an area where there are a few too many trees. That's where I like to be.

"I like the scars. Each one has a story. Each one has a time, a place and a reason," Dietrich said. "When I see people with scars, I'm always asking where they got them. A scar is sort of like the red badge of courage."

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