Reposted from Rotting Flesh Radio | Go to Original Post

by: RFR Casket Crew Hatter 99

Jumping headfirst into the Haunt Industry can create many unexpected shocks for a newbie, so I’ll share a couple of physical shocks that I encountered in my first few weeks of scareacting.

Hat ON.

First, I’m not really a late-nighter during most of the year; I usually start nodding off around 11 PM (of course while watching something creepy-kooky-spooky on TV like The X-Files or a Freddy movie, in case some of you were nearly ready to revoke my Creeper license).  So, the first time I was up until 1 AM doing my scareacting it was admittedly quite a shock to me.  Of course, I was having a blast, but I couldn’t help but feel like my body was in sleepwalking mode for the last couple of hours.  And boy did those hours drag on.  Again, I was having unprecedented thrills watching people retreat into the fetal position which continually refueled my energy, but I definitely began to realize how hard the work actually is.

After just a couple of nights, I happily discovered that the late-night fatigue had diminished significantly.  The remarkable human body adapts quickly to new conditions, and my desire for sleep had automatically shifted a few hours later.  All good there.  But something else was happening that was a bit more troubling–and painful.

Top Industry Scare Actors: Chad Savage & Colt of Terror on the Fox

My location involved a ton of pop-scares.  Scrunch down, jump out, say some lines, quickly reset, and repeat for the next group.  Unfortunately my Richard Simmons’ Squattin’ in the Spookhouse tape was buried deep in the closet, so I had been using muscles that I hadn’t really used much before, and after a couple of nights of those continual squat-pops, for hours on end, I found my legs hurting immensely, and I thought, “Oh fiddlesticks; am I dying?” (which wouldn’t really make much of a difference with my final career goals, as I do plan to come back after I’m dead to haunt places, but I do admittedly have unfinished business in the mortal realm).  During the day I would grunt in pain as I stood up like an old arthritic man, and going up and down steps was an ordeal to which I contemplated installing one of those little mechanical chairs that putters up and down the stairwell.  Being in my mid-20s, I was a bit concerned that I was retreating into old age a bit prematurely.

So, I consulted my physician (Dr. Google, MD), to see what was happening, and to my relief I discovered that what was happening to me was a perfectly common condition called DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) that exhibits its symptoms (tightness and soreness in the legs) a day or two AFTER performing a new type of exercise.  It’s not Haunter-specific, of course, but I can certainly see it being a common occurrence when we’re contorting ourselves into positions that aren’t normal for us the rest of the year.

Scareacting Workouts to look like Resident Evil

So how do you avoid it?  Well, I don’t think there’s a way to completely prevent it.  When it happened, some light stretching alleviated it very slightly for me, but the best healing method that I found was just to ride it out.  It’ll hurt for a few days, and every time you move you might cringe a little (but hey, that just enhances your scaring performance, right?). After a week or so, though, the remarkable human body will adapt, and you’ll be as good as new again.  And then the next year shouldn’t be nearly as bad, since your body has already adapted once to those conditions.  I might even try setting up a little tombstone in my living room and spending some evenings in early September squatting and popping out at my cat, just to prime myself.  Some spooks out there might even like getting a case of DOMS, having a painful “battle scar” to limp around with for a few days, evidence of the hard work that we put in for our public, and some sadomasochists might boast that it “hurts so good.”

So you’re not dying!  Most of us would probably classify that as good news.  The human body is an amazing machine, and it’s good to know that our rotting flesh will not prevent us from having a great time scaring the pants off all of those “normals” out there.

Hat OFF.