Parkour

[jbn]

Just finished the campaign of the First-Person Running-game Mirror's Edge. I really enjoyed it.

I've been toying with the idea of doing parkour now and then. The game made me pick up this interest again. We'll see if I start practicing again, I need to do a lot more body-weight exercises though as I'm really not very good at lifting myself, which can be a problem.

[I Am Raven]

...makes more sense. Please don't let me post before noon again.

Sure!

[Rippy]

Arg just watched another parkour video, and am pissed that I have noone to start this up with. I don't have the motivation to try doing it alone, and winter's just started.

I just love the idea that it's good exercise without strength training. And when you think about it, that's the most natural kind of fitness there is. The only kind of weight lifting we've done historically is lifting game carcasses for transportation, and perhaps the construction of shelter a little later in history. Otherwise, our muscles are designed for one thing: moving/lifting the rest of the body.

And partly it's because I have a lean build and don't like weight training . But seriously, I am bummed out right now. I've decided that, at the very least, I'm going to do endurance/cardio training on the treadmill and body weight workouts to get in good shape come spring (I already want to do this so that I'm good for track and field).

[Scyld]

I LOVE parkour, and (because I'm ridiculous at tumbling/trampoline) tricking.

No one does any of that where I live, and unfortunately I have a damned dull town unless you're in to trespassing, but parkour as well as tricking is not just about getting from point a to point b, it (imo) is about getting from A to B with as much style as you can manage while still being efficient.

As far as people who are learning, DO NOT look at tutorials on youtube and think you can do any of that. Find your local gymnastics gym and sign up for a basic tumbling class, or a parkour/tricking class if they have one. Standing back tucks, punch fronts, round-offs, cartwheels, etc are all easy to learn when you have a coach there spotting you. And in a proper gym, they are damned near completely safe to learn.

Anyone who wants to trick/freerun/parkour, my biggest pro tip is this: concrete HURTS. The biggest problem you will have starting out, if you are okay with the physical aspect, is confidence. (lack of) Confidence is the leading cause of injuries, falls, etc in beginning awesome-ists (Oh, it's a word!). That, and impressing your girlfriend Please, find a good place to learn, a group, a gym tumbling class, anything - no one likes broken bones.

[aleflamedyud]

Just finished the campaign of the First-Person Running-game Mirror's Edge. I really enjoyed it.

I've been toying with the idea of doing parkour now and then. The game made me pick up this interest again. We'll see if I start practicing again, I need to do a lot more body-weight exercises though as I'm really not very good at lifting myself, which can be a problem.

THIS. I have never done a single unaided pull-up. I just can't seem to lift my own body weight from a hanging position. Does anyone know of some exercises I can do to work on this?

Anyway, I joined my uni's Parkour group back in September. I actually ended up quitting, partially because I wanted two free weekday evenings a week, but mostly because (unlike Shotokan) the Parkour group seemed to assume that you had the muscle build to do everything instead of giving participants a body-hardening training regimen. So I ended learning some fairly fun Parkour stuff, but not being able to apply it due to a lack of STR points.

[Marz]

No one does any of that where I live, and unfortunately I have a damned dull town unless you're in to trespassing, but parkour as well as tricking is not just about getting from point a to point b, it (imo) is about getting from A to B with as much style as you can manage while still being efficient.

That is, according to Wikipedia, the difference between Parkour and Free Running: Parkour isn't flamboyant; it is efficient. Free Running is what you describe.

[TheSkyMovesSideways]

THIS. I have never done a single unaided pull-up. I just can't seem to lift my own body weight from a hanging position. Does anyone know of some exercises I can do to work on this?

A few options I can think of are:
1. Bodyweight rows aka rack chin-ups. Try to make the angle of your body more and more vertical (may necessitate finding higher and higher bars) as you progress. You can do these either with your feet on the floor or feet resting elevated, and with your hips either bent or straight.
2. Assisted chin-ups, using a normal chin-up bar and placing a chair or stool just behind the position you would hang in. Bend your knees, putting your toes on the chair and push with your legs to assist yourself.
3. Band-assisted chin-ups. Get a few meters of elastic cord, perhaps about 6mm (1/4 inch) diameter, from a hardware store. Wrap one end of the cord around the bar a few times, grip it with one hand, then repeat for the other hand. Then use the cord to take part of your bodyweight, possibly by bending your knees by 90° and hooking the cord under your ankles. Be careful not to let the cord snap free!
4. Jump-assisted chin-ups. Find a bar that's perhaps just above head-height and for each rep jump to give yourself (just) enough momentum to get all the way up. You can combine this with negative (eccentric) chin-ups by attempting to lower yourself under your own power in a controlled manner.

Anyway, I joined my uni's Parkour group back in September. I actually ended up quitting, partially because I wanted two free weekday evenings a week, but mostly because (unlike Shotokan) the Parkour group seemed to assume that you had the muscle build to do everything instead of giving participants a body-hardening training regimen. So I ended learning some fairly fun Parkour stuff, but not being able to apply it due to a lack of STR points.

Which uni? If they're not already working strength and conditioning exercises into every session, or even running dedicated S&C sessions, then perhaps you should suggest to them that this would be a good idea.

parkour as well as tricking is not just about getting from point a to point b, it (imo) is about getting from A to B with as much style as you can manage while still being efficient.

That is, according to Wikipedia, the difference between Parkour and Free Running: Parkour isn't flamboyant; it is efficient. Free Running is what you describe.

Correct. Parkour is a system of exercise based around moving your body. Its purpose it to build strength, coordination, and general physical capability. Flips, trickses and "style" do not enter into it at any point.

[notallama]

damn you, sheet of ice!

i have not really done parkour much since summer. (worked for like, 5 weeks with very few days off and the habit was broken)
i have been itching to start up again, but the weather is not cooperating.
last week, it was -20 out and the ground was a sheet of ice.
this week, it's much warmer, but the gorund is still a sheet of ice.

no grass to practice my rolls and such on.
there is grass, but ontop of it is a very hard, lumpy, slipery surface. : (
the cold and the ice interferes with other things, too. (protip: don't grab metal railings when it's -20 out.)

i'm mainly just bitching. as soon as it melts, even if it becomes all swampy, i intend to be out rolling around until i can't anymore. (preferably due to fatigue, and not due to injury)

[viscusanima]

I realise I'm necro-ing a thread which was last posted in over a year and a half ago, but here I go:

I really want to get into doing some parkour - I love running and climbing, and feel that the extra mobility and ability to surmount different obstacles would both make my running a lot more interesting for me and also be a good skill in general.

Problem: I don't know what kind of training to do.

I currently play squash 3 times a week, and I can confidently run 10k in under 50 minutes. As far as strength goes, I can easily do about 10 chin-ups, 35-40 or so press-ups, and so on. I just want to actually have some kind of set regime I can do every couple of days, or x times a week, in addition to my squash, which will condition me for this kind of exercise. However, the problem comes in that I have no idea what to do. I do have a membership at a gym, so some weight and bench exercises are fine, but I'd also like to be able to do some body-weight exercises at home as well.

So my question is, what should I do? If anyone could help me, I'd be very grateful. Before anyone recommends that I join a parkour group, I live in Cyprus and afaik there's practically nobody here who does it - there is no organised group, as such, and the Facebook group for Cyprus Parkour has about 60 members, most of whom live at least an hour and a half away, so essentially this has to be a solo effort.

[I Am Raven]

Well, the only thing I know is that certain exercises grow short muscles (which is the kind of muscle that makes you look awesome, and determines how many times you can do a certain procedure) and certain exercies grow long muscles (which is the kind of muscle that makes you look sinewy, and determines the amount of strenght you can muster).

You want to be careful not to do a lot of "repeat" exercises, but more "heavy" exercises. Better to lift 20kg 10 times than lift 10kg 20 times.

That's all I know.

[felltir]

How to learn Parkour.

Step 1. Go Outside. Find some grass.

Step 2. Fall in to it. A lot. Learn to land right. Don't break your neck.

Step 3. Jump on things. Jump off things.

Step 4. Climb things.

Step 5. Move over things slowly. Speed it up.

Step 6. You're done.

This.

[TheSkyMovesSideways]

So my question is, what should I do? If anyone could help me, I'd be very grateful. Before anyone recommends that I join a parkour group, I live in Cyprus and afaik there's practically nobody here who does it - there is no organised group, as such, and the Facebook group for Cyprus Parkour has about 60 members, most of whom live at least an hour and a half away, so essentially this has to be a solo effort.

This may help. And don't go making the mistake of thinking that jumping off things is part of parkour, that'll just destroy your legs.

Well, the only thing I know is that certain exercises grow short muscles (which is the kind of muscle that makes you look awesome, and determines how many times you can do a certain procedure) and certain exercies grow long muscles (which is the kind of muscle that makes you look sinewy, and determines the amount of strenght you can muster).

You want to be careful not to do a lot of "repeat" exercises, but more "heavy" exercises. Better to lift 20kg 10 times than lift 10kg 20 times.

This is all completely inaccurate. There is sarcoplasmic vs myofibrillar hypertrophy, endurance vs strength, but no "short" vs "long" muscles.

[I Am Raven]

I am sorry, maybe the names of said muscles were wrong (that's how we call em in Holland, and I couldn't find their English equivalent), but I think I got their function pretty correct, right?

[Nath]

You're thinking about this wrong. What you are thinking of as long and short muscles are actually the same muscles. Depending on how you exercise, these muscles can grow (hypertrophy) in different ways. Muscles consist of rope-like contractile elements called myofibrils, surrounded by energy-storing sarcoplasmic fluid.

Lower weight, higher rep workouts cause sarcoplasmic hypertrophy -- the muscle stores more sarcoplasmic fluid, and thus looks bigger and has better endurance, but the myofibrils (and thus the actual strength) don't change. Higher weight, lower rep exercise causes myofibrillar hypertrophy; the cross sectional area doesn't change much, but the myofibrils get thicker and can contract harder, leading to more strength.

Muscle length doesn't really enter the picture here.

[Ledah]

And is it impossible to have a balanced plan that works on both?

[Nath]

No, it's quite possible. But depending on what your goals are, you'll have a different definition of 'balanced', especially after you've gotten to a basic level of strength and work capacity. A beginner can get away with only doing, say, sets of five. After that, you'll need to put some more thought into what your objectives are.

[TheSkyMovesSideways]

I am sorry, maybe the names of said muscles were wrong (that's how we call em in Holland, and I couldn't find their English equivalent), but I think I got their function pretty correct, right?

Well, the function is correct in that higher-rep exercise will develop endurance more, while lower rep will develop strength more, but I wouldn't say that low-rep exercises make you "sinewy", or that high rep exercise should be avoided. What exercise you should do depends on what your goals are.

[viscusanima]

How effective are body-weight resistance exercises in building muscle/strength/endurance?

[gaurwraith]

I just found this videos:

Strength training for Parkour

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X15VRzQH ... _embedded#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGzepBg2 ... feature=iv

[Nath]

How effective are body-weight resistance exercises in building muscle/strength/endurance?

It is possible to get stronger with body-weight exercises, but it's not as straightforward as doing it with free weights. This is because free weights are easily scalable; a beginner and a world-class athlete can get stronger using the same movement, with different amounts of weight. With body-weight exercises, a new movement may make you stronger for a while, but once you can do it for many reps, it becomes an endurance exercise. To keep getting stronger, you have to find another, more challenging exercise that involves similar movements (e.g. going from knee push-ups to standard push-ups to one-arm-push-ups and so on). This takes more imagination than throwing on an extra plate, like you could do with weights.

For endurance and work capacity, however, bodyweight exercises are pretty good.

[JayDee]

I went to my first Parkour class yesterday. I swear, I hurt in muscles that I didn't even have two days ago.

I'll totally be back next time.

[TheSkyMovesSideways]

I went to my first Parkour class yesterday. I swear, I hurt in muscles that I didn't even have two days ago.

I'll totally be back next time.

Hahah, congrats. Yes, the pain (DOMS) is to be expected the first time or two. What city was this in? If Melbourne, keep in mind that classes won't be on this weekend due to the annual National Gathering, and if not, this may still affect other cities as well.

[JayDee]

Nah, in Newcastle. Proper classes are only every second weekend, although I knew about the National Gathering. It was finding online video of the folk in Melbourne jumping around familiar places that convinced me it was something I wanted to do, rather than just something to watch.

[Jean]

Parkour? Ah, I've heard of it. Isn't it that stylish way to kill yourself kids are all about these days?

On a more serious note, your ability to be good at Parkour is largely a product of your environment - I, for instance, live in an architecturally boring almost-city. Even the older section really doesn't have much stuff like what you generally see in Parkour videos.

I hate myself because my city sucks for parkour. It makes me cry blood.

[Jean]

And is it impossible to have a balanced plan that works on both?

Just wondering Ledah, do you happen to recognize my name from anywhere? ? I think I might know you if you're the same person I'm thinking of...

[Darryl]

How is parkour for people who have knees that don't respond well to impact? I've always wanted to try it, but I'm worried it'll make my knees worse than they already are.

[felltir]

How is parkour for people who have knees that don't respond well to impact? I've always wanted to try it, but I'm worried it'll make my knees worse than they already are.

well, I do it a lot, and I'm hyperflexible (very easy dislocations).

[gaurwraith]

I guess you have to build up strength in your legs, knees, before getting to serious business,
but theres a lot to do without being batman, just check how you feel, slowly.

there are some videos on building strength for parkour around here, you might want to watch then

[JayDee]

One of my local instructors hurt his knee(s) last year. He has kept up training, but there is a whole bunch of stuff he isn't doing until he gets the okay from the doctor.

I'd say best to see a knee-doctor-person and ask them what sort of motions / activities / whatnot you should avoid. You might be jake, or you might have to play it a bit safer. Being carefuller jumping from lower heights than other folk, or shorter distances, kinda thing.

At least where I am, there is a fair bit of emphasis on avoiding joint damage. Doing things safely and all that jazz. But on the other hand, if your knees aren't keen on impact, I can imagine that the consequences of failing to do things right - say, landing a jump poorly - are more likely to be bad consequences.

[Fossa]

How is parkour for people who have knees that don't respond well to impact? I've always wanted to try it, but I'm worried it'll make my knees worse than they already are.

Do you know what's actually wrong with your knees?

I've been practicing parkour for going on three years, teaching for a year and a half, and I'm about to open a parkour gym with my girlfriend and a few friends.

Three months ago I partially tore my PCL, LCL, MCL, and in the course of my rehab I partially dislocated my knee-cap and partially tore my medial patellar ligaments. In layman's terms, my knee was fucked.

I'm just now getting back into training, but within 9 months I expect to be 100% again.

The trick is, virtually everything you do in parkour is low impact once you learn how to do it right. The idea isn't to collide with obstacles, it's to flow over and around them. To give you an idea, a skilled traceur jumping upwards off a 10 foot platform takes less impact upon landing than a normal person doing a jumping jack.

A buddy of mine who hurt his knee a while back and didn't take care of it the way I'm doing now went on to completely destroy both meniscus in his knee. He had both removed. He's honestly better than I am, even though it doesn't always feel great when he's doing it.

TL;DR:

You can do parkour. I can help you figure out how to get started if you can tell me what's wrong with your knees, but the absolute best thing to do is find a local group (we're everywhere, honestly) with people willing to correct your form early so you progress safely.

[Boingloing]

I've really been looking forward to getting started in Parkour. I've been looking into it with a friend who's much more athletic than me, he's honestly good inspiration

[Dthen]

Slight necro. I've been doing parkour for a good few months now, and I have to say, it is such good fun. I love the wonderful feeling of satisfaction I get when I trace an incredibly fluid line.