For people who are not sure of Parkour, just go to a park or any city setting that will come into your body and mind and you might have already seen it. So, you want to how to Parkour?
Yes, that thing that flew over you as you were catching up on your reading was certainly a person; not a bird, cat, kangaroo, elephant, or Batman.
Parkour is best defined as getting to a place in the fastest and most efficient way possible by making use of only the human body. It requires people moving around objects with extraordinary speed and efficiency using only their environment. This process involves jumping, running, climbing and in some cases, rolling at a certain area.
Contrary to what many people would think, Parkour is a process which is completed carefully and with great care. Well then, what does Parkour involve?
Rather, Parkour is so much more than just people barreling through the neighbourhood at break-neck speed; it is a way of living, at least to those who live and breathe it.
The Parkour Philosophy
Parkour was developed in the 1980’s by a group of nine young men in France. Their group was acknowledged as Yamakasi, meaning strong man with strong spirit. To this day this saying still sums up the purpose of Parkour; that is to be a physically, mentally, and ethically strong individual.
Much more than just a physical sport, Parkour, in the minds of those who practice it, is considered to be a way of thinking. It’s an easy method of training oneself to build up inner strength through movement. Grasping the information that Parkour is a mind set is the main foundation of Parkour. The jumps, vaults, and running are all simply by-products of this attitude. Parkour has no set movements. It’s simply travelling from A to B, whilst being intensely conscious of your surroundings, in the most efficient way possible. Before you learn Parkour, you need to know these shoulder exercises.
How to Start Parkour
To become traceur (the term used for individuals who practice parkour), you’ve got to work on your fitness. There isn’t any set-in-stone training method that can make you amazing at Parkour, but doing little things to make small improvements will add up to a whole lot of skill in time.
The focus of Parkour is on using your functional strength. For this reason, body weight exercises and Crossfit are absolutely best forms of training to prepare yourself for Parkour. For starters, try out this routine:
2 x 10 Push-Ups
2 x 10 Jump Squats
2 x 10 Pull-ups
2 x 10 Sit-Ups
Progress with this routine until you can do 4 sets of 20 reps of each exercise. There really aren’t any predetermined exercises that specifically target Parkour, and this is the reason I’d suggest working on overall fitness when training for it.
