HOW FIT DO YOU NEED TO BE TO START PARKOUR? by Prozac

Parkour is often shown in the media as huge jumps, climbs and acrobatic movement, and often alongside other urban arts like breakdancing and freerunning that feature equally impressive physical skills. Some people who would love to give parkour a try are put off by how physically demanding it seems. They think their fitness levels wouldn’t be up to the task.

It’s important to remember that, like in all sports, even the best had to start somewhere, and the place to start is with the basic, simple movements. Parkour is all about overcoming obstacles, there is no right or wrong way to do anything. Begin at whatever level you’re comfortable with; vaulting small fences or climbing small walls. As you progress, you’ll find quicker and better ways of overcoming more difficult obstacles, all the while you’ll find your fitness levels improving.

Having a low level of strength or fitness need not be a barrier to practicing parkour. Think of it as just another obstacle to be overcome.

The kind of fitness most useful for parkour is strength in your arms to lift your body weight, and power in your legs to jump. Use body weight exercises like push-ups and chin-ups to improve your upper body strength and endurance.

LOWER BODY
For the lower body, simple basic jumping exercises are great for improving explosive power.

Try bouncing on the balls of your feet; keep knees and hips straight, just use your ankles to bounce and try to spend as little time on the ground as possible, try for 20 jumps at first but try to improve.

Another idea for the bigger muscle groups is to put one foot on a small chair keeping the other on the floor. From this position jump as high as you can into the air, try to use the leg on the chair to do most of the work. Swap legs and repeat this 10 times for each leg. As you get better, try to land with the other leg on the chair and keeping jumping from one leg to the other!

ABDOMINALS
It’s also important to have strong abdominal muscles to support the work that your arms and legs are doing.

Simple crunch exercises are good, just lie on your back with legs bent and across your chest. Curl up till your shoulders are off the ground and slowly lower again. Aim for 20 of these at first and gradually increase what you can do.

BACK
Work on the muscles in your back too. Lie face down on the floor and slowly raise your feet and your head 6 inches off the floor then slowly lower back down. Repeat this 10 times but try to increase this as well.

If you have any doubts about exercising, make sure to contact your doctor before starting. You might also want to contact a local gym and speak to a fitness professional about your training.

Don’t forget that there are a lot of people out there who practice parkour and it’s a very friendly community. Having other people to train with is great fun and a good way to learn new techniques. Try contacting an online parkour forum to see if there’s anyone in your area who wants to train.

To go to the Worldwide JAM fourms: