hi im kieran from slough

[newtraceur99]

hi im kieran im a guy and come from slough im 15 and hate this town however its not to bad for parkour. anyway i have only been doin parkour for 3 weeks so am just starting out, any tips would be nice . at the moment i dont do and exercice's to help my parkour but i will start some soon.
Anyway hi everyone.

[gladders]

hello and welcome to ukpka

if you look in the forums, users and myself should be willnig to help you out
personally i do not condition alot myself so try not to worry about it too much at your stges of learning

simply get out there and do simple vaults and jumping, do what you feel comfartable with yourself ;D
eventualy, your confidence will grow and naturaly will be able to do bigger things,btu please do not push yourself too hard

feel free to ask questions

[ANTISFIT]

gladwinn...

conditioning is KEY
you need to build up your muscles so they are ready for what they are about to undertake.
it helps you get further in your parkour, and is something that should be well worked upon.

also, welcome to UKPKA :]

[gladders]

i understand ant, but personaly, condition does not help as much as it may help you guys, im not sure how to expaln it but i do many other sports which condition myself for me

but i AM slowly bringing in a routine of conditioning at home

( i do condition outside occassionaly )

sorry guys

( it takes my muscles a while to come back after conditioning, i personaly feel more growth in my muscles after a good day of parkour - and it deffinetly mroe fun )

[Ronin-ukpka admin]

conditioning is an important part of training, however it really benefits people who have been training a while and are reasonably competent technically. its not the be all and end all for new practitioners.
get out there and train, you will get to a stage where you feel conditioning becoming more important.

[jon G]

ive just joined a gym and will start goin 2-3 times a week aswell as going to jams so hopfully my muscles will build up enough

[ANTISFIT]

most of the time, gyms will only help in the definition tbh.

most things you see in a gym do not correlate to what you have in parkour, simple exercises at home could be better related, pull ups - much like the movement for climb up/muscle up

push ups for the upwards force on climb up/muscle ups

what i mean is, gyms give you the strength, but if you use something like pull ups, they give you more technique.

but, try using GPP and SPP

[Ronin-ukpka admin]

you get out of a gym what you put in. i think what antony means is that certain exercises are more applicable to your parkour training. pull ups and other bodyweight exercises can produce what is known as functional strength, but so can many weighted movements.
you can do bodyweight exercises at home but you can also do them in a gym.
saying gym work only builds definition is laughable. if your do any exercise for only a few reps at near your one-rep max you will gain strength, power and with continued training, size.
the parkour community has an obsession with bodyweight exercises, and while they are good, people tend to jump on the bandwagon and start saying, 'gyms are bad', 'pull ups, dips and pistols ftw'!
i have qualifications in sports sciences and nutrition and i know for a fact that you can improve all areas of your fitness in a gym environment or at home, it just depends on the effort you put in.
its about what works best for you.

[gladders]

i total agree, culdnt of put it any better

[ANTISFIT]

gav, what i am talking about is using what you would have applied in parkour into your daily routine
a pull up is similar to the pull up used in a climb up.
the upwards push on a push up/dip is comparable to the pushing phase on the climb up.

what i mean about building muscle mass due to gyms is simply down to the fact that people don't know about their bodies
thinking that gyms are used towards full muscle exertion is the way to simply build strength for parkour.
when infact, this is just building muscles that are used with full power/short time methods, used on glycogen stores within a muscle, when muscular endurance is what traceurs are after
hence, power = big muscles
endurance - smaller

if you think that sprinters need a high amount of force for a short time, they have big muscles, marathon runners need endurance muscles and so are generally a smaller size.

plus, most gym equipment is non-related to parkour.
bicep curls etc.
i'd rather use something related to parkour that is inside my house, than pay however much to se something non-related

[Ronin-ukpka admin]

why are traceurs after muscular endurance? in a real life escape or reach situation,(which, after all is what we are training for), how long do you expect it to take? i personally believe that fast twitch muscle fibres, ( which give fast, explosive movement), are more important.
thats not to disregard muscular endurance as we should try to be well rounded athletes, but muscular endurance can be trained far more effectively in a gym then at home anyway.
i train with weights, anyone who knows me will tell you that im not big but am quite muscular, this helps me to run faster jump higher/further, climb up quicker and gives me the power i need and the confidence in my body to try and progress technically.

all gym equipment can be used effectively in relation to our training.
one thing we need to remember is that there are no set moves in parkour, no two obstacles will be exactly the same so even if we use the same technique the various angles and differences will recruit different individual muscles. you could argue that doing pull ups,( even with different hand positions ), will only work certain muscles, then when you attempt a climb-up on an awkward angle or where there is limited space you would need other muscles that could have been trained in a gym with cables for instance.
don't get me wrong, there is no NEED to train in a gym, but there is no need not to. gym membership doesn't have to be expensive, neither does weight training equipment at home and to disregard training our entire bodies, all muscle groups included( wether specific to our training or not ), is just stupid! what happened to being prepared for everything? what happened to becoming the physical embodiment of efficiency.
it seems you are studying the physiology of parkour alot more now ant, which is commendable, but dont let it take over common sense. i have seen so many fitness and strength theories come and go, each one is proclaimed as the best training methods or the most effective rest periods, super-sets, pyramids, etc, until the next theory is released and everyone goes around saying this is best or that is better. as i always say the human body is so complex and individual that no-one can say X exercise will improve you more then Y exercise, what works for me might not work for you. advise, but dont preach. and dont believe everything you hear in the fitness world.

[ANTISFIT]

i agree with what you mean,
but for me,
muscular endurance will be so much better
sure, having fast twitch is good, as you can get quick bursts to use,
but for example, if you are being chased, and just have muscles working for quick muscular bursts, you will find it alot more difficult to escape.
so yeah, i think more slow twitch, less fast twitch.

everything that can be gained at a gym can be gained at home, whatever muscle we use can be worked without expensive equipment, and tbh, is ALOT easier.
and
when we train for all circumstances, all ways to land etc, using one arm, and adapting, we are preparing ourself for every eventuality that can occur.

[Ronin-ukpka admin]

i agree, but the whole atmosphere in a gym can make for more productive training, how many people do you know that have say, a multigym in their house they never use.
and tbh most chase situations should be over in less than 5 minutes, if you need longer to escape than that then you need to be training your technical abilities abit more. therefore fast twitch=quicker escape=more efficiency.

[ANTISFIT]

yeah i know what you mean, but the fact that we have a degree of dedication overrides that tbh.

and, tbh, 5 minutes could be a very long time.
with fast twitch, may be very hard for you.
its like telling you to sprint for 5 minutes