Post by Dackpt on Sept 1, 2004 22:02:06 GMT
Are we still monkeys?
Let’s face it; humans are simply not built to be Traceurs. If we where, we would be living in the trees and peeling bananas with our toes. We’re more adept at picking berries, avoiding predators and out smarting prey. Our natural sports are games like rugby and football, where you can play to a reasonable level without any real significant physical advantages to Joe Average. However, an elegant and precise way of life, like Parkour, tests the traceur to their physical limits. If your legs are not powerful enough, or you’re slightly heavy, you simply won’t jump as high or as far. If you’re attempting a huge drop and you have legs like big bird, your knees won’t be likely to keep on holding you up for long.
Mean Machine
So the way to turn ourselves physically into Parkour machines is by correct physical conditioning.
This may sound like the boring old ‘gym three times a week, bench as many reps as you can before pumping those biceps till they burst, and eventually turning into an eighteen stone colossus that would destroy any floor they landed on.’ That’s a slight over exaggeration but its most peoples understanding of what weight training is all about.
In this article, I will explain the basic principles, that I will be elaborating on in future articles, which will help you become an agile and injury resistant traceur.
Remember, these articles are suggestions. This is Parkour, Do what you want to do!
Training Principles
So to the point, what we want is the legs of world record long jumper, Mike Powel, and an Olympic gymnastics champions’ upper body.
So how do we do this?
- First Method – Plyometrics
Plyometrics is a method to produce increases in power without bulking out. It is used by most professional sports people to varying degrees for that very reason. It relies on the ‘stretch reflex’.
Imagine you’re stretching your hamstring, with your back on the floor and foot in the air. If you slowly pull your foot towards your head, you can feel a dull ache as your hamstrings stretch but not pain. However if someone jerks your foot up fast causing a rapid stretch, the body reacts by firing the stretched muscle. This could then tear the muscle, that’s why you’re usually advised to perform stretches slowly (However, there are other effective stretching methods that I’ll explain in future, but stick to the static stretches for now). Now imagine you’re bouncing down the road, instead of having to think when you land ‘right, I’ve landed, I better use some muscles to push back up’, your muscles make the decision for you and explode into action as the muscle is rapidly stretched. The same goes if you’re landing from a height. As your feet touch the ground and your muscles stretch, the same muscles fire automatically to dampen the landing stresses.
So we use this powerful system along with power training to create fast, powerful muscles. This is probably the most relevant method to train for Parkour because it is mostly bouncing around with weight, but it is reinforced by the other methods.
- Second Method – Strength Training
Strength training is similar to the old fashion method of gym training but with subtle differences. Most of the BIG guys you see in the gym usually train by a method called hypertrophy which is growing as much muscle as possible, typically utilizing the exercises that pump and burn. Hypertrophy targets both the strong ‘fast twitch’ muscle fibres, and the efficient ‘slow twitch’ fibres that are not strong. You do still get strong with this method but you will also carry a lot of extra body weight. Not ideal when you have to carry it while jumping the town.
On the other hand, Strength training, using more weight but not lifting as many times, only targets the strong ‘fast twitch’ fibres so you can develop the strength without the bulk. This is what you need for a base to build the power on, and to hold your body in various positions.
- Third Method – Power Training
This is similar to strength training but not using as much weight (but still heavy). However, each lift of each exercise is done at 110% effort and as fast as your body can shift the weight. Again, you won’t turn into the hulk with this training, but it will help you jump higher, pull yourself quickly up a wall and sprint to the next obstacle, all to do with speed. These exercises are quite technical and are similar to Olympic lifting techniques, such as the clean and jerk.
What was that?
There are all the other things that a lot of people have heard about but often forget about as soon as they pass through the gym doors.
- Core Stability and Proprioception
What good is a car with the best tyres, huge engine, and slick bodywork, but with a terrible chassis and poor tracking? That’s the same as a sports person having powerful arms, chest, and legs, but having a weak abdomen and no control over their arms and legs, they simply can not utilize the strength they’ve got to its full potential. This is an area that a lot of sports people forget about when doing their own gym work. People may work on their six-pack but forget about their obliques (muscles that twist and stabilize the upper body).
Proprioception is the way groups of muscles are wired to the brain. More you do a specific motion, the better the wiring gets, hence, practice makes perfect. However, most people start a gym routine and don’t change it for years. This means that their proprioception is challenged in the first three to four weeks of training, then the body gets used to it, and the only time gym training works is when the body is challenged. Therefore, when routines are described in these articles, they will last no longer than three to four weeks before they are changed. Therefore, we keep challenging the body and improve all body proprioception.
- Mobility and Flexibility
Mobility and flexibility can be treated as the same. The difference will be explained in future articles. Most people know that good mobility and flexibility can reduce the risk of injury. What many people don’t know is that being more flexible can, indirectly, make you stronger and more powerful. There are many methods of stretching, with pre exercise stretching concentrating on getting you supple in preparation for exercise, and post exercise stretching concentrating on leaving you more flexible in general.
- Joint Stabilization
A very crucial part of Parkour is making sure your joints are as strong as they can be so they can survive the stress they are put under. As well as ligaments acting like strapping around joints, the muscles around the joint can also stabilize the joint a great deal. For example, the shoulder joint has very little ligament holding the shoulder in place so it can have a greater range of movement (RoM). Therefore, there are many muscles, which keep the shoulder in firm place, which can be strengthened to make the joint more stable. The knee has many more crucial ligaments to keep it stable because it carries a lot of weight, however it still can be stabilized further by strengthening the musculature running over it. Most gym exercises go someway to strengthening these muscles but specific exercises can improve stability further.
And Finally
I hope this article has given you enthusiasm to give this training a try and you will see that you don’t even need to set foot in the gym to do a lot of this training. Further articles will discuss the above methods in far more detail (with most of the jargon cut out) and hopefully provide enough information for traceurs to safely perform exercise techniques and modify training regimes. If I do use jargon, the glossary of terms will hopefully clear up any muddy spots.
Attention
Please be careful if you do decide to start some gym work and train sensibly. For example, not trying to lift the biggest thing you see as you walk through the door on the first session. Don’t run before you can walk.
Also, I would not advise doing heavy weights if you are under the age of 16 as it may effect the growth of bones when they are still hardening. Training with light weights would be acceptable to get used to the techniques.
N.B. If you would like to personal mail me about this article, feel free to do so.
Let’s face it; humans are simply not built to be Traceurs. If we where, we would be living in the trees and peeling bananas with our toes. We’re more adept at picking berries, avoiding predators and out smarting prey. Our natural sports are games like rugby and football, where you can play to a reasonable level without any real significant physical advantages to Joe Average. However, an elegant and precise way of life, like Parkour, tests the traceur to their physical limits. If your legs are not powerful enough, or you’re slightly heavy, you simply won’t jump as high or as far. If you’re attempting a huge drop and you have legs like big bird, your knees won’t be likely to keep on holding you up for long.
Mean Machine
So the way to turn ourselves physically into Parkour machines is by correct physical conditioning.
This may sound like the boring old ‘gym three times a week, bench as many reps as you can before pumping those biceps till they burst, and eventually turning into an eighteen stone colossus that would destroy any floor they landed on.’ That’s a slight over exaggeration but its most peoples understanding of what weight training is all about.
In this article, I will explain the basic principles, that I will be elaborating on in future articles, which will help you become an agile and injury resistant traceur.
Remember, these articles are suggestions. This is Parkour, Do what you want to do!
Training Principles
So to the point, what we want is the legs of world record long jumper, Mike Powel, and an Olympic gymnastics champions’ upper body.
So how do we do this?
- First Method – Plyometrics
Plyometrics is a method to produce increases in power without bulking out. It is used by most professional sports people to varying degrees for that very reason. It relies on the ‘stretch reflex’.
Imagine you’re stretching your hamstring, with your back on the floor and foot in the air. If you slowly pull your foot towards your head, you can feel a dull ache as your hamstrings stretch but not pain. However if someone jerks your foot up fast causing a rapid stretch, the body reacts by firing the stretched muscle. This could then tear the muscle, that’s why you’re usually advised to perform stretches slowly (However, there are other effective stretching methods that I’ll explain in future, but stick to the static stretches for now). Now imagine you’re bouncing down the road, instead of having to think when you land ‘right, I’ve landed, I better use some muscles to push back up’, your muscles make the decision for you and explode into action as the muscle is rapidly stretched. The same goes if you’re landing from a height. As your feet touch the ground and your muscles stretch, the same muscles fire automatically to dampen the landing stresses.
So we use this powerful system along with power training to create fast, powerful muscles. This is probably the most relevant method to train for Parkour because it is mostly bouncing around with weight, but it is reinforced by the other methods.
- Second Method – Strength Training
Strength training is similar to the old fashion method of gym training but with subtle differences. Most of the BIG guys you see in the gym usually train by a method called hypertrophy which is growing as much muscle as possible, typically utilizing the exercises that pump and burn. Hypertrophy targets both the strong ‘fast twitch’ muscle fibres, and the efficient ‘slow twitch’ fibres that are not strong. You do still get strong with this method but you will also carry a lot of extra body weight. Not ideal when you have to carry it while jumping the town.
On the other hand, Strength training, using more weight but not lifting as many times, only targets the strong ‘fast twitch’ fibres so you can develop the strength without the bulk. This is what you need for a base to build the power on, and to hold your body in various positions.
- Third Method – Power Training
This is similar to strength training but not using as much weight (but still heavy). However, each lift of each exercise is done at 110% effort and as fast as your body can shift the weight. Again, you won’t turn into the hulk with this training, but it will help you jump higher, pull yourself quickly up a wall and sprint to the next obstacle, all to do with speed. These exercises are quite technical and are similar to Olympic lifting techniques, such as the clean and jerk.
What was that?
There are all the other things that a lot of people have heard about but often forget about as soon as they pass through the gym doors.
- Core Stability and Proprioception
What good is a car with the best tyres, huge engine, and slick bodywork, but with a terrible chassis and poor tracking? That’s the same as a sports person having powerful arms, chest, and legs, but having a weak abdomen and no control over their arms and legs, they simply can not utilize the strength they’ve got to its full potential. This is an area that a lot of sports people forget about when doing their own gym work. People may work on their six-pack but forget about their obliques (muscles that twist and stabilize the upper body).
Proprioception is the way groups of muscles are wired to the brain. More you do a specific motion, the better the wiring gets, hence, practice makes perfect. However, most people start a gym routine and don’t change it for years. This means that their proprioception is challenged in the first three to four weeks of training, then the body gets used to it, and the only time gym training works is when the body is challenged. Therefore, when routines are described in these articles, they will last no longer than three to four weeks before they are changed. Therefore, we keep challenging the body and improve all body proprioception.
- Mobility and Flexibility
Mobility and flexibility can be treated as the same. The difference will be explained in future articles. Most people know that good mobility and flexibility can reduce the risk of injury. What many people don’t know is that being more flexible can, indirectly, make you stronger and more powerful. There are many methods of stretching, with pre exercise stretching concentrating on getting you supple in preparation for exercise, and post exercise stretching concentrating on leaving you more flexible in general.
- Joint Stabilization
A very crucial part of Parkour is making sure your joints are as strong as they can be so they can survive the stress they are put under. As well as ligaments acting like strapping around joints, the muscles around the joint can also stabilize the joint a great deal. For example, the shoulder joint has very little ligament holding the shoulder in place so it can have a greater range of movement (RoM). Therefore, there are many muscles, which keep the shoulder in firm place, which can be strengthened to make the joint more stable. The knee has many more crucial ligaments to keep it stable because it carries a lot of weight, however it still can be stabilized further by strengthening the musculature running over it. Most gym exercises go someway to strengthening these muscles but specific exercises can improve stability further.
And Finally
I hope this article has given you enthusiasm to give this training a try and you will see that you don’t even need to set foot in the gym to do a lot of this training. Further articles will discuss the above methods in far more detail (with most of the jargon cut out) and hopefully provide enough information for traceurs to safely perform exercise techniques and modify training regimes. If I do use jargon, the glossary of terms will hopefully clear up any muddy spots.
Attention
Please be careful if you do decide to start some gym work and train sensibly. For example, not trying to lift the biggest thing you see as you walk through the door on the first session. Don’t run before you can walk.
Also, I would not advise doing heavy weights if you are under the age of 16 as it may effect the growth of bones when they are still hardening. Training with light weights would be acceptable to get used to the techniques.
N.B. If you would like to personal mail me about this article, feel free to do so.
read that, confused me more.