Before I jump into parkour (because I need money to travel into town first) I thought it'd be best for me to build me body up for the actual role. now, Im not trying to get ripped or anything, but basically I need to know what muscles are used primarily in Parkour, how to strengthen those muscles without putting on excessive weight. Im mostly focusing on this as opposed to my running because I have breathing problems of which after a certain time my chest becomes so heavy, its almost impossible to breathe, and sadly has been like this since i was a kid (including when i was highly active, so chances are I'll be dismissed from the Army soon because I cant meet the requirements). I guess I'll be using this as sort of a blog also to keep records of my improvements, learn new things and whatnot. I've taken a photo at the beginning of the month as a starter image but wont post them until 1st July so I have a comparison. Sooo yeah, any and all Questions and Advice is greatly appreciated!

 

I should also note I have GYM access (though no trainers to help at this one) so things like machines, weights etc aren't a problem.

I'm going to have to say overall you'll need strength gain. The ability to easily pull up your own body weight, and increased ability to jump further distances. I know next to nothing about parkour, but it sounds like overall muscle strength is required for such a thing. You'll likely also want to work on coordination and balance even more-so than increasing muscle strength. It's one thing to be able to get to unreachable areas; it's another thing to fall from those areas. I'm interested to see where this goes though. :thumbup:

 

These pictures better be shirtless!! :geek:

As Mr. Purepure said, I as well don't know much, but I think most people can guess these are needed:

 

Upperbody strength to pull yourself over railings

Strong legs to "run" up walls etc,

A strong back to help out all around.

 

I mean tbh, just train everything XD

Bench press, deadlift, squat, military press, pullups, chinups, clean+jerk, snatch, chest dips, and every ab exercise you can imagine. Abs are extremely important to keep you stable and such.

 

Keep a strict training journal. Write down the exercise and the weight you do with it. Since you are after athletic performance, just focus on progress. For example if you bench press 100 lbs for 4 reps, write that down. Then next time you train, try to do 5 reps. Then 6. Then once you can get over 6, increase weight and do like 105 lbs for 4 reps.

 

For stuff like pullups, you can either keep doing more and more or find a way to strap weights to your body.

 

Something you might think is weird: clean and jerk, and snatch. These two exercises are whats called "olympic lifts". These lifts focus on explosive power. You pull the weight up as hard as you can and basically yank it and jump, then drop down below it and catch the weight. This explosive power is great to have for jumping and such.

 

These are my reccomendations for strength based training. This is only one of the components of being in great shape for parkour. You also need to have a lot of speed, balance, and dexterity. I have a lot less experiece in that area though.

I used to do parkour (not free running) and like the others said, you'll need to strengthen your whole body. If you're intending to do everything which parkour encompasses, you're going to need everything to be strong. If I was going to put a focus on something though, I'd do arms. Proper pull-ups (hands facing outwards) are going to be a necessity in training.

 

As Myweponsg00d said, you're going to want to be doing a lot of abs exercises. Russian twists, bicycle crunches, weighted crunches etc will be good effective ones to do.

Dont suppose you might have a link to show how some of the exercises are done? (Russian Twists?)

 

@Derek, well it wouldn't be progress if I wore a shirt to cover it up. ;)

For the obliques (which is what Russian twists are for really) this is a decent site:

 

http://www.sixpacknow.com/obliqueexercises.html

 

(they call them broom rotations, but they're basically the same thing).

 

Basically, if you want to feel the burn harder (and strengthen quicker) use weights held out in front of you rather than a broom on your shoulders.

I'd imagine you want to mix up (hard) bodyweight exercises, lots of pullups, Planche pushups, handstand pressups and core with heavy lifts like squats, deadlifts etc and explosive olympic lifts like myweponsg00d said.

 

You need functional strength so forget bicep curls or lateral raises or any of that, work on motions that either simulate parkour actions (pullups, box jumps) or build absolute and/or explosive strength (squats, deadlifts etc.)

Update: well I haven't had the chance to lay out a full program yet due to consistent RL circumstances popping up but I have been trying to go to the GYM as often as possible. Would investing is a set of small hand weights be a good thing?

Like everyone said, you're going to need anything. Me and my friends used to mess around and do this, but nothing too insane. For me it seemed to be an issue of balance more so than strength. If you're able to keep your center of gravity and fling your body weight around in a controlled way, you'll be very good.

 

But this seems like kind of a random dream.. You're going to move to the city just to practice parkour? :o

But this seems like kind of a random dream.. You're going to move to the city just to practice parkour? :o

Well, I have to move inter city here anyway due to lack of jobs out in this small Urban/country town.

 

Progress, going rather well. I've actually started noticing my stomach trimming a bit. been ill all week so I missed a full week of exercise though and didn't help due to the house being jam-packed with relatives.

Any update on your progress? Where's my nude pics Timmy?!?!! I mean.. pics of your progress.... :roll: