Leicester Parkour Association Official Blog

The Law of Averages

2010-08-21T17:08:00.000-07:00

300 level cat-pass precisions. That'll do! It sounded like a fair challenge for later that day. It had been a while since I'd focused on this technique so I felt I should pay it a little more attention tonight.

Throughout the day, the thought of the upcoming training session often crossed my mind but my attention was more often found wandering to what someone had said to me earlier in the week, as I had landed a precision. "You're going to fall and hurt yourself one of these days!" she had said with a smile, and I couldn't help wondering... was she right? Was I a victim to a law of averages that stated some day, somewhere, I was going to mess up a basic technique and seriously hurt myself? Was this an inevitability that was beyond my control? It wasn't a pleasant thought.

It's often told that the most dangerous moments in your training occur whilst you are executing the simplest of techniques and just not paying enough attention. I've rarely heard of anyone being badly injured or missing a big jump where they were fully focused and concentrating, so what could I do to prove to myself that I was not a victim? That I was in fact in control of this situation? The answer came quickly, tonight I would not miss!

So 300, became 300 in a row. If I missed the landing wall, if I overshot, undershot, missed with my hands or if both feet did not land on the second wall and remain there, I would start again from the beginning. Call it quality control or madness - it was probably a bit of both.

When I arrived at the spot where I planned to begin this experiment, I wasn't too happy to find the walls were soaked. Wet, dark and slippery with moss sprouting from between the cracks, the sharp-edged walls greeted me with a slick shine and were menacing to the touch. Great.

30 minutes later, after loosening off and warming up, an inner pressure I couldn't quite locate began to grow inside of me with each successful repetition. 3 became 20, 20 became 50, and the thought of having to start all over again began to haunt me, making each repetition a little more daunting than the last.
The only way to counter this building distraction was to force myself to treat each jump as if it was the first of the evening.
I would focus my full attention on connecting with the first wall cleanly, push just enough and land on the second, and remain there. For a while I felt things were going well, but as my confidence grew, so did my chances of complacency.

If there was indeed some unwritten law of averages, then how many times should I fall in 300 attempts at this, given wet and dark conditions?

Two hours had passed as I reached the half-way point. It was 9:30pm and I had managed 150 level cat-pass precisions and my forearms felt like lead. I hadn't even considered the physical toll this challenge would take. Shaking them off, I thought about the technique and realised it was like being in the pushup position and rocking on to your fingers with enough force to leave the ground temporarily, over and over again. I was tired, I was sore and I knew that although I might be able to reach the elusive 300, it would be a royal pain in the backside to have to start again any time soon.

Ten minutes later I restarted the process and the 151st repetition loomed. I wasn't sure how much I had recovered during the brief rest and the technique itself seemed suddenly unfamiliar in my head. Stop over thinking, this is just another simple technique.

I. can. not. miss. now.

200 reps. At this rate I should be finished by 11pm... 3 and a half hours after I started. If I miss now then I may well be watching the sunrise over my shoulder later today. I managed a quick smile as I thought that might dry the walls a little, if nothing else.

280 reps. My brain had switched off. There was no longer any pressure. The process was automatic and although my forearms begged for relief from the constant punishment, I had fallen in to a rhythm. I would pass over the first wall, land on the second, turn around, hop back, drop down to the floor and line myself up for another, repeating the phrase, "stay straight, medium power." in my head each time. That had become my curse, it had started twenty minutes earlier and I couldn't stop now, what if that was my lucky charm, my key to finishing this?

I honestly don't know if I would have started again had I missed then. Physically, I don't think I could have managed another 300. I'd learned my lesson already though...

There is no law that states one day we will miss. With enough concentration, enough focus, due care and attention, we can repeat a simple technique hundreds of times, for hours and not make a mistake. Accidents do happen and some things are beyond our control but we can greatly reduce our chances of messing up if we treat each and every movement as something important, something to be careful with.

I didn't do 300 level cat-pass precisions in the end.

The 301st was for the nice lady who had inspired my evening's activities.

-Blane

Goals

2010-08-08T15:19:00.000-07:00

I’ve been training a little over 4 years now and it always seems to be this time of year when I really focus on improving my Parkour ability and setting some goals for myself. That’s not meaning to say I only set goals for myself every summer, it’s important to set goals for yourself and assess your body’s performance constantly, whether it’s technical ability, strength, cardiovascular fitness or overcoming mental barriers. E.g. breaking new jumps in the rain or trying to do everything you’ve done before on your first attempt. It’s this attitude to training that will consistently improve your level.

I’ve set many goals in the past for myself, many of them challenging but all realistic and I achieved many of them. Keeping your word is another thing that helps me on my way. You set yourself a realistic goal, achieve it and keep moving. Learning to trust my own intentions and achieving them really helps strengthen my mental attitude to training. Although you feel great for achieving your goal, you never feel satisfied – again, it’s this attitude to training that will really push you to keep improving yourself. The moment you’re satisfied is the moment lose your desire to improve.

Some people may be good at a certain technique or exercise and constantly improve and focus on this one technique. Sure they look talented and credit to them improving it. But if it’s only one thing you’re good at, you’re already missing out a huge chunk in your training. I try not to neglect some aspects of Parkour, training in general or pretty much anything in life. Sometimes you can get caught up doing loads of the same thing and then suddenly realise you haven’t done a certain technique for a while and when you attempt it, it doesn’t feel as casual as the other techniques you’ve been doing recently. I try to avoid training like this. I like to always look for things I’m not so good at or movements I haven’t trained at for a while, and always mix it up. Personally I’m more concerned about the things I’m bad at, not the things I’m good at; like I’m forever chasing myself.

I’ve outlined the positives of setting goals for yourself. So I guess now it’s time I share some of my goals with you that I’ve set for this season:

•Power – I’d like to improve my jump distance.
•Confidence – Improve my confidence to the level that I can do things first time, especially the things I’ve already done. Also to apply my power to my confidence
•Distance – Improve the distance I can get from Catpasses (Kong vaults).
•Know my capabilities – To fully understand what my body is capable of.

I’ll focus on these goals until I feel I’ve achieved them. I know how to achieve them, but achieving them alone is something else. I’ll let you all know how I’ve gotten on with my goals in the near future.

This post may seem a little short on my views and goals in my training, but I’d like to include a little side note which I find relevant and to hopefully help people on their way.

Politics! In Parkour, it’s a fairly new sport so it’s hard for people to get the real picture for what it really is. I see a lot of discussions and arguments over the discipline and some of this can interfere with peoples training. My advice to this is to keep training for yourself with the right intentions. Set goals, train with friends, by yourself, have a fun time, be sensible, be cautious, be polite, join in the community and keep on your path to constant improvements happiness and whatever your intentions take you to! It’s not about competitiveness. It’s for you. Do what you feel is right, setting your own personal goals and achieving them will really help to keep this feeling inside you.

I know all of us in LPA think like this, this is one of the reasons we hold our monthly community sessions – it really brings people together and the atmosphere is full of energy and respect.

Monthy Community Session - June 2010

Our monthly sessions are our way of bringing the community together. Anyone is welcome; to find out when our next Monthly session is or any other ongoing session, just log onto our forum by clicking here.

I hope this post helps clear the fog in some minds out there. It’s the way I see it, and I’m training much more positively.

Train safe!

-Sam

Warm ups 101

2010-07-25T12:13:00.000-07:00

I want to start writing a series of easy to understand articles aimed at beginners to progress and learn the discipline safely, so I’d like to start at the ground up and talk about our old friend the warm up!

Whenever we step out of our day-to-day lives and engage in any physically demanding activity, our bodies need to step up a gear to cope with the extra demands placed upon our bodies. It can take anywhere between 20 and 40 minutes from the time we start to exercise to the time our bodies reach their optimum performance.

After being in school, college or work all day, our bodies are not prepared to bounce, jump, climb and run all over the place. Diving into the big jumps with out warming up first could result in strains and tares to muscles, as well as damage to the joints and ligaments. Further to this, warm ups are proven to enhance performance – if injury isn’t an incentive, maybe performance is!

Your body only uses the energy that it needs to and no more. If you are not physically active for a long period of time, your body attempts to conserve energy. Your breathing shallows, your heart rate slows and the blood being delivered to your muscles decreases.

In a strange way, it is similar to the feeling of getting out of a car after a long journey. Your legs feel heavy and unresponsive as if they’re half asleep. You have to shake them out and move them about to get some life back into them, only then does walking start to feel natural again. It is just the process of taking your body up to a higher level of activity.

Along with the physical demands placed on the body, if you don’t warm up thoroughly, there is also the chance of slipping and falling on seemingly simple movements. It takes some time before jumps and techniques start to feel natural to our body and mind as our central nervous system, muscles and mind start to step up to the tempo.

You might have heard the original French Traceurs refer to this feeling in a few videos as your ‘touch’. It is the feeling of accuracy, control and lightness. To be able to jump and know exactly where your feet will touch down on the wall, or where your hands will grab.

Along with the dangers of not warming up, there are also the dangers of warming up incorrectly. One of the biggest mistakes is excessive stretching before training. Whilst some short, quick stretches can be beneficial before training, too much will weaken your muscles as well as the support that tendons and ligaments give to joints making you vulnerable to injury - as well as weakening you physically and as such, affecting your performance.

With this in mind, I’ve created a list of stages which will give you a basic template to work from for your own warm ups. Of course the plan below isn’t the only way to warm up, but it will give you a solid guide that will allow you to pencil in your own exercises and challenges whilst making sure you warm up thoroughly and effectively.

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Stage 1 - Joint Rotations

Start by moving each one of your joints through its range of motion one by one. Work from head to toe to make sure you don’t miss anything out. For example, you could start with your neck by looking up and down ten times, and then move onto your shoulders by rolling them backwards ten times and then forwards for ten.

These movements should be gentle and not place strain on the joints. By doing this you are starting to supply blood to your muscles, lengthen tendons and activate your central nervous system.

This is also called dynamic stretching, where a joint is taken through its range of motion without trying to increase that range of motion. This should not be mistaken with ballistic stretching, where a person attempts to push a stretch further with small ‘bounces’. Ballistic stretching is bad for you, it causes damage and is counter productive – so don’t do it!

Stage 2 - Cardio

Cardio, short for cardiovascular exercise, is exercise that works your heart, lungs and respiratory system as a whole. It is the system that pumps your blood and oxygen supplies to your muscles with fuel. Any exercise that makes you out of breath and leads to a light sweat is good, such as going for a short run or bouncing on the spot.

The point of this section is to raise your body temperature, to get blood pumping through your muscles and to start gradually increasing the intensity of the exercise.

Without increasing your heart rate (warming up your body, sending supplies to working muscles) you’re putting your body in a really vital position for injury to occur especially when impact is involved (running, jumping etc.).

Stage 3 - Light Strength work

Okay, now it’s time to put your muscles to work. This section of the warm up is to prepare your muscles for the stress and strains that they will be under taking during the session. In Parkour, we use most muscles in the body so you should go through and systematically work through them all.

It might help to think in terms of functional movements. Think about what you will be doing in your session. If the answer to that lots of jumping, then you should focus on your legs. Exercises like squats and lunges would be a good choice. If you are going to be swinging from your arms more in the session, your focus should be on exercises like pull ups and traverses to prepare your arms, shoulders and back muscles.

Start with slow, controlled exercises, like press ups and squats, and once you start to feel stronger and more capable, you can move onto doing more explosive movements, like clap press-ups or broad jumps, to prepare for your body for the dynamic movements in Parkour.

Stage 4 - Activity Specific Movements

By activity specific movements, I mean simple movements that are relevant to your sport or activity. In the case of Parkour, this would mean practicing low impact movements, vaults and jumps with the aim of activating your central nervous system.

Be creative and invent some challenges for yourself. You could set up a sequence of vaults and repeat it, or practice getting small jumps silent and perfectly accurate; anything to wake up your sense of accuracy and control of your movements.

Don’t step up the size or speed of the movements too quickly, take your time and ease your body and mind into your regular training until you are feeling alert and confident in your movements.

Doing a thorough warm up before any training session is not only vital to stay injury free, but also important for you to perform at your best. If you make a regular habit of it you’ll soon start to enjoy the process and reap the rewards.

-Tim

This Location

2010-07-04T11:00:00.000-07:00

In this blog I’m going to convey to you, the reader, what went through my mind as I performed the motion that resulted in my worst injury in five years of Parkour.

I will try and illustrate the moment as my mind portrayed it.

It is often said that your life flashes before your eyes when your about to die, what they don’t tell you is when you hit the ground and you feel your knee jar out of place, every knee injury you can recollect flashes before your eyes.

Some of you may recognise the place of discussion when I mention the steps leading to DeMontfort University’s Campus Centre - if not then it’s a set of concrete stairs with around 7 steps. It was a fair few months ago when the thought first occurred to me that a Side Somersault down the stairs in question would be both possible and very nice. However, it wasn’t until recently though that I decided to put this action into practice.

Mistake.

What started as a light technical session to kill some time became what would initiate three weeks on crutches and another month’s worth of physiotherapy. Drilling a large arm jump and some technical combinations was the aim of this small session.

Me and Sean decided to move on after a friendly chat with one of our lecturers whose words at the time were along the lines of “be careful and don’t hurt yourself”. Bad omen maybe, who knows.

On our way to the next location we pass the Campus Centre steps, I glance at them think back to that night when I almost went for it when I first considered this task. I tell Sean to stop as I ascend the concrete stairs. I convince him I can do it and assure my safety. Sean at this point is determined to film this attempt but I decline the offer. Mistake two (I would have liked to see where I went wrong!)

My initial worry as I stared at the stretch of ground in front of me was the road which began around eight feet from the bottom of the stairs. I figured I could stop before the road and began to run at the stairs.

Anyone experienced in Parkour at this point will understand me when I say that a run up often makes things harder; there’s more time to think as you run toward a jump, more time to imagine yourself falling and more time to picture the consequences. Funnily enough, as far as I can remember, none of this went through my head as ran toward the stairs - I had complete self confidence in my ability to Side Somersault and land safely, I must have done it hundreds of times before this so I wasn’t phased!

Take off.

Perfectly executed. Right foot down first and my body begins to turn to the right as my left foot plants close the edge of the top step. Right foot leaves the ground and is forced upward. Left foot leaves the ground and I’m in the air. Maybe a bit too much power put into it but I wanted to ensure I didn’t land on the stairs.

Rotation.

The second stage of any trick. I’m sure most trickers would agree this stage is always fairly short and gives little time for concurrent feedback. Having said this, I remember executing the usual sequence of subroutines. Extension of the body to gain distance. This is followed by a sharp motion to tuck the body into a small ball shape by bringing both knees to my chest and firmly holding my shins to lock my self in position. This position is held briefly as most of the rotation is performed. I look to the floor as my body is horizontal to it’s harsh surface. At this point I let go of my shins and open my body into a star shape to prepare for landing.

So first my right leg hits the ground and bends slightly to absorb the impact; this felt perfectly fine - a good start to a potentially good landing. My left leg remains straight as my foot approaches the ground.

Impact - and my leg still hasn’t bent!

It feels like my leg is locked in place. I can feel the pressure building on my knee joint until my knee cap suddenly jars out of place. This part was incredibly painful. It moves sharply and violently to the left and snaps back into place with a crunch.

At this point a few experiences went through my head; a school friend who experienced a similar injury whilst dancing, the image of the 2009 Free Running Championships when one contestant injured themselves landing a Loser Somersault with a half twist too heavily and my friend at University causing muscle damage in his knee joint the last night of the first term.

After the initial shock my natural reaction was to roll sideways to prevent any further damage and spread the impact across my body. I sat on the concrete with adrenaline flowing through my veins. I’m not in pain but my instinct tells me I’m in trouble. I don’t try and stand yet I just let what happened sink in.

The result of this accident was simply the dislocation of my knee cap. I’m currently going through physiotherapy to build my left leg’s strength back up.

What kept me going whilst I couldn’t train was inspiration from this man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxjrBd4WE2U - Bill Shannon AKA ‘Crutch’.

So for those who were wondering where I’ve been for the last month or so, I’ve been recovering from an incident of which I will remember the details for the rest of my life.

-Jak

Training Overview

2010-06-21T15:23:00.000-07:00

I haven’t really got a lot of time to put a great deal of thought and effort into a blog post with training, teaching and exams looming. However, I think this post still offers good information and insight and hopefully it will add to your training!

For the past year or so I’ve been experimenting with training programmes in an attempt to find one that works for me in terms of my lifestyle (college, work etc) as well as my current goals. Having said this, I don’t believe there’s a perfect programme; I also think you need variation and you should be careful about being robotic and tunnel visioning in one direction. As well as this, I don’t believe that there is a perfect programme for everybody – every individual has their own needs and goals and they have to tailor their programmes to this.

Over this period I’ve learnt a great deal about nutrition, the body, strength training and various other methods of training – mostly due to Joe DeFranco! I’ve spent hours watching his videos and documentaries, reading his articles and blog posts in an attempt to gather as much information as possible. Joe’s programmes and training methods are based around the conjugate method of strength training – a Russian method which combines many methods of training for the development of many different abilities and/or qualities. It is the antithesis to the typical Western Periodisation method of training and is certainly a more logical and effective method of training!

For the past couple of months, I’ve been following Joe’s Westside 3 programme. Although slightly modified, in accordance with his guidelines. Under his programmes I have found tremendous success. Furthermore, under Joe’s articles, videos and documentaries and under my own research, I’ve learnt a number of things about what I’ve been doing wrong in the past and what I should be doing now.

For a long time, the Parkour community held the belief that bodyweight training was the best way to train for Parkour, believing that we are only using our body and that weight lifting wasn’t functional or sport specific. People feared building muscle that wouldn’t ‘work’ how they wanted it to as well as fearing size and bulk. ‘Weights’ was a dirty word in the Parkour community.

With this, many of us performed bodyweight exercises only – I remember many, many, many sessions performing hundreds of repetitions of push ups, pull ups, dips, squats, lunges etc for around 2-3 hours. At the time, it was obvious why I was doing that and not lifting heavy weight! And now? What the hell was I doing?!

“I have a secret for you: No exercise is sport specific! Playing your sport makes the strength that you gain in the weight room sport specific! Don’t get me wrong, certain exercises are more productive than others...”- Joe DeFranco

Train smart – use the ‘training economy’ and choose the best exercises!

Usain Bolt, the fastest man on the planet. He lifts heavy and is a lot bigger than the majority of Parkour practitioners – don’t see his ‘size’ slowing him down!

Not convinced?

Mike Guadango – one of Joe DeFranco’s baseball athletes. 54” box jump and 50 consecutive pull ups.

What are the best exercises?
Again, this is a case of being an individual and dealing with your own needs and goals, but my recommendations for your main exercises are squats, deadlifts, bench press and weighted pull ups. I’d also recommend push ups, dips, shrugs, split squats, lunges, step ups, DB presses, barbell/DB/inverted rows, rear delt flies, medial delt raises and DB curls for your assistance and accessory work.

So what are my goals?
Parkour is a massive part of my life. It makes me who I am today – it has changed me and my life a lot. It has taught what the human body and the mind can do. It has taught me freedom and what it means to take control of my mind and understand myself. I used to be a conscious kid, quite shy but at the same time quite rebellious – I was in trouble with the police frequently. Now, I don’t care what anybody thinks of me, I know who and what I am, I have confidence and I’m in my final year of A-levels. (As Mike Tyson once said, 'I don't car who I am or who anybody thinks I am').

Under the influence of guys like David Belle and the original French practitioners, I’ve realised that there’s more to Parkour than the side we usually see: the jumps, vaults etc. I’ve realised that Parkour can do such more for me.

I want to be able to look after myself – to escape from someone/something if needs to be using whatever means: fighting, running, jumping and climbing. I want to be able to help and rescue other people should they need it. I want to be as complete as can be. I want to be able to lift a car that is crushing a mother and her child, fight off the attacking grizzly bear, run to safety whilst being able to survive in the wilderness. Extreme maybe, but you get my point.

My training overview
After my experimentation and research, I’ve finally settled on the way I’m going to structure my training – maybe not permanently, but for a while at least! I will be dividing my training into an off-season phase and an in-season phase – similar to the sporting seasons of the NFL, for example. These phases will both be based around DeFranco programmes and they generally involve, as follows:

•Off-Season: strength building focus, less focus on Parkour with sessions only once a week – usually school term time (some school holidays used as de-load weeks)
•Pre-Season: short period testing final max lifts, sprint times, jump distances/heights etc before the in-season
•In-Season: Parkour training focus, strength maintenance (lower volume and intensity) – will be over the summer months

•Off-Season Finishes: Sunday 6th June
•Pre-Season: Monday 7th June until Sunday 13th June)
•In-Season: Monday 14th June until Sunday 29th August
•Off-Season: Monday 30th August

“Most athletes will work diligently to improve their strength during the off-season, only to lose all their hard-earned gains when they need them most: during the season! ... Athletes need to understand that they can maintain their strength during the season on very little volume - IF they’re doing the right exercises at the proper intensity.”- Joe DeFranco

Here is the training template I used for the last 8 weeks or so of the off-season along with notes and a review of my findings:

Previous Off-Season Template – Joe DeFranco, Westside 3
Monday – Repetition Effort Upper Body
A. Repetition Effort Lift – 3 x max reps (90 seconds rest) in one of the following exercises:
•Pull ups/chin ups (bodyweight or at 50-60% 1RM), push ups, dips, bench press (50-60% 1RM)

B. Pulling/Rear Delt Superset 3-4 x 8-12 in one of the following exercises:
•B1: Pull ups/chin ups or a row variation (horizontal, dumbbell, barbell or T-bar)
•B2: Rear delt flyes, seated dumbbell ‘power cleans’

C. Medial Delts – 4 x 10-12 in one of the following exercises:
•Medial delt raises, L-lateral raise, DB military press

D. Elbow Flexor/Traps Superset- 3 x 8-15 in one of the following exercises:
•Curl variation (dumbbell, barbell, Zottmann), rolling triceps extensions
•Barbell/dumbbell shrugs

E. Grip - 2-3 sets for max time in one of the following exercises:
•Thick bar/heavy dumbbell holds, plate gripping, dead hangs

Tuesday – Jump Training + Max Effort Lower Body
A. Jump Variation – 5-8 x 1-3 jumps in one of the following exercises:
•Broad, vertical, box or hurdle jump (weighted or at bodyweight)

B. Max Effort Lift – work up to a 3-5RM, in one of the following exercises, rotate exercise every 2 weeks
•Box squat or deadlift

C. Unilateral Movement – 3-4 x 6-10 dynamic or with a moderate/heavy weight in one of the following exercises:
•Bulgarian split squat, step up or reverse lunge (regular, dynamic or increased ROM)

D. Posterior Chain – 3-4 x 6-10 in one of the following exercises:
•Glute-ham raise, reverse hyperextension, Glute bridge, Romanian deadlift

E. Weighted Abdominals – 3-4 x 8-12 in one or two exercises
•Weighted swiss ball crunch, weighted sit up, hanging leg/knee raise, weighted side bend

Wednesday – OFF

Thursday – Max Effort Upper Body and MMA
A. Max Effort Lift - work up to 3-5RM in one of the following exercises:
•Pull up variations (overhand/underhand/towel grip), bench press, dips

B. Supplemental Lift – 3-4 x 6-12 in one of the following exercises:
•Pull ups (50-60% 1RM, dynamic/plyometrics), DB bench press, push ups (one armed variations/plyometrics/regular), dips

C. Pulling/Rear Delt Superset 3-4 x 8-12 in one of the following exercises:
•C1: A row variation (horizontal, dumbbell, barbell or T-bar)
•C2: Rear delt flyes, seated dumbbell ‘power cleans’

D. Traps – 3 x 8-15 in one of the following exercises:
•Dumbbell/barbell shrugs

E. Elbow Flexor 3 x 8-12 in one of the following exercises:
•Dumbbell/barbell/zottman/hammer curls

F. Grip – 2-3 x max time OR 3x max reps on a gripper (at MMA) in one of the following exercises:
•Thick bar/heavy dumbbell holds, plate gripping, dead hangs

Friday – OFF

Saturday – Parkour
•1-4 hour Parkour session
•High rep abdominal circuit

Sunday - OFF

Notes and Review for Off-Season (next September)
-DeFranco uses ‘bodybuilding methods’ in accessory lifts as size is necessary to build strength
-I added 25kg to my box squat over the 8 weeks and 5 inches to my broad jump
-I ran out of weight to perform deadlifts to max. weight
-I didn’t feel as though 8 weeks was long enough at all and in future I’ll aim for 12-16 weeks
-Short time + being new to this style of training meant more experimentation than solid training
-I know which exercises I favour for next off-season
-I will be adding more dynamic/plyometrics methods to my supplemental workouts – will also be combining repetition days with a dynamic day, e.g.:
A) 2x max reps (push ups, dips, bench press, pull ups, inverted rows)
B) 3x6-10 plyometrics/dynamic movement (push ups, pull ups, dips etc)

Here is my in-season template:
In-Season Template – Joe Defranco’s Westside 3, In-Season

-Workout 1
A. ME upper body lift – 5RM/3RM
• Pull ups/chin ups, bench press, dips

B. Unilateral lower body – 3 sets of 8, working up to a heavy weight
• Bulgarian split squats, step ups, reverse lunges

C. Supplemental – 2 sets of 8-15
• Pull ups (50/60% or dynamic), DB/bench press (50/60%), dips, push ups

D1. Row variation – 3 sets of 10-12 reps
• Inverted rows, dumbbell rows, barbell rows

D2. Barbell/DB Shrugs – 3 sets of 10-12 reps

E. High rep abdominal circuit – perform 3-4 exercises and go through circuit 2x

-Workout 2
A. Box squats:
Week 1 = 60% of 1RM for 6 sets of 2 w/ 1 minute rest between sets
Week 2 = 70% 1RM for 5 sets of 2 w/ 1 minute rest between sets
Week 3 = Work up to 3 singles w/ 80-85% of 1RM, 2-3 minutes rest between sets
-3 week mini cycles, increase percentages dependent on how you feel

B. Supplemental – 3 sets of 6-15
• Pull ups (bodyweight, 50/60% of 1RM or dynamic), inverted rows, bench press (50-60% of 1RM), dips, push ups

C1. Rear delt/Upper back - 3 sets of 8-12
• Rear delt flyes, seated DB power cleans

C2. Elbow Flexor – 3 sets of 8-12
• Dumbbell/barbell/Zottmann curls, triceps extensions

D. DB Lateral Raises - 2-3 sets of 12-15

E. Posterior Chain – 2-3 sets of 8-15
• 45-degree back raises, reverse hyperextensions, Glute bridges, DB swings, RDLs

F. Weighted abdominals–2-3 sets of 10-20
Hanging leg raises, weighted spread eagle sit ups, frog kicks, weighted side bends

-Sprinting/Speed Training
A. General Warm-up / Movement skills (5-15 minutes) –increase your core temperature by performing basic movement skills and calisthenics. (Example: bodyweight squats, jumping jacks, skipping, back pedalling, etc...)

B. Ground-based mobility (5-15 minutes) – Once you’ve broken a sweat and your muscles are warm, perform ground-based mobility drills for 5-15 minutes. (Sample mobility drills include: roll-overs into V-sits, fire hydrant circles, mountain climbers, groiners, etc…)

C. Frequency drills (2-3 minutes) – conclude warm-up with 1 or 2 drills that excite the central nervous system before beginning the speed training portion of the workout. These drills should only last 5-10 seconds, 2-3 sets for each. (Example: low pogo jumps, wideouts, ankling, etc.)

D. Speed training – full recovery between sprints, example session:
• 10-yard sprints – 10 sprints with 1 minute rest
• 20-yard sprints – 6 sprints with 2 minutes rest
• 40-yard sprints – 4 sprints with 4 minutes rest

An example week:
Monday – sprinting (AM) and workout 1(PM)
Tuesday – light Parkour
Wednesday – light Parkour
Thursday – Parkour (AM), workout 2 (PM)
Friday – grappling/MMA
Saturday – Parkour
Sunday – light Parkour

In both the in-season and off-season, I perform this flexibility and recovery routine 6 days a week using a foam roller and tennis ball.
1. IT Band – below hip roll down to mid-outer thigh then start at mid-outer thigh roll down to knee – 10-15x each
2. Abductors - below the crease of your hip to your mid-inner thigh then starting at your mid-inner thigh and rolling down to the inside of your knee
3. Glute/Piriformis Myofacial release w/ static stretch
4. Rollovers into “V” sits – Perform 10 reps
5. Fire hydrant circles – 10 forward circles/10 backward circles each leg
6. Mountain climbers – 20 reps
7. Groiners –10 reps. Hold last rep for 10 seconds - push knees out while dropping butt down.
8. Static hip flexor stretch – Perform 3 sets of 10 seconds each leg. Perform all 3 sets on one leg before moving onto the other leg.

I am very excited for the in-season! Lots of Parkour training, freedom and progression!

Any questions, just ask... I realise it may seem complicated!

The field of strength training is so complex, it would be impossible to write down every aspect and every variation – my advice would be to just get on the internet, sift through the crap and read the good information. My favourites: www.defrancostraining.com and www.elitefts.com. Enjoy!

“So next time someone tells you weight training is just for bodybuilders, think again. A proper strength-training program just may be the final piece of your training “puzzle” to success!”

-Joe

Three Percent

2010-05-25T15:29:00.000-07:00

The first 45 minutes were the hardest.

I had decided to Join Johnny ‘Sticky’ Budden for a leg of his 1000 miles of Parkour journey from John O’Groats to Lisses, the birthplace of Parkour. I arrived in Nottingham with a bag full of supplies ready to run the 30 miles from Nottingham’s Market Square to Tilton on the Hill in Leicestershire. I’d anticipated being able to leave my bag in the support vehicle, however we wouldn’t meet the vehicle until we’d left Nottingham, 45 minutes of running away. I was worried about tiring myself out before the real bulk of the running could begin, especially as it was a very hot day and dehydration could become a real issue.

Joining me in the quest to support Johnny was Neil Hutson from Lincolnshire, Joe, Josh and Alex from Derby, and Christian who had come all the way from Norway to take part. We left our meeting place of the lions at the market square full of energy but a little apprehensive of the long distance ahead of us. I kept having problems with my broken zip on my bag, and my iPod that I was using to measure distance kept falling off my arm as the strap wasn’t attached properly, this slowed me down for most of the first leg, I couldn’t wait to see the support vehicle so I could sort things out and finally get into a rhythm for the rest of the run.

Three quarters of an hour after the start we found the support vehicle, I quickly took everything superfluous from my bag, changed my t-shirt (thanks to Christian for helping me out of the first one, I couldn’t get if off due to sweat sticking it to me!) reattached my iPod and I was ready to go.

With the teething problems and the urban landscape of Nottingham behind us we were all free to concentrate on running, though with this being 1,000 miles of Parkour, railings and other obstacles were overcome, not circumnavigated. I remember the feeling of excitement I had seeing a rail come into my path, trying to vault each one as seamlessly as possible, a welcome distraction to the running.

As we continued to run I realised what a good bonding experience this kind of event was, we put mile after mile behind us talking about all manner of topics ranging from Parkour specifics and training, to music, to our favourite videos on YouTube! As we were all in this together we built a group dynamic really quickly will all inhibitions about meeting new people quickly forgotten.

As we met with the support vehicle later on the run, Sticky changed into his ‘Forrest Jump’ outfit replete with coat, cap and beard. He ran for a while in the costume, with some pictures being taken before he put it back in the vehicle as the heat behind the false beard became a bit much. (how he even ran in it in the first place eluded me!)

Eventually we came to a sign informing us we were leaving Nottinghamshire, with another informing us we were entering Leicestershire a few metres beyond it, I remember discussing what the no-man’s land between the two should be called with the guys from Derby as we ran past.

Running along the country roads in Leicestershire I really enjoyed the tranquillity of the countryside around us and found myself taking a closer look at the landscape and nature I was surrounded by, there were some really breathtaking views and I chastised myself mentally for taking so many things for granted, I remember taking motivation from the beauty of the natural world around me and my enthusiasm to see more kept me moving.

There were several moments that stuck with me whilst we ran together, Neil’s cheeky side flip between two kerbs on one of the downhill sections, Sticky shouting “last one to the car’s a loser!” a hundred metres from the support vehicle, causing everybody to sprint as fast as they could to the car despite having run almost twenty miles already. Neil trying to back tuck every time we met the support vehicle to test his fatigue levels also buoyed the spirits of the group.

However it wasn’t an easy ride for the whole run. With just under a marathon distance complete, fatigue levels were running high amongst the group, some of the less experienced runners were feeling the effects, however we drew on the Yamakasi saying of “We start together, we finish together!” to keep everyone going. We were going to need all the mental strength we had to tackle the last section of the course. We rounded a bend to see an enormous hill in front of us, not a welcome sight when you’re run over 20 miles.

After an exchange of encouraging words (with the phrase SPARTANS! being heard at least once) and a drink we began tackling the hill, after a few minutes we realised it was a lot longer the we had originally anticipated as we hadn’t even come to the steep section yet after running for a mile or so. Sticky’s mental fortitude impressed me deeply as we battled up the hill, despite his legs being so fatigued from the 600 miles he’d already covered he pushed on and kept moving up this unforgiving incline. When we finally got to the top of the hill we realised it had been almost 3 miles long.

Unfortunately, the difficult conditions didn’t end there after the inevitable downhill section was another steep hill, and another, and another after that, I didn’t realise Leicestershire undulated quite so much! The only solace we took was the fact that we were approaching the end of our run, Tilton on the Hill was supposed to be 29.5 miles from our starting point and we were closing on that distance rapidly.

However, someone had miscalculated, at around 30 miles we came across yet another incline, I remember saying “the end is at the top of this hill guys, come on!” We ascended the hill only to find a sign informing us the Tilton on the Hill was another 3 miles way. The air of dejection in the group was tangible, however those who do Parkour will know that traceurs are used to dealing with difficult training and this was no exception, we pushed onward.

With morale down and muscles at breaking point we arrived of the foot of one more hill, the group was fatigued and hungry and almost stretched to breaking point, when the support vehicle came past and Niki informed us that our goal was “just up this hill”. That was all the incentive we needed as we made one final push to conquer this last obstacle, and as promised the Sign for Tilton on the Hill came into view, there was one final dash for the finish and finally, after 5 hours of running we could stop and rest with our mission accomplished.

My thoughts immediately went to Sticky, who is doing this on a daily basis to support the Motor Neurone Disease Association. My run was completed, but he had to get up and do the same the next day, and the next. What he is doing is truly phenomenal and I urge you to donate to the cause and provide help in whatever way you can.

I would also like to thank Niki who drove the support vehicle and provided us with water and food along the way, her support made the whole run more manageable.
I’d run 33 miles; triple my previous best distance on a run, more distance than a marathon, a long way in anyone’s book, and definitely one of the best experiences of my life. However it is only three percent of 1000 miles, I hope this blog conveys to you what a herculean task Johnny is undertaking.

For more information on the 1,000 miles of Parkour and to donate visit:

www.stickyparkour.com

- Dan

Inspiration

2010-05-17T14:20:00.000-07:00

Everyone who has practiced Parkour has felt that spark. Someone or something caught our attention long enough to compel us to investigate further and start out on this journey.

As we continue to learn, those that inspire us continue to influence and shape the way that we train. They help us to stay motivated and dedicated to what we have set out to achieve. In Parkour, most people’s methods of training derive from some form of inspiration. Usually practitioners are inspired by the words, actions or methods of the earlier practitioners, such as David Belle.

What influences us affects our training mentality, and vice-versa, our training mentality effects what influences us. As each Traceur grows, their own influences naturally change and develop over time. In turn, they too become an inspiration for others.

With that in mind, I’ve thought I’d share my five biggest inspirations below (in no particular order):

1. Friends and Family

I practise Parkour for a number of reasons. My friends and family are one of those reasons. Parkour has changed me a lot, in terms of maturity, direction and health. Parkour has also given me the greatest friends I could ask for and with them I’ve had many great memories.

Inspired by the earlier practitioner’s and their ways of thinking, Parkour has shown me how to be strong and how to look after my friends, my family and myself. I train in the thought that one day I know I’ll be able to make a difference whether it be protecting or helping myself, my friends or my family.

2. David Belle

David Belle is one of the key figures behind Parkour. The ideas for Parkour derived from his father, Raymond Belle, and his time in Vietnam and as a fire fighter. Raymond was a very strong individual who performed various rescues and endured hard training in ‘parcours’ (The French military obstacle course). Raymond passed his knowledge, experience and message down to David and from this we have Art Du Deplacement/Yamakasi/Parkour/Free Running.

So what inspires me about David? Firstly, and quite obviously, is his level; he is incredibly strong and extremely skilled in Parkour – he has accomplished great things and is a true testament to the untapped ability we as humans have. His mentality and reasons for training are something that I am also greatly inspired by: developing an ability to look after yourself, your friends, family, or even a stranger, whether it be escaping from someone/something, reaching someone/something or helping somebody.

3. Joe DeFranco

Joe DeFranco is a trainer from New Jersey, USA. His business, DeFranco’s Training Systems, is based upon improving athletic performance. The guy knows his stuff when it comes to strength training and, yes, you guessed it, improving athletic performance. Joe has worked with athletes from a variety of sports, from college football players all the way up to NFL players, from college basketball to the NBA, not to mention baseball, hockey and rugby. Joe’s methods are based around the Westside system of strength training and involve lifting maximal weight to build strength and sub-maximal weight for speed and/or repetition.

I’ve put a lot of time into reading and watching DeFranco’s stuff and it’s taught me a LOT about training like an athlete. I’m currently on a DeFranco programme and I’ve noticed massive improvements in my strength, jumping ability, speed and size as well as mobility and muscle tissue quality. DeFranco has certainly revolutionised the way I train.

4. PKBC Guys and Community Spirit

PKBC is ‘Parkour British Columbia’ and I’m referring mostly to the Vancouver guys, such as Res. They have a great attitude towards training and they’re all well-rounded practitioners. Along with this, we share similar views to them with regards to strength training.

What inspires me about these guys is the community spirit they have in their videos – they look like really great friends, having a laugh together, training hard and progressing. It just reminds me of what we can achieve together. In times where there is a lot of people arguing and debating various aspects of Parkour over the internet, it’s great to see communities like this just training hard and caring about their local community and not the politics of Parkour.

In Parkour, I’ve met people who I now regard as my closest friends. We’re all from different backgrounds and age groups, but we all connect with Parkour, train hard together, progress and have fun. This is what I want everybody who comes and trains with us to realise – that we are a close knit and welcoming community. Each person in the community supports the next and through Parkour we can be great friends too.

5. Fun and Progression

Obviously Parkour is great fun and initially a lot of us are attracted to it because of this. Parkour is truly unique and offers something different. Yet at the same time, it is very natural and useful to people. It is the ultimate form of human progression – there is always something you can work on and it’s all about trusting yourself and knowing yourself.

I’ve practised Parkour for over 4 years now and it truly is life changing. It dominates my thoughts – I think about training in some way all the time and I’m constantly looking to improve. (Beginners will note the ‘Parkour vision’ you gain as you walk around, noticing the different jumps and routes around the urban Landscape.)

The Future

Parkour is something that will stick with me forever – it’s too big a part of my life for me to imagine life without training in some way. It has helped me to develop and has put me on the path to becoming a strong person.
I find having a reason to train is very useful for finding motivation and to push myself, I suggest you all take some time and just think about why you practise Parkour and what you want from it.

A little insight to my influences – I hope you enjoyed it!

-Joe

Parkour?

2010-05-09T10:16:00.001-07:00

I still remember the moment I first heard of Parkour.

If my memory serves me well, it was early December in 2005. I was cycling towards Wigston town centre with Joe. We were riding along a narrow path and Joe was attempting to explain Parkour to me. At that time I had no idea what Parkour was, and believe me, Joe’s explanation was brief. Conversations often are when your cycling next to a main road! But it sounded like fun, for sure!

In January 2006, whilst in year 9 at high school, I had my first try at Parkour in my school playground at lunch time. It started off with me, Joe and a couple of our friends and we spent lunch time after lunchtime going over simple vaults in the playground. Even after learning one vault, I wanted to learn more. Although I wasn’t serious about it yet, I felt like a kid again, I just wanted to learn more about it. We progressed further as did my eagerness.

It was early February of 2006 when I first met other practitioners in Leicester. It was early on a Sunday afternoon; we meet up at the War Memorial outside Queen Elizabeth’s college. That day there was great weather and a great atmosphere! A few months back, I'd never heard of Parkour and now I'm here - seeing some incredible stuff from guys like Blane. It really boosted my confidence; it was proof that if you train properly, you will get you to where you want to be.

My confused views of Parkour were becoming clearer: I felt freedom.

Summer came and high school was over, I moved on to a different college to Joe. Throughout the majority of the first year at Beauchamp, I didn’t really have much contact with my old friends, such as Joe. I still trained Parkour, but just by myself. A few people noticed me training and were interested and I taught them what I knew.

During 2007, my training really began to become a huge part of my life; the passion grew and I began to take it far more serious than I did in the past. I decided that if I wanted to continue training Parkour and achieve a good level, I must develop a strong and healthy body. I turned from the casual practitioner into an athlete, building my strength and fitness as well as changing my diet. Even my mind changed too - I matured very quickly because of Parkour.

Around late 2007, whilst training at Leicester University, I bumped into Joe who was training with a few other guys. It was like a reunion, and since then, we’ve been training together a hell of a lot. Our friendship blossomed once again and we quickly became close friends. Joe trained a lot with the other regular Leicester guys (such as Blane, Callum, Alex, Tim and Dan) and they soon became my close friends too.

Since then, times have changed dramatically. Out of the original group, Blane moved to London to teach Parkour full time with Parkour Generations, Alex has moved away for University and a few others have stopped training, leaving myself, Joe, Dan and Tim. In recent years, we’ve also had some new arrivals, like Andeh and Jak - two very experienced practitioners who moved to Leicester for University.

Parkour has changed dramatically too - both globally and in Leicestershire. From an underground discipline that the majority had never heard of or witnessed, to one of the fastest rising sports in the world, often featured in films and on TV. Whilst most people have heard of the words “Parkour” or “free-running” very few understand what it means or know how to go about learning it. Even fewer understand how to teach it safety.

It is this rapid rise to fame that gave birth to the LPA. The organisation made up of the most experienced and skilled practitioners in Leicestershire. LPA aim to teach Parkour correctly, to represent the discipline responsibly and to maintain and grow the great community we have here in Leicester.

On a side note, through my 4+ years of training, I've found that your biggest challenge and greatest friend is your mind. Whether it is taking control of your fear and trusting in your skills, or just finding time to train whilst still making time for family, friends, college, work and Parkour... it’s all in the mind. It’s possible to train despite a busy life style, even if it is just for one day a week. If you’re passionate enough about it, you’ll find the time. It’s this commitment to do so, to better yourself, which means you’re already very much in the discipline.

So far my experiences in Parkour have been amazing; I've changed greatly for the better, I've progressed and I’ve met some amazing people. Here’s to many more good times in the future!

P.s. Our forum is currently proving to be a great place for the community to converge outside of training and talk - sign up and join in the fun!

“Experience is a great teacher.” - John Legend

-Sam

Event Write Up: Sunday 11th April

2010-04-23T07:21:00.001-07:00

The date is Sunday 11th April 2010, the time is 11:15am. I’m sitting cross-legged on the edge of a wide concrete path, behind me towers the war memorial that overlooks Victoria Park in Leicester. To my right, Sam and Joe are doing the same. We joke about looking like “little Buddha’s” as we look along the path that slopes down out of the Park. Anyone walking up it would just see us three sitting there in a line, legs crossed, at the top of the hill.

As I said, it’s Sunday, and this Sunday is the date of our second monthly community session. There is a slightly chilly breeze in the air and the sky is grey, nothing like the glorious Sun from the day before. Yet the ground is dry, and there is no sign of rain. The days of ice falling from the sky seem to be behind us for another year.

The session is set to start in an hours time.

It’s not long before Blane and Shirley arrive, shortly followed by Dan on his roller blades/wheelie shoes. We shake hands and exchange greetings. For a moment, it’s just like the old days, with just the few of us training and joking together in the best of spirit.

As the clock draws closer to twelve, people start to trickle into the park from all directions. Our group grows from the 6 of us to 10, and then from 10 to 20. By the time it is 12pm the group is getting close to forty people. Along with the good turn out of beginners, I’m also amazed at the turn out from other cities and communities who have made the effort to travel here to train with us. As I look around the crowd, I see friends from Nottingham, Loughborough, Luton, Hinckley, Coventry, Northampton and London! I want to thank each and everyone of you guys for travelling down to train with us.

As everyone is chatting and exchanging greetings, I take a moment to look around. I see guys stretching out, whilst others are practicing handstands, or trying small climbs. As people being to move, I feel the excitement in the air growing, in anticipation of the coming session. I glance at my phone to check the time. It’s 12:15. Right! Time to kick this thing off!

The warm up

Look up, look down. Look left, look right.

Dan led the group, slowly waking each person’s body up, one joint at a time. The exercises started out gentle enough, but ask anyone who has experienced one of Dan’s warm ups before and they will tell you that they are anything but gentle!

Roll the shoulders forward, large shrugs. Now roll the shoulders backwards.

The pace steadily increased, gradually picking up in speed and intensity and then…

Hold your arms straight out to the side at 90 degrees.

Now this excise involves holding your arms out straight at 90 degrees, parallel to the floor. From here you do small circles forwards and backwards, along with various other small movements. It sounds very, very easy, but as you go from one exercise to another, without rest, the burn in your shoulders continues to build and build. The ingenious part for this exercise is that you can always go for longer and dig deeper, after all, who can’t hold their arms out to the side? It was nice to see the grins on the faces of some of the Parkour Generation collective during this one. As guys who regularly train and teach in London at the Parkour Generations Academy classes, they have more experience with this exercise than most!

Dan warmed everyone up thoroughly from head to toe whilst myself and the other LPA guys offered advice and encouragement to the groups of beginners in the collective body of traceurs. With a massive grin on his face, Dan explained challenge after challenge.

Through out the warm up I constantly saw ear-to-ear smiles, interspersed with determined looks as people gritted their teeth and pushed through the harder challenges. After half an hour of pushing, jumping and crawling, not to mention the one and a half mile run around the edge of the park, the warm up was coming to a close.

I love the sense of camaraderie you get during these large group warm ups and this one was no different, the vibe and atmosphere was incredible. It is a real testament to the Parkour community and the bond shared between those who practice. It is always amazing to see how so many like-minded people can come together, many of who having never met before, and act like they have been good friends for years.

After the warm up was concluded, we split everyone up into three groups. One group was lead by myself, the second group was lead by Dan, and the final group by Sam and Joe. Due to the large numbers of people, there was no way we could physically fit 40 people into one spot. So instead, we cycled between the first three spots, with one group heading to each spot. From this point onwards the day was fairly informal, more of an open session where everyone one was free to try whatever they wanted, rather than a structured class. Of course, there were always LPA instructors on hand to suggest little challenges or to give advice to the less experienced guys.

The training begins

I had one of the smaller of the groups, around 7 or 8 guys. We chatted as we headed over to the rocks at the far end of the Park. Looking up, I could see the grey clouds parting and the sun coming out. It looks like it was going to be a sunny day after all!

This first spot consists of about 14 or 15 knee height rocks that are laid out in a line. We dropped our bags at the rocks and got started. I kicked things off by taking a look at an off ground challenge. Simply trying to get from the first rock to the last without touching the floor, and it wasn’t long before everyone was having a go. What makes this challenging is the awkwardness of the jumps between each rock. Unlike the walls and rails of urban environment, rocks and trees are not uniform. The angles are constantly changing and rarely are you landing on a flat surface that is parallel to the floor. This means you have to alter your technique slightly on each jump, sometimes you will be landing at an angle or even with your feet on a near vertical face of the rock, grasping at the top with your hands in order to hold on.

The day continued in much the same way, with sun, jokes, laughter and challenges. And lots and lots of movement! I could give an in-depth description of the entire day, but you would be reading for a long time! So instead I’ll just highlight a few points that stick out in my mind.

I remember doing a balance challenge with Sean from Nottingham and having to “re-spawn” each time we fell off. Navigating our way over a series of rail precisions, along a rail at height, under a walkway and around a tree! It was amazing to train with old friends again. Guys like Sean and Aaron who I used to train with regularly at one point or another in Leicester, who have since moved away.

We hit up every spot we could between Victoria Park and the town centre. Whilst we were at the walls outside the old Phoenix theatre, a few people got to work sizing up the large running cat leap near the entrance to the car park. This jump involves sprinting towards a 3ft high wall, and using it as step to launch across a gap and grab onto a high windowsill. A few different guys got this jump, but a shout out has to go out to Ash from Coventry and James from London for this one. Ash needs a mention as he got this jump so damn ridiculously clean, although I think James was the true champion for his sheer determination to make this one. Despite being close to the end of the day, and after several attempts of just being an inch below the windowsill, James not only made the jump but busted it out three times in a row.

It was also Joe from Hinckley’s last session in the city before moving back home. As a parting gift, it was great to watch him fight for, and nail, the movement where you lazy vault into a sitting position on a rail and then spin your legs back over. After several attempts, and one funny but painful bail, Joe got the movement down super smooth. It was an amazing day to leave on and I’ll really look forward to the next time we can hook up.

Goodbyes

From about 5pm onwards, we slowly lost members of the group as peoples energy levels started to drop and legs started to grumble. By around 6:30pm we were training at DMU and about ready to call it a day. My body had had enough from the previous days of training, so now I was just stretching and chatting with the guys that were left.

With such large numbers earlier in the day, we had too many people to session the main spots nearby Leicester University. As a few of the guys wanted to check out the spots before heading back to their respective cities, we decided to make the walk back up to the university to finish the session.

About halfway back up to Victoria Park, the guys from London realised that they didn’t have enough time to get to the university and back down to the bus station in time for their bus. Sean and Jak also had to catch a train to Nottingham and had to make a move. We shared handshakes, hugs and goodbyes. After such a great day of training in the sun, we went our separate ways.

And that left four, myself and Dan, as well as Ash and Danny from Coventry. We spent a while exploring and sessioning around the university. After around 8 hours of training our legs could take no more. At about 8pm, Dan and I said our goodbyes, and headed over to the university Café for a well-deserved Soup of the Day and Hot Chocolate! A great end to an unforgettable day.

Thanks to everyone who come down. You all made the day what it was.

Here’s to many more!

You can also watch Lauri’s footage of the day here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6IVX7cH22U

For further details on our next monthy event, visit www.leicesterparkour.com

-Tim

Rebirth

2010-04-19T02:49:00.001-07:00

Every country, city or town
Has a group of youths jumping around
Climbing walls
Vaulting rails
Major success
And epic fails
Here in Leicester is where I reside
A recent shift from Nottingham’s tide
I’m a laid back young man and a DMU student
But 50 percent of my life revolves around movement
‘Dance
Drama
Parkour
DMU’
Is what my facebook info states
My foundations of life is what this equates
Tim Joe Toboggan Andeh and Dan
Are the fellow members of this LPA clan
Hell night sessions are all part of the plan
Technical training as much as we can
Finding our limits but reaching new heights
An ambient setting beneath the street lights.
Various spaces you’ll spot us about
Trying new methods of running new routes
Phoenix arts, watch out for glass shards
And Leicester Uni’s security guards
The market place protects us from rain
The filled in subway on Millstone Lane
Important meetings with LPA
Enjoying soup in the library café
My key point here is to illustrate change
But training parkour has a very wide range
To some of you this may seem strange
When I say Nottingham to Leicester is quite the exchange
From Robin Hood and market square talk
To Curve Theatre and the long New Walk
Every country, city or town
Has a group of youths jumping around
Parkour Generations and LPA
Urban Revolution and Notts PK
All kinds of people across the UK
Jumping around but that’s more than OK

Jak

All The Small Things

2010-03-31T10:25:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this mainly for the newer people in the Parkour scene in Leicester. As we currently don't provide classes (YET... coming soon everybody!), apart from the monthly sessions, I thought this would be useful in allowing the newer guys to take their newly learnt skills to the next level.

Parkour is so complex. There is so much to work on and working on the small things will carry over and make a difference to your whole game. This is a great thing! There is always something to work on. There is always something you can improve!

Below I will provide a number of simple things for practitioners to work on. Should you have any issues or if you want some advice, ask an LPA instructor.

Note: If you're training alone, please be careful and take care. It is recommended that you train at LPA sessions under our instructors.

Move!
A 'run' is known as a number of movements put together to form a route. Runs allow you to utilise all of your techniques and adapt them specifically to the environment in front of you. You will be coming in to techniques, or out of them, from different angles, at different heights and on different obstacles. Putting together routes is a great way of developing a number of qualities including good foot placement, spatial awareness and confidence. Also, the obvious benefit is that it will improve individual techniques as you drill them repeatedly.

Next time you train, I suggest picking a spot and then selecting a point A and a point B. Your aim should be to move from A to B - and then back again. Repeat it, perfecting your route. Your goal can be to move with speed and efficiency or you can be more creative with your route.

As well as runs, you can perform single techniques - running precision jumps, arm jumps, tic tacs etc. Use your new 'Parkour vision' to decide what you can do, but don't limit yourself, always keep your mind open and try new, different things. Your movement should not be confined to set techniques.

Balance
An improved sense of balance will improve your ability to take off, land, move along thin surfaces and it can be practised pretty much by anybody, at any time. Simple drills, such as walking up and down a rail can be made harder by jumping from rail to rail. The important thing is maintaining balance is remaining switched on in your head - knowing what you're doing will help you retain your balance.

Further drills you can practise include: vaulting onto a rail, or object thing enough to require increased balance, and holding that position without falling down or using your hands or squatting down and then standing back up again.

Although it may seem boring, simple drills such as these can be very beneficial to your Parkour - like I said, all the small things! ;) I know I can speak for everybody in LPA, and even most practitioners worldwide, when I say that a small but perfectly landed and well balanced jump is far more 'impressive' than a massive, messy jump.

Touch
It may be easy to perform a jump - but you need to ask yourself: did I land well... was it quiet... how can I improve it?

Perfect landings are hard to achieve. Even the most experienced practitioners still need to work on them - it's always an ongoing process.

It's easy to put all your power into a jump and throw yourself at it, but a lot harder to decide how much power is needed to allow you to STICK* it and how to manipulate that power as well as your foot positioning to make it a quiet landing. Although it may be aesthetically pleasing, the reasoning is mainly concerned with looking after your body. Landing properly will reduce the impact placed upon your body.

(*Stick is a term used in Parkour for landing a jump without falling backwards or forwards, as if you're stuck to the object)

I'm sure LPA instructors will have guided you in the right direction with regards to landing - but if you want some pointers, have them evaluate one of your landings so you know what to work on!

It could be anything from foot position (always landing on the balls of your feet and not your heels - this will reduce the impact as well as allow you to control your landing - and not slip off - and make it easier to jump again afterwards), power (too much power and you'll overshoot the jump, too little and you'll find yourself falling back) or volume (a quiet landing generally suggests control and a lesser impact, as opposed to a uncontrolled, high impact, loud landing).

Now you know what you need to work on, find a jump and practise! It doesn't have to be high, it doesn't have to be on a rail, nor does it have to be on a wall. You can practise your landings anywhere. Once you're more advanced and think you're ready, you should move up and challenge yourself: rails, walls etc. Repeat jumps over and over again. They don't need to be standing precision jumps, they can be running or they can be kong to precisions. Think about every movement your making, think about how much power you're using and practise.

Repetition, Repetition, Repetition...
Repeating a technique will no doubt improve your confidence with that movement. However, should you have bad habits, you will just be enforcing those bad habits. So, ask an LPA instructor to evaluate your technique, find out what you can work on, whether it be the take off, hand positioning, foot positioning, landing.

Drilling techniques in runs, as mentioned above, will greatly improve your ability to move and with time you'll develop an instinct where you will know which movement is necessary without having to stop a plan it out.

Repetition is the key. Repetition will build confidence and it will also build muscle memory. Repeat the techniques on varying obstacles and angles. Also, a fun challenge: if you have a stronger side, for example, you prefer turn vaulting to your left, try it on the weaker side!

Physical Conditioning, Nutrition and Research
Improving your strength, flexibility and fitness will improve your Parkour significantly. However, I believe this to be a subject of far too greater depth, one that requires a whole new article itself - well, more than an article, a whole new book. Generally, any form of exercise will benefit your Parkour. My favourite exercises include: sprints, squats, deadlifts, lunges, glute-ham raises, pull ups, push ups, bench press, dips - amongst many others.

Every Thursday night there is a fitness session with Dan - click here for more info! - which I recommend you go to, it will be of benefit for sure! Even if you just go once, it will give you an idea of how you can condition your body and you can then take the knowledge home and practise! I could write a training programme for you but it's far too much of an individual thing - but I'm more than happy to help you, just ask!

The saying, 'you are what you eat' is true. Filling yourself with junk won't do you any favours. Like physical conditioning, nutrition is such a large topic that I can only really talk about it in brief here - hint hint as to what my next article will be about ;) Below are a few bullet points which may help you eat better, give them a try:

Eat a balance of carbohydrates, protein and good fat
Carbs: pasta, brown/white rice, brown bread, potatoes, fruit
Protein: chicken, tuna, turkey, eggs, nuts, yoghurt
Fat: nuts, yoghurt, peanut butter, eggs
Avoid snacking out on chocolate and other snacks
Eat 3-5 whole, good meals a day
Drink water regularly throughout the day
EAT YOUR FRUIT AND VEG ;)

These are both topics which you can research yourself should you want more information. Here's a few topics to research: warm ups, strength training for athletes, bodyweight exercises, stretches/flexibility, sports nutrition.

Google is your library!!

Should you have any questions about this post, head over to our forum and just ask, or speak to an LPA instructor next time you train!

Hope this helps

Joe

Event Write Up: Sunday 7th March

2010-03-09T09:14:00.000-08:00

I woke up at 9:15am on Sunday 7th March to the piercing sound of my alarm clock. After rubbing my eyes and allowing myself to get to grips with the situation, I realised what today was and suddenly pulled the window blinds out of the way so I could see what the weather was like: dry - good; sunny - very good. It would seem we had been blessed with the weather that day - the sun was shining and it was was quite warm, the best weather in a while following the recent snow and rain.

By 9:45am I was fully awake and had just showered. I indulged in some breakfast... 4 weetabix, 75g of Muesli and 350ml of milk... all weighed and measured - a nice 113g of carbs, 20g of protein and 8g of fat. Perfect start to the day. Sam arrived shortly after at just gone 10am as I was cooking rice (after weighing it, of course) ready for the bus journey from Wigston to town.

We were on the bus at 10:55am, stopping outside the DMU at 11:10am. We walked over to Phoenix to find 2 guys already waiting, 50 minutes before the meeting time! Damn, I like eagerness :) Over the next 50 minutes, another 30 or so people turned up - all eager and ready to train, everybody creating a fantastic atmosphere.

We began shortly after 12pm with Dan leading the warm up which everybody seemed to find challenging but also fun, everybody united in a circle, smiles on their faces performing the exercises. Following the warm up we split into 2 groups: a beginner's workshop group and a group for people with experience who just wanted to train. The beginners group split into 2 workshops, each led by Tim and Dan - they headed off round to the back of the Phoenix, whilst the training group, led by Andeh, stayed at the front.

The two workshops shared two smaller training locations round the back with both working on routes involving vaults, underbars and jumps and also precision - including a fun precision game for Tim's group, which I'm sure they'll all recall!! The workshops were based upon the fundamental movements of Parkour - developing these movements correctly aswell as using them in combinations and routes. Everybody had a great attitude and all helped each other and congratulated each other - a fantastic atmosphere indeed!

I walked about between the workshops, helping out where necessary, and it was great to see how far the LPA and Parkour in Leicester has develloped over the past year. We have moved from a pretty much underground group of practitioners to teaching for Pedestrian Youth Arts, holding our first outdoor beginner's session and now our first monthly community session - along with a few other projects in the pipeline, things are shaping up and it's all looking very positive for Parkour in Leicester!

After Phoenix, we moved on to the empty Market in the city centre where we took a break from the workshops and training and thought it was time for a game. TAG! (Or Tig...) Two people were on and, obviously, had to catch other people. The game combined with the location provided fantastic opportunity for everybody to utilise their new skills and knowledge and proved to be great fun! With 30 seconds of the game remaining, it was decided that the two people on in the end would have to perform 50 push ups - either all at once or split into sets - either way, the race was on now!

The game ended with Ronil and our own LPA instructor Sam on. They each performed 50 push ups, much to their enjoyment! ;)

Our final location for the day was at DMU - before we posed for a group photo under a rather large wall!

The workshops had finished and now the session was all about everybody training (or jamming) freely, getting to know each other more and having fun! It was great to see so many people moving and having fun... everybody helping each other, giving advice and pushing themselves.

After a couple of hours here, we finished with a warm down. The weather was still beautiful as the sun shined with not a cloud in sight - we had certainly been blessed, not just in terms of weather, but also with the people and the atmosphere, what a perfect start to many monthly events!

With well over 30 people in attendance, ranging in age, gender and experience, it was a fantastic day! Everybody trained hard, learnt new skills and had great fun!

Thank you to everyone who made the event as great as it was! Well done to everybody too for all of the hardwork and for bringing such a great attitude!

Visit our forum at http://leicesterparkour.com for more information on the next event which will be in April!

-Joe

P.s. A video from local community reporter John Coster reporting on the Phoenix workshops: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc4K-yb6mqY

In Too Deep

2010-03-04T11:33:00.000-08:00

Like anything in life it’s not always beneficial focusing on one thing for too long; it’s the start of growing a narrow mind and ignoring everything else around you; environment, friends, hobbies, awareness and even yourself. The key in these and many other situations is balance. This isn’t meaning to say do everything in an equal time or never try too hard on something because most people have an ambition in life where they will need to take more time, dedication and passion towards achieving it than other things in their life.

Sometimes you may be trying to reach a certain goal over a long period of time. Minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and in some cases even years may be spent focusing on one goal you have set yourself upon. The more time goes by, the more you may lose your self-belief (which is such a thing to lose) that you can even achieve this goal. Sometimes you may even forget why you wanted to achieve it in the first place and all your mind is focused on is this one thing...

Most people would tell you to ‘never give up’ and ‘believe in yourself’. Which is right, you shouldn’t give up and confidence is definitely key in any ambition.

I’ve had so many mental blocks in Parkour building up to jumps; the mind full of confusion and doubt, the eyes focusing on the same spot for so long and everything around you feels as if it’s on the other side of an invisible wall. Your mind is in the usual building up state of nothing mattering anymore. You have to do it, you must do it, you’re more than capable of doing it, you feel the burning emotions of scare and confidence combining in your heart... and while all of this questioning and confusion is going on in your mind, your physical state remains stationary, merely on standby. Your body is fine... waiting patiently; it’s just waiting for you mind to make that final decision.

Now most of the time I would walk back and forth motivating myself and all this energy will gust out of me after a huge mental debate and BAM! Next thing I know I’m looking down at my feet and doing the casual walk feeling so good about myself for doing this... jump (in this case). Ok, 2 more times to be sure the first wasn’t lucky... the build up to the 2nd jump is never as intensive as the 1st, the build up is still there but your mind is at much more ease. Simply because you know you’ve just done it and it’s real. It’s yours; you’ve got this 2 more times no problem. Sometimes your body won’t even wait for your mind to decide whether to go or not for the 2nd jump or one you’ve done many times because you’re bursting with so much confidence. Which feels good but you should never take the unworthy risk. You’ll have plenty of opportunities in life for your body to move before your mind, possibly in a good old adrenaline rush.

This is great, it’s the progression of Parkour, you’re getting better and you’re sure of it. You go home feeling so good about yourself and feel like you’ve unlocked a whole new door to the discipline.

However, sometimes you may go out to train and you might not feel as confident as you did the last day you came out. Everything seems big or you may feel like your mind isn’t totally with it. Then you come across a new jump you’ve never noticed before. You get a little scared into the usual build up (because you know you’re capable of; this is the reason you even get scared in the first place) and you’ve been through the whole natural process of building yourself up... only this time you just can’t seem to get your body there, like there’s not enough power within you to lift yourself off the ground. Or it may be something that’s putting you off at the time. Either way, you feel that it’s going to be a dangerous thing to attempt it on this day with the state your mind/body is in.

At these times you can get really mentally messed up with a jump, especially if it’s just a simple one where you KNOW could have easily done it on a day you feel 100%.
So you come back another day only this time feeling much physically and mentally better, everything seems fine and you think nothing more of it. Again, you’re faced with this jump you must continue. Now, sometimes you may do it with ease at this point and think “Wow! Why was I so worked up about that?”

The weird thing that happened to me a while ago was that I stepped back into that jump and it felt as if I had left it 2 minutes from the other day. You don’t even know why you can’t do it now, but you just can’t... it’s a mental block, as if your mind has saved all these mental feelings from the day you weren’t feeling right and is still pushing them against you. This happened to me quite a few times on the same jump, I just couldn’t do it. I kept trying to go back to it but without realizing, losing my self-belief.

In actual fact, it was more like I was training myself to be scared of the jump rather than doing the jump... I was in way too deep. In Parkour I’ve noticed that you should really try and avoid looking into something too much, it only adds negative thoughts into your head and puts you in more of a confusion state rather than a confident powerful person.

“You have to see into the heart of things, into the truth of things, not metaphorically either – but really see, like looking into metal and making it melt, see it for what it is with hard words and vicious insight.” – Bob Dylan

It’s now when you need to step back and unwind your fears, try other things out for a few days or even weeks, change spots and experience new things. This isn’t classed as giving up; you’re still training. It’s just another approach into achieving your goal.

A few weeks later with some time out of training altogether due to work, college and family I went back to this jump, sub-consciously forgetting the problems I had with it all those weeks ago. Sure I went through the shaky leg build up (baring in mind I was in worse physical condition than I was and it was almost pitch black... which really didn’t help for this specific jump) and in time I got it like a good’n... now 2 more times! I had stepped into a brand new fresh state of mind for this jump... a better one!

This whole build up had nothing to do with my physical ability. It was purely a mental block, like I said; your physical state is merely on standby waiting for your mind to make the final decision. When you fall in too deep with a goal such as that or anything in life, step back from it. Look around, experience new things... but don’t give up! It’s just another approach into achieving your goal. Have a go at a bit of everything; change of location, approach, movements etc. Variation can take you a lot further than all your energy focused on one specific thing.

Balance is the key.

“When your emotion is free of being bound up on fears, the body can flow with pure motivating energy.” – Bruce Thomas

- Sam

Beginnings

2010-02-24T09:30:00.000-08:00

I thought it would be appropriate to start this blog off with a quick introduction of who I am and who LPA are. Well, my name is Tim Hurst and I live on the outskirts of Leicester. I’ve been training Parkour for around about 6 years and I have been lucky enough to meet and train with people that are thoroughly dedicated and passionate about movement.

I feel privileged to have witnessed the growth and development of Parkour in the UK. It has gone from being completely unknown to being recognised within the mainstream consciousness. Whilst the media interest has been positive for the growth of the art form, I also believe it has been a double-edged sword, leading to misconception and misunderstanding.

We formed LPA with the hope of passing on our knowledge and passion for Parkour. To promote Parkour as a discipline of self-development and discovery rather than one of competition and adrenaline junkie stunts. We want to encourage people to train and practice safely. Not to mimic what they see on the YouTube but to look and see the training behind the movements.

LPA is made up of guys who have lived and experienced Parkour. Everyone in the group has trained through the tough times, through the icy winters in the rain and the snow, I have the greatest respect for each one of them. Every person in the group has their own individual ideas on why they practice and what they want to get from training Parkour. As such, each person in the group trains in their own individual way. It is this collective experience that we want to bring together to help Parkour develop in a positive way.

This blog will become a place for LPA instructors to share their knowledge and experience. Posts will range from advice for complete beginners, through to their own thoughts and ideas on Parkour.

I hope that in the future we will be able to look back on this moment as the start of an exceptional community. One that is not only passionate and dedicated, but also respectful and supportive of everyone else, regardless of skill or experience.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Welcome to the blog!

2010-02-16T02:09:00.001-08:00

Welcome to the LPA blog!

We will be using this blog as a base for instructors to write their own Parkour-related articles and share their thoughts on training topics, to detail up-coming events and classes and for post-event/class write ups. We aim for this to be an informative supplement to your training.

Be sure to visit our forum at leicesterparkour.com and also subscribe to us on YouTube at Youtube.com/parkourleicester - no videos up yet, but be patient as we're working on them... enjoy our favourited videos for now! You can also find on us facebook... click here and get connected!

Our official website will be live within the month and will feature further information on who we are, the services we offer, Parkour, the history of Parkour and will also include photos, videos and articles. Be sure to keep checking back for the latest news - either here or the forum.

-Joe