Parkour

Take care of your body⚑

Warm up before the session
Stretch after the session
Get good sleep and nutrition
Strengthen your knees
Know the most frequent injuries

Warming up ⚑

Never do static stretches if you're cold, it's better to do dynamic stretches.

Take the joints through rotations⚑

Head:
Nod 10 times
Say no 10 times
Ear shoulder 10 times
Circles 10 times each direction
Shoulders
Circles back 10 times
Circles forward 10 times
Elbows
Circles 10 each direction
Wrists:
Circle 10 each direction
Chest:
Chest out/in 10 times
Chest one side to the other 10 times
Chest in circles
Hips:
Circles 10 each direction
Figure eight 10 times each direction
Knees:
Circular rotations 10 each direction feet and knees together
10 ups and downs with knees together
Circular rotations 10 each direction feet waist width
Ankles:
Circular 10 rotations each direction

Light exercises⚑

10 steps forward of walking on your toes, 10 back
10 steps forward of walking on your toes feet rotated outwards, 10 back
10 steps forward of walking on your toes feet rotated inwards, 10 back
10 steps forward of walking on your heels feet rotated outwards, 10 back
10 steps forward of walking on your heels feet rotated inwards, 10 back
2 x 10 x Side step, carry the leg up (from out to in) while you turn 180, keep on moving on that direction
2 x 10 x Front step carrying the leg up (from in to out)while you turn 45, then side step, keep on moving on that direction
10 light skips on one leg: while walking forward lift your knee and arms and do a slight jump
10 steps with high knees
10 steps with heel to butt
10 side shuffles (like basketball defense)
5 lunges forward, 5 backwards
10 rollups and downs from standing position
5 push-ups
10 rotations from the pushup position on each direction with straigth arms
5 push-ups
10 rotations from the pushup position on each direction with shoulders at ankle level
3 downward monkeys: from piramid do a low pushup and go to cobra, then a pushup
10 steps forward walking on all fours

Strengthen your knees⚑

Follow there steps

Transit to the parkour place⚑

Go by bike, skate, jogging to the parkour place

Stretching ⚑

Stretching is necessary to maintain your flexibility and movement to prevent injuries. Keep in mind though that static stretches doesn't help when warming up it does work after your workout

Your body is made up of bones ligaments, muscles and tendons. Your muscles are attached to your bones by the tendons. When you train the muscle contracts, and if you train over time and don't let the muscle to go back to the lenght it should have, it will in term start pulling on the tendon and the tendon will pull on the bone or joint, and then you have a problem.

Then you'll have a group of muscles that are too strong and not only do they start creating imbalance the body they also tell the muscles around not to do the job they should be doing

Stretch when the day after or when you've cooled down.

When you are stretching for every muscle you want to stretch think of where it's attached so that you stretch in both directions. Breath over the pain

When doing static stretching, hold the position for 30-40 seconds without bouncing.

Small warm up⚑

Roll down - plank - roll up

Stretching the hip flexors ⚑

The hip flexors are the iliacus, psoas major and psoas minor, they are attached to the lower vertebras and the hip bone passing through your body. This muscle group allows you to move your knee up and to bend your core down.

muscles

Not stretching your hip flexors may result in: lower back pain, knee pain, it may pull your pelvis out of position and that can ricochet all the way up to your body.

From a lunge position (keep the knee just above the heel or behind it)
Spine up to the ceiling
Then tuck under your pelvis while keeping your back straight (bum goes slightly forward)
then lean slightly forward. With this movement you're pulling up the part above the hip, and pulling down the part below the hip.
Hold it for 30-40 seconds.
Then pull the arm of the leg that is behind you to the ceiling
Press the back of your other hand to the inner knee that is in front of you opening the width of your chest. Now the stretch should be going up your abs
Lean a little bit forward
Hold it for 30-40 seconds.
Go to the other leg
And then do another round with both legs.

Calf muscle stretching ⚑

The calf muscles are the outer calf (gastrocneimus), inner calf (soleus) and the achilles tendon that attaches heel to calf. The muscles are packed up tight against the bone, so that's why it's difficult to stretch it individually.

calf

When you exercise your muscles expand, but being this one so dense packed, the muscles will expand into each other. Around each muscle you have something called fascia, which is a very thin sheet, sometimes they get stuck together causing shin splints and they produce problems

You use the calf muscle and lower limb in parkour for running, drops, jumping, wall runs, ... So it's important that your calf is springy and the lower limb has enough movement it needs to function the best.

To stretch your calf you can:

Do wall stretches:
Face the wall
Lean down on your back leg
Put the toes high on the wall with your knee straight, press your heel close to the wall.
Straight your back leg push your hips into the wall, going up and forward. You may end up on your toes on the back leg
Really extend the leg, with the intention of climbing up the wall
Try to stop your foot from slipping
Hold it for 30-40 seconds
Change your leg
Then do again both legs
Do stair stretches:
Put a foot on the ledge of a stair (the turning axis just behind your feet ball)
Put the other foot on the second step in front of you (90 degree angle between your thigh and your calf)
Let the heel of the first foot fall as much as possible
Hold it for 30-40 seconds
Shift your weight forward without bending your back
Change your leg
Then do again both legs
Do ball massages: When you exercise your muscles tend to stick together, with the ball you're going to separate the fibers. We're not going to move the ball up and down the muscle, but across
Sit down on the floor with one bent leg and the other one straight with the foot in flex
Place the ball underneath the calf muscle
Find a spot where you can feel a tightness in the closest part of the muscle to the heel
Go back and fourth 20 times side to side
Rotate your leg so that you do all the ring of that part of the muscle
Then move further up
Go back and fourth 20 times side to side
...

Quad stretching ⚑

Quads are four very powerful muscles at the front of your thigh, three of them are attached to the top of your femur and then from the outside to the insidish of your knee. The other one is attached to your hip bone it goes through the middle to the middle of your knee

quads

We use quads for jumping, running, cat balance, cat leaps, the landings.

You can stretch by:

Wall quad stretching:
Place your shoe by a wall
Go on all fours leaving the wall to your back
Place the knee on the shoe leaving your shin and feet up close to the wall
Then move the other leg between your arms until your foot is flat on the ground and your knee is close to your face leaving your knee above or behind your heel, never above your toes
Hands are at either side of the leg
Your body is forward
Focus on pushing your hips away from the heel on the wall
Breath and stay there for 30-40 seconds
Then bring your body up putting your hands on your front knee trying not to push your shoulders up.
Breath and stay there for 30-40 seconds
If you can, bring your arms up your head. If it's too much you can bring up the arm of the leg that it's behind you
If you need less stretch you can move the shoe away from the wall. If you need more, you can flex the wall foot
Crab quad stretching:
From the crab position (bottom resting on your heels, most of the weight on the arms)
Move your knee forward while your pull your hip back to create the stretch
The other knee moves out so you focus on just one leg
Then pivot the forward knee to the centre, then you'll feel the stretch move more to the inside.
Breath and stay there for 30-40 seconds
Swap to the other side

Hamstring stretch ⚑

If you're on your knees on the floor move one foot forward in flex
Keeping your hips straight lean the hips back while you put your arms on each side of the leg

Glutes stretch⚑

From lying on the floor face up on tabletop
Cross one leg over the other
Grab the other leg with both hands and bring it towards you while you push the other with one of the elbows

Spine stretch and mobility ⚑

Spine is a bone structure made of 24 vertebras (7 to the top, 12 at the middle, 5 at the bottom). Between each vertebra you have a disk. It's the coat hanger where you hang your body, it's mobility is vital for your movement.

Spine mobility is important to absorb the impact of the landings. If you have stiff lower back you can get problems with your legs and your low back, stiff upper part will get problems with your shoulders.

The spine moves forward, backwards and from side to side

To keep the spine mobile you can: - Lie down on the ground, feet waist apart, imagine you have a pillow between the knees - Move your waist up until you have a straight line between your shoulders and knees - Then move down bone by bone, counting one by one - Move up again - Do 10 times

If you place your legs higher than your hips you'll get more force when coming back down one by one.

Torso twist:
Sitting on the ground
One straight leg
The other bent at 90 crossed over the other with the foot on the ground
Press your other arm's elbow on the knee to start the twist
Think first on the 5 lower vertebras, then the 12 middle, and then rotate the neck thinking on the upper 7
Go to the other side
For the backwards stretch
sit on the ground
Lean on the foam roll on your back approximately on your bra stripe is.
Cup your hands behind your head
Go up and over your foam
Don't let go your head until it is rested on the floor. If the head is in free fall it can be damaging
Extend your arms down
Hold for 30-40 seconds
move the foam roll further up and down
Place the hands behind the head
Lift the head up

Other stretches⚑

Another good stretch is the butterfly - From sitting position join your feet - Bring the knees down - Bring your back straight forward

Strengthen your knees ⚑

Make sure you have the strength to do 3 sets of 20 squats or drops at each level before moving to the next step:

Step 1: Start with 20 air squats, go slow, keep the balance and try to go as low as you can.
Step 2: Do 20 jump squats: do a small jump before the squat and only reach down till your legs are at 90 degrees. That's a safe way to keep your knees healthy
Step 3: Do 20 drops curb height
Step 4: Do 20 drops knee height
Step 5: Do 20 drops hip height

Once you've mastered all, you can do a Squat drill consisting on 20 repetitions of each step.

Also check out the Is parkour killing your joints? video.

Avoid frequent injuries ⚑

Basics⚑

Jumping⚑

Always land both feet at the same time
Land on the balls of your feet
Land with your feet at waist distance, keeping the line between toes and knees parallel to your axis, avoid knees bien inwards
Land with your hips down and back, not forward as that will increase the strain in the knees. This allows glutes, hamstrings, and quads to absorb the force and impact

Jumping to a vertical pipe⚑

Make sure that there are no joints with the wall where you want to grab the pipe
Grab first with your arms and then land your feet
Land your feet in a different angle than the pipe (45 degrees askew for example) to prevent each of your legs to go different sides of the pipe if you were to slip

Learning parkour being an adult ⚑

If you're thinking on starting to learn parkour when you're an adult there are some things that you need to take into account:

Most of your classmates will be people between 12 and 25.
Your teachers will be between 20 and 25