What is parkour?
Parkour - what is it? This is a growing fast urban movement attracting young people all over the world. When you are involved, your key goal is to go through a specified route as quickly as possible overcoming obstacles. It is important to find an efficient way to get from point A to point B relying only on capabilities of your body. This practice enhances both your physical fitness and brain function. You can jump, run, climb, vault, crawl. The activity improves courage, endurance, resilience, mental processing, and more.
History
We would speak about the parkour in the context of its historical roots. The title itself derives from ‘le parcours’ – a French word used as a term for the correspondent training methods and suggested by the father of David Belle – a founder of this movement in the late 80s. After twenty years almost it has become the mainstream. In the UK the trigger was the event when David Belle with his skills was shown in the ‘Rush Hour’ on the BBC. It was happened in 2001.
Now you can often see the guys practicing parkour online. There are companies which develop this trend suggesting training and education of its members. They deliver the information about the art of parkour, show the methods to achieve the best results and to observe safety. The experienced sportsmen are invited to consult in professional projects like movie production.
This sport can be combined with skateboarding or bicycle motocross and it is regarded as urban culture. If you ask: “What is parkour training?”, we would answer: “It is a sweat”. You should find an official organization arranging such practices. Training can be carried out almost at any place in the city with constructions and obstacles, though the forest is also accepted. There are specified basic parkour techniques which help you to avoid failures and become successful quickly. It will require efforts and time but will bring the perfect result.
For beginners
The hard version of this sport is jumping from buildings and vaulting over walls. It is rather risky. But in the light version there is almost no danger if you are trained and adhere to the rules. You can find out what is parkour for kids. There are very simple exercises without any risk.
Anyway, you will make your body to push the limits of its capabilities and will do unbelievable things. In addition, it is fun to treat the environment as a playground and feel that you are able to overcome obstacles like a hero. It is engrossing to search the most efficient ways to perform the task, to maneuver through the route relying on your healthy body and logical thinking. You will get a perfect workout improving your coordination on the top of that.
If you want to start parkour, you should be ready that this is a serious challenge requiring you to develop your capabilities. Starting out, you hardly succeed in a couple of weeks. You will have to train a lot, but with time, all moves will come easy. You gain coordination and strength to perform the tasks. Parkour teaches to overcome doubts and fears. You will feel confident in yourself and at that you will be able to take care of your safety. And again, parkour is a social activity because it is done in teams. You will find a lot of friends in this community which will support you at every stage of your development. As you understand, at the very core this sport is not competitive. Everything is for having a good time and improving your skills.
Why do you need it?
Parkour is able to:
enhance your physical fitness and that can help you to cope with emergency situations. Being ready to respond to the sudden threats, you can save your life or life of the other person, should the circumstances arise.
improve your health as far as it is an intensive work out for loading almost all systems of the body.
provide you with the skills which can diverse your holiday and allow you to get involved in various activities, because it improves your endurance when you run or jump, for instance.
make you more creative because you have to look at your environment thinking about the most efficient ways to follow the route. You will choose the road you want instead of that one which is available for common people as the only possible.
Summarizing
So, we hope that the common idea of “what is the parkour?” is clear – you are expected to move through almost any environment packed with obstacles and you should do it without much efforts. When you practice it, you will climb the walls, jump from a rooftop to a rooftop, and vault over obstacles navigating to your destination. You will think of the most efficient paths. But at that it is very important refuse unnecessary risks. One of the key reasons for being engaged in this activity is to enjoy pushing yourself beyond the idea of possible and to have fun. Don’t be in hurry and understand your natural limits. If you are not ready, do what you are sure you are capable. When all the above requirements are met, this activity turns to be one of the best ways to work out outdoors.
At our site you will find the equipment which can be used as training obstacles for exercises.