Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Core, How About Parkour?

Core, How About Parkour?
Now that we have a core, it's time to move with it!

In an amazing article, "Too Old, Too Fat, Too Weak For Parkour" by Ryan Ford, Ryan suggests an expansion into Parkour regardless of age, size or anything else, is possible. It's an empowering idea.  It looks easy.  But as we now know the easier it looks... doesn't always mean that it didn't require a massive amount of effort, focus and humility to make it look so easy, and fun. 

Parkour for all?  Why not. 

Ryan Ford has put together some incredible vids that introduce you, the beginner, to this highly coordinated movement art. Ryan picked 5 moves to work toward for increased mobility in Parkour: full squat, passive bar hang, wall support, basic quadripedal, and jogging.  If you've (n)ever thought about crawling backwards, here's one of his instructional vids to check.



Is Parkour only for the young? Looking at some of the amazing advanced students, many of the traceurs are young men.  The advanced traceurs apparently create with ease something extraordinary, without breaking their neck, or a sweat, in the process.  The question remains, will they be able to do Parkour at 50+?  Does it matter?



More informed, with cross-training (Pilates, Gyrotonic, Yoga, SportsMedicine), we can not only want to move with ease, we can train to move with ease throughout our entire lives.  Of course,  embarking on this Parkour adventure, as with everything else, will require skill and prep, risk analysis in any environment, awareness of one's own ability not someone else's.  And it must be mentioned, a healthy sense of play throughout the rest of our lives shouldn't hurt, too much.