Parkour training program for beginners

Combine walking, running, and acrobatics with jumping skills

Parkour is a non-competitive sport that involves efficient movement around obstacles. Participants — called traceurs (males) and traceuses (females) — move through an environment, such as city streets, by vaulting, rolling, running, climbing, and jumping on, over or around obstacles.

The basic moves of parkour got their start long ago in the Eastern martial arts, like ninjutsu. And afterwards parkour is using movement that developed from military obstacle course training.

Parkour developed from a training method into a sport focused on gracefully overcoming obstacles within one's path by adapting one's movements to the environment. Parkour is as much art as it is sport, as creativity and vision are as important as physical conditioning and strength.

Although parkour moves may look like dangerous tricks, the discipline actually discourages reckless behavior and dangerous stunts. Instead, it focuses on safety and personal responsibility. The parkour moves that look so easy when performed by professionals are actually difficult moves that only come about successfully after lengthy training and practice.

Today, though, parkour and free-running are often considered two different disciplines. Parkour is more rigid in its focus on never moving backward and being practical and efficient. Free-running, on the other hand, allows moves in any direction purely for artistic purposes.

One of the primary goals of parkour remains self-improvement and freedom from obstacles — either physical or mental. Traceurs and traceuses train to improve both their physical and mental health, while learning to function independently in their environment without the constraints of society's usual thinking.

Before you even think about trying parkour, you'll want to make sure your muscles are primed and ready. What's the best way to get your muscles ready for exercise? Stretch them! Do a variety of stretches that hit all your main muscle groups in your arms, legs, and back.

After stretching your muscles, you'll want to get your heart and lungs warmed up with some light and simple cardio exercise. You could do jumping jacks or jog around the block. If you have a jump rope, that's also a good way to get your heart pumping for more vigorous exercise ahead!

Ready to give parkour a try? Parkour can be dangerous for amateurs, so you won't want to overestimate your abilities when you learn your first moves. The most important thing to remember is safety. Start slow and always stay in control. Never try to do something you can't do comfortably and safely.