I'm probably one of the older traceurs you'll meet. I'm the
second-eldest in my gym, and I'm 37 years old. Training for something
as intensely physical as parkour beyond a certain age can be humbling
in ways it's sometimes difficult to accept and process fully,
especially while it's happening.
This is one of the hardest things I've ever had to put down on a
computer screen, for starters. As a 20-something, I became accustomed
to being good at things without too much effort. I used to train
intensively in the martial arts as a kid, and then as a rock climber in
my late twenties. But my professional development seemed to take over
in my thirties, and I let myself go physically. Actually...I let myself
go pretty bad. Traveling consultants don't generally eat or exercise
well at all.
I didn't even realize what was happening to my body until I
discovered parkour. At age 35, I found Primal Fitness in DC, and a
great community of people whose company I enjoyed. The physical
challenge was awesome--it was just what I needed.
There was one problem, though. Before this point in my life,
putting on a few pounds and then losing them again was really no big
deal. "Getting back in shape" used to be a matter of a week or so of
moderate effort: a few jogs around the block, cut back on the crappy
food, maybe a few trips to the gym, and I would be able to handle
whatever it was that was coming my way, be it a 10k, a climbing trip,
or a long hike.
But suddenly that wasn't working. My body just seemed reluctant to
obey me. I could (and have) lost weight, but there were these other
obstacles, too. And many of those were also mental. Many of them still
are, and I'm not sure that they're exactly something I can "overcome,"
per se, because age changes how you look at the world sometimes, no
matter how reluctant you are to admit it.
One of the hardest things to accept has been this inability to
progress the way I used to progress. Before I found parkour, I could
tear through a physical discipline by throwing myself into it
wholeheartedly, and my body would just follow along, taking whatever
abuse I threw at it without much complaint. Now, suddenly I was hearing
from my body, and it was forcing me to listen. I got hurt. Then I got
hurt again. And again. Sometimes it was single "dramatic" injury, and
sometimes it was just a slow "wearing out" kind of thing.
I got shin splints. Then the shin splints became chronic. I worked
through them, but they never fully went away. My shins feel like
they're at 95% on a good day. On a bad day (after a week of training
tic-tacs and landings on hard surfaces), they hurt like hell, and I
walk like I've been hobbled. Massage helps; so does some forms of
training (and thanks to APK and Travis for all the advice!). I've
gotten tons of tips, but really...it's not my shins' fault. It was hard
to admit this, but my shins were like a warning sign: your body changes
as you age.
The one day I broke my hand, and it was pretty bad. I caught my
fingers on a rail, and broke two fingers in multiple places. The
four-hour trip to the E.R. was the easy part, in retrospect. The fear
of rails it instilled in me, however, is something I've been working to
overcome for almost exactly a year now. The first time I got up on a
rail after my accident, I got the shakes so bad I had to jump down
immediately.
Then I got shoulder pain. I'd injured my shoulders when I was 18,
and up until now I'd just "muscled it out." If I worked out a lot, my
shoulders wouldn't bother me too much. But suddenly my shoulders
weren't taking any more, either. I guess they saw what my shins
accomplished, and felt like maybe they could go on strike, too. Between
my shoulders and my rail fear, it felt like my training was on hold. I
was still going to the gym, still working out as hard as ever, but what
the hell?! Suddenly I was only treading water, or maybe even moving
BACKWARDS in my training.
I decided to step my training up a notch again. If you're faced
with a challenge, my way had been to push through it through sheer
force of will. I got cortisone injection for the tendonitis in my
shoulders, and adjusted my workout, and...well...
Big mistake.
After my knees decided to develop the same
sort of patellar tendonitis that many of the rest of you have, I
decided to step back and rethink some things.
For starters, I think I've been competing with the younger people
at my gym, sometimes at a subconscious level. It's hard to watch
someone who's been training for half as long as I have pull off a move
that I still can't do. It used to be utterly galling and impermissible
to my own ego and pride. Now it's just a fact of life: I can train and
train and I just might never be able to do that thing that I really
want to do. Tendons lose elasticity with age, like cracked and
stretched rubber bands, but it's even more important to acknowledge
this out loud: so does your mind. It may take me a year to
learn how to do a front-flip; but now, that's okay with me. I'm just
happy that I can learn to do one at all.
Equally important is this idea that I've developed, that some kinds of challenges are just not okay
anymore. We had a house party, and a very talented and young traceur
traversed our apartment's balcony on the 16th floor via cat hang. I got
the cold sweats just watching him, and forbade him from trying it
again, even though he really didn't have any problem doing it.
To me (and to many others out there, I hope) this just isn't how or
why to train. There's conquering fear, and then
there's...well...stupid. Traversing a balcony 16 stories up at a house
party becomes an equation of risk and reward in my head, and I know
this is my age talking. The risk is obvious: become a pizza decal on
the roof of someone's car and totally bring down the mood at the party.
The reward is rather miniscule: you traversed a rail doing a cat hang,
which just about any beginner can do. You just did it with 150 feet of
air under your feet.
In an emergency, maybe you'll have a slight edge when traversing
that rail because you got over your fear of heights so entirely that
you don't even hesitate to jump over the railing to your cat hang.
Maybe traversing that rail wasn't a form of bragging, but rather just
more training. Maybe...but somehow I doubt it.
On the other hand, I feel like I might live long enough to deduce
that there's a fire before it gets to my door, and maybe wind up just
taking the stairs down. It might be less dramatic, but maybe it's an
equally effective form of training: to know when you don't need to use parkour.
I guess I'm rambling a little, which is also a hallmark of old age.
But since I'm already throwing hypotheticals around, maybe being
fearless is just easier when you're younger, and maybe certain
kinds of fear are actually good for you in the long run. And maybe this
article will be relevant to some of you young back-flipping
whippersnappers one day, when you feel that first twinge in a joint or
muscle that had never complained before.
We all age, whether we like it or not. Training helps, but training
can't push back the clock, no matter how hard you might believe
otherwise. But if you know happen to know otherwise, well...come on
over and check out the railing on my balcony.
A Guide to Proper Breathing Technique
By TheMortalCoil
In my past few weeks of training I have found myself pleasantly surprised with some areas of my body and disgusted with others (my chins are pathetic right now). On my first vigorous run I discovered something peculiar: my muscles were tired, my blood was pumping, but I was breathing easy the whole time. I explored this and sure enough; no side stitches and no gasping like I had remebered from my horrible attempts at running in grade school. It seems to me that my years of conscientious breath work are paying me back. Thus, I am spurred to try to share some of my pleasing findings with you fine folks and hopefully to provide you with knowledege that will build toward a responsive breath support system that provides you with both the power and endurance you need to fuel your activities.
I've decided this month to leave the elementgamesto begin a new theme more in keeping with the summer (Mainly because in Ireland we get about a month of good weather a year). Nature Training. As most people knowparkouris not only suited to an urban environment and in fact the earliest stages going right back through Georges Herberts Methode Natural to the days of the caveman are proof enough thatparkouris not only for concrete and metal. This month I'm going to give you some traininggamesto play on the beach. The beach can either be a barren wasteland of absolutely no significance, or a wonderland with new opportunities round every shore if only you'll look for them. I've spent pretty much every day of the last couple of weeks on the beach and the more time I spent there the more lines I saw. And don't worry if you don't live anywhere near the beach because I'm going to put adaptations at the end of this article.
Here's one my friend David came up with.
Game 1:
Pick a beach that isn't completely covered in stones for this one if you can help it and do it barefoot. Stand at a point on the beach and pick a line going for at least 100 meters. Try to go from the start to the end of the line by stepping on stones or pebbles. The stones don't have to be big they just have to serve as markings.
You can even try to race someone by doing this and the beauty of it is they don't even have to be a traceur.
Variation: Instead of racing someone try playing tag and you can only step on stones to move.
This game will certainly improve the durability of your feet and will help you to co-ordinate your feet with your eyes which is essential for precision jumps and the like.
For the next game you will need a very stony beach.
Game two:
Get one or more other people to play this with you and do it barefoot. Pick a beach with alot of stones and pick a distance to run i.e. 500 meters, a kilometer. Everyone stands in a line the person at the front is the leader. Run.
This game works like Simon Says the person in front does something and those in the back copy it. After a while the leader is changed until everybody has had a turn. The benefits of this are much the same as "add on" because it means that instead of everyone knowing a small list of movements all the knowledge of the group is shared among everyone within it.
The final game on this months list is one that can be quite dangerous so be careful if you are doing it.
Game 3:
Go to a beach with stacks of boulders on it. Start at one end of the beach, barefoot if at all possible although it's not entirely necessary. Begin to work your way from one end to the other moving through the boulders in the most efficient way you can see. Time yourself.
When you get to the end or a break in the rocks (But I would recommend no less than a few hundred metres) do it again but back the way. Remember to record your time from the first attempt. Time yourself again.
When you are back to the start do it again and try to beat your first time and again going back. Do this as many times as you feel necessary.
This game will help with precision, stamina, leg strength, improvisation skills and is really fun. But beware it can be dangerous so don't do something stupid.
Adaptations:
Game 1:
I don't know about in America but here almost every street is covered in chewing gum. I mean absolutely littered. What you could do is substitute bare feet for shoes and stones for gum.
Game 2:
Just use gravel instead of a stony beach but make sure you check for glass.
Game 3:
O.K. the best I can come up with here is to go to the nearest hill or mountain and use the boulders there but then again I'm not entirely sure if that would work in exactly the same way however either way it would work your improvisational skills.
First off, I am not a doctor or a physical therapist. Any "advice" you take from this post herein is at your own risk. Remember, this is the Internet, so always check your facts if you're doubtful of their veracity.
Secondly, having browsed many injury forums throughout the past couple of years + working part time in a PT clinic + seeing different things from docs has given me some perspective on how some injuries develop. Thus, this is probably going to be the first a couple different posts on various topics. Again, take any "advice" at your own risk.
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II. How tendonitis develops
For all intents and purposes this is going to be brief and simple (as I know some of you like my explanations better than dense material). The more in depth coverage is provided by the link in the above section.
Tendonitis, in general, is an overuse injury. This is generally seen from doing too much that your body cannot handle. Since our muscles have better blood supply than our tendons and bones, they often are able to adapt to the stressors of exercise placed on them faster. This leaves bones and tendons vulnerable to overuse since they cannot heal as fast. If excessive stress is placed on them, they start to break down and become painful.
Tendonitis starts out as an inflammation injury (hence the -itis ending). If this situation persists into chronic degeneration, it turns into "tendonosis" which is characterized by a lack of inflammatory degeneration of the tendon. Hence, if one backs off right away from an overuse injury, the overuse will generally heal itself because of the body's natural inflammatory process. However, if this process is pushed through into a chronic state over weeks into months, then the inflammatory process goes away leading to the chronic degeneration. In these cases, rest is often not beneficial at all because the body will not heal the injury.
You can find more details about this (as well as many more details about etiology and physiology) here.
Common places where tendonitis is easily developed are with excessive pulling exercises at the medial epicondyle (inner elbow -- aka tennis elbow). Similarly, with golfer's elbow at the lateral epicondyle. Patellar and achilles tendonitis with overuse in running, plyometrics, or weightlifting, triceps tendon soreness with excessive pressing, hamstring tendonitis down at their insertion on the tibia, and a couple other places.
Often if you have sore joints or tendons are starting to become sore, this is when you should know that you should back off from exercise. This is often a sign of excessive volume. Continuing to train through this may often lead to more detrimental overuse, and if continued beyond that chronic overuse which is very difficult to get rid of. This will also hinder your training significantly, so it is not advisable ever to push through any type of pain.
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III. Corrective measures
I am going to be writing these in order of importance on what you should be doing. Thus, I am going to be integrating some explanations into the advice on what to do. If anything in unclear, please comment and I will probably update and clarify that for you.
1a. Stay away from painful exercises. Period. It hurts, don't do them. Should be obvious but people don't listen. Pain = your body telling you that something is wrong. Listen to your body.
1b. Rest. Especially if it's mild overuse. 1-2 weeks of total rest should clear up tendonitis totally because the initial inflammation will promote healing. If it does, work your way back into exercise slow as it's very easy to aggravate again.
If it's chronic then pure rest may not help. If it does not clear up after 2 weeks of total rest then you probably have a chronic condition. This is to be treated different than just mild tendonitis with prehabilitation exercises to stimulate the inflammatory process (along with massage) to promote healing.
2a. Self massage. Cross friction and myofascial release the whole area inbetween both joints that surround it (shoulder to wrist for medial epicondylitis; ankle-hip for something knee; etc.). ART, graston technique, etc. may also help. As much as possible... at least 30 minutes a day. Also, tennis ball/golf ball areas & foam roll may help.
For structuring massage according to type it really does not matter. All that matters if that you're getting into the tissue and helping it reorganize through mobilization plus breaking up any scar tissue or adhesions. For time you can do as much massage as you want at anytime during the day. If you have a couple minutes here and there during the day hit it with some massage. I often hit up my soft tissue while I'm on the drive to work and driving back home from work as that car time is basically "dead" time for anything. Simple way to make your day more effective. I suggested the 30 minutes total as a minimum -- the more you can do the better.
The purpose behind massage is to promote blood flow to the area for healing as all tissue needs nutrients and waste products carried to and from the area. Also, massage helps improve tissue quality through helping to release and reorganize the tissue through the body's natural inflammatory processes plus break up any scar tissue or adhesions.
2b. Ice after any use & when sore. 10-15 mins per sessions 2-5 times a day (or every hour on the hour). Direct ice massage on the skin tends to work the best, but be careful of giving yourself frostbite. Like massage, icing helps limit some pain and excessive inflammation (characterized by edema/swelling) especially immediately after exercise or prehabilitation work + promotes good blood flow to the area afterwards as the body tries to warm up the area.
3a. Light stretching that is not painful for agonists + strengthen antagonists. So stretch forearm flexors, strengthen forearm extensors *until* pain subsides for medial epicondylitis (opposite for lateral epicondylitis).
Reason behind this is to help correct muscle imbalances, and tightness/shorteness of agonist muscles which may contribute to systemic overuse. Both of these tend to put more stress on the joints and supporting structures such as the tendons and ligaments, so loosening and correcting the imbalance should help get the tissue to function properly. Also, eccentric nature of stretching creates small microtears which will stimulate the body's natural inflammatory process for healing.
3b. Light eccentric exercises tend to help especially if the muscle(s) aggravated cannot smoothly do it. This is important with chronic overuse from 1a as pure rest may not help anymore. Eccentric exercises that are anymore than slightly painful (preferably not painful) will probably be detrimental.
Eccentric exercises are important because they help induce small amounts of microtearing which is part of the inflammatory process to promote healing. Too much is obviously detrimental which is why you want to have no pain or just slight amounts of pain. If you can only use 1 lbs or other microloading features without significant pain then so be it.
Exercises selection depends. If the injury is chronic it is probably best to start with very light weights which is best with open chain exercises such as eccentric flexion wrist curls or eccentric leg extensions (can use the other arm/leg to help the other arm/leg up for the concentric phase). The reason for this is because it's easy to microload with light dumbells or ankle weights or other small incremental weights. As you progress, you can move on to more closed chain exercises such as the eccentric of walking down stairs slowly or negative pullups. Close chain exercises tend to use a larger portion of bodyweight, so progressing to them too soon may be detrimental to the healing process if they are too difficult and aggravate the injury.
After it starts improving significantly you can add in concentric work but be careful not to overdo it as again an injury is very easy to reaggravate. For something like mediali epicondylitis you should strengthen everything in the forearm... for example, rice bucket exercises.
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4. Other methods
Most of these modalities below have been proven ineffective in peer reviewed studies, but some help depending on the person. If you have exhausted the options above (as well as done physical therapy) then it may be a good idea to try some of the below in conjunction with the above #1-3 if you want to avoid surgery. They may work for you even if they don't work in controlled studies.
Joint/tendon/cartilage health supplements: glucosamine & chondroin sulfate, MSM, shark, etc. Might be a good idea to start eating the cartilage and tendons off your meat too.
Other modalities: Platelet rich plasma (PRP), prolotherapy, ultrasound, electric stimulation, autologous blood injection, dry needling.
I've seen some good testimonials with the PRP and prolotherapy because they're supposed to help with natural inflammatory healing process, so I would recommend checking out those options first.
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5. NSAIDs/pain relievers/cortisone injections will only help with the pain and not with healing. If your pain is this bad it may be a good idea to see a professional anyway.
Systemic anti-inflammatories such as fish oil are good to be taken anyway for overall health (and do not factor into this consideration). Systemic inflammation can hinder recovery because of poor blood flow to the tissue leading to poor tissue quality and slow healing. Thus, it is important to overall limit inflammation from dietary sources (too many carbohydrates), as well as take health systemic anti-inflammatories like omega-3s from fish oil.
The reason I advised against the above NSAIDs like ibuprofen other medicinal anti-inflammatories because once the healing process starts for the tendon with above modalities, there needs to be some inflammation to promote tissue quality improvement. Bombing yourself with too many may hinder this process as well as other gains associated with muscle growth/repair from workouts. You can read more about this on Kelly Starrett's blog.
Systemic anti-inflammaries tend to be not strong enough to interfere with normal health especially from natural sources like fish oil.
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6. Planning prehabilitation sessions
Exercises, massage then ice. Or you can do massage, exercises, ice. Doesn't really matter.
You can do massage at any point during the day so if you get in 2-3 sessions or more that's great. Same with the ice.
Integration with regular workouts is the same. Do your workouts, then prehab work. If the workouts require use of the injured limb (it had better be light work if any at all) then make sure the tissue is sufficiently warmed up before doing anything.
The “Training Alone” series has accumulated over 8500 views. I thank all of you who have read and followed my articles over the past few months. I hope that most, if not all of my readers have been able to take something away that pushed them to strive to higher heights in their parkour. Your comments have touched me and I am exceedingly happy that you enjoyed my articles. However, some of those comments were in the form of questions. In reading these questions I decided to devise a way to respond in a way that did not have a character length. I am pleased to announce my “Ask Chris” column to “The Free Runner” in an attempt to more closely interact with my readers.
The idea behind Ask Chris is to have you, the reader, email me with questions about a problem, or situation you are having, and I will answer them in an article, so that hopefully others with the same problem can gain the help they need as well. In other words, YOU are directly helping others in their progression! It’s a pretty good feeling, isn’t it? Depending on the quality of questions, as well as quantity, I will respond to up to four emails per article. My goal in this project is to continue to motivate beginners, and more experienced traceurs alike, on a more personal level.
Your questions are what will keep this project going, and I urge you to send them in! If you feel smothered by articles and papers about everything but your problem, then let me try and handle it directly. From training issues, to workout concerns, to emotional strain (as a result from training), I will do my best to respond directly to your personal questions. Send all emails to
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!
To get us started off, I received an email from Jerry of Utah:
Hey Chris,
I had a quick question. Right now I train alone, I'm the only traceur in my city. I have some friends from my soccer team who I think might like Parkour, but I don't think they've ever heard of it. It'd be really cool to have someone to train with - especially some people I know! How should I ask them if they want to train with me?
Thanks,
Jerry
You have a great opportunity here, Jerry. The issue that most beginners have with approaching others with the idea of parkour is confidence. Confidence plays a big part in every human being’s lives. This can be traced directly back from parkour and how we train every day to overcome all obstacles. As many have come to learn, parkour is not just about physically conditioning our bodies, but also conditioning our minds and souls in every aspect of life.
A team, any team, involves members being close together for long periods of time. Generally this time is spent sweating, bleeding, and laughing together. So, in that respect Jerry, you’re off to a good start. We as traceurs inadvertently, almost on a day-to-day basis, attempt to bring people into the world of parkour. We all know it is true and we all embrace it! Also, we as people, as human beings, greatly enjoy combining people we love and things we love together.
The way to ask them, Jerry, is simply to ask! Give them a short description of parkour, its benefits, its philosophy, and history. Remember not to overwhelm them, or the may be turned off by it. The fact that your friends enjoy sports, especially one so physically demanding as soccer, will only help your chances of getting them to come along and train with you. Let them know where and when you are going to train. However, Jerry, it is important to remember to train and condition your own body first. We cannot hope to condition others, while we do not fully understand our own bodies. Bringing others into your training can help push you further in your own training as well as teach you new things about interaction and support.
Thanks for your question, Jerry!
Remember to train safe and train hard.
Send your questions to
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The
“Training Alone” series is a great way to help yourself stay motivated,
push yourself out of that beginner stage, and really think about your
movement as your own. Solitary training is a way to face your fears
alone, and that can be terrifying. I commend all of you traceurs out
there who have taken these words and put them to use. For all of the
plateaus you have conquered, I congratulate you. The trials you have
faced, you have faced alone, and I have no doubt that you will, or already
have, overcome them.
While
training alone is an amazing opportunity, it is not what keeps us advancing.
We will never be able to understand our own potential unless we put
ourselves in the midst of our peers. Now, what I’m saying may sound
like I advocate competition within the confines of parkour, but that
is not the case. All of us feel an inherent desire to better ourselves,
and not one of us can deny feeling a twinge of jealousy when we see
someone do a movement that we cannot yet do ourselves. It is natural
and should not be shunned, but should be embraced. We as humans rely
on competition to survive, and it should be the same for parkour. Our
ancient ancestor’s had to compete against the elements just to survive
as a race, as a species. We must compete against ourselves in the same
way.
The
point is not about competition amongst others, but simply being amongst
others. The parkour community is one that is so closely knit that I
would dare another group of people to rival it. Progression is made
within the self, and without it. To be a lone traceur and be introduced
into the practicing community near you can be a tremendous change. This
can be great for a practitioner’s improvement. Sometimes we can’t
push ourselves to our limit. Whether it be a mental block, needing a
spot to try something new, or just plain being lonely, we sometimes
need that extra support.
This
is your newest mission: Finding people to train with.
This
may seem overwhelming at first, but when you step back and look at the
situation, you can see that there are many opportunities offered at
ever turn. Take a minute to look at the site around you right now. American
Parkour, the nation’s #1 parkour website, is a hive containing thousands
of traceurs. The first step to finding people in your area to train
with is joining an online database of traceurs. The APK forums are a
tremendously useful resource. Not only are the members friendly to beginners,
but they go out of their way to help one another in need. To become
part of this group, you must be willing to help and be helped.
A
nation-wide forum may be overwhelming at first, but when you start frequenting
it, the forum will become familiar to you and eventually you will count
some of these online counterparts as your friends. However, you still
may not connect readily with someone who lives in Florida, when you
live in Wyoming. Lucky for you, there just so happens to be a Wyoming
subforum for you to peruse through. These smaller forums can be great
tools to organize weekly training sessions, regular jams, as well as
larger events that the whole state can participate in. In fact, you
may just find someone who lives in your same town who has been having
the same problem as you and has had to tough it out as a lone traceur
like yourself.
Still
not enough? Well, many states are becoming more and more independent
from the larger national sites out there and have created their own
websites. These are generally run by more experienced, well known traceurs,
who have been great leaders of their communities for a long time. These
websites are created out of a statewide feeling of unity and the need
to concentrate more on the immediate area, then on the nation as a whole.
These kinds of sites lead to stronger groups of people, more familiar
locations, and “closer to home” kind of feeling. Your state may
have its own site and you’ve just never known to look for it. Well,
it’s about time.
Training
alone is an amazing opportunity for people to discover themselves and
their thoughts/feelings on their movement and parkour as a whole, yet
no training can be complete if you never interact with others. These
people can help you discover things about yourself that you would never
have known. They may also become your closest friend. The key is to
harness the resources at hand and use them frequently, because then
you can get the most out of your parkour by observing another’s parkour.
Learn
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