Topic: I jumped off a (blank) and now my (blank hurts), now what?

[Ken PKChiro]

Under no circumstances do we condone, or are impressed when:

1.  You are not adequately trained/conditioned for the drop as seen by the fact that you hurt yourself while doing it.
2.  You were or are showing off during your drop, or posting here about it to boost your ego.


The answer is uniformly---DO NOT TAKE DROPS.

Drops are defined roughly by your level of conditioning.  But in general you should never take a drop greater than the height of your body.  Some argue that even this is too much.

The last point:

Pain does NOT equal Injury.  Injury can occur without pain.  If you hurt yourself from a drop, likely you've done far more damage than you are aware of, and WILL suffer the consequences of the drop much earlier than you expect.  Consequences of drops may include:

Herniated discs
Paralysis
Fractures stable and unstable
Schmorl's nodes
Notochordal impressions
Neuritis, neurolgical compromise and losses
severe and chronic injuries/pain
Loss of sensory and motor functions
Concussions
Chronic headaches
Amnesia
Death
and worse.

Train Safe.  Be smart.

[Jake Vigil]

+1. Thank you.

[TR]

Death
and worse.

haha I don't think anything is worse than Death O.o

[Jake Vigil]

Death
and worse.

haha I don't think anything is worse than Death O.o

I disagree. Imagine a long life of chronic, intense pain.

[Jason vonGermeten]

Yeah.. I was about to get to thinking that..

[TR]

Death
and worse.

haha I don't think anything is worse than Death O.o

I disagree. Imagine a long life of chronic, intense pain.

Speaking of Chronic pain, check this out: http://www.movnat.com/

You can read everything on the site fairly quickly, it's pretty interesting,

"Are you experiencing chronic pains, are you overweight, do you often feel depressed or do you suffer from frequent illnesses and general lack of vitality?

These symptoms indicate that you are experiencing the zoo human syndrome. Modern society conditions us to think that this is normal and unavoidable. "

Then check out their vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKGF-ErsJiI&feature=PlayList&p=F4C44B0CFFFB4E2F&playnext=1&index=31

Erwan Le Corre is a beast haha

edit- but then again, if you think about either having chronic pain, or dying, think of everyone else.. Your friends, family etc. I think it would be much better being able to live with chronic pain and still be able to interact with your friends/family, rather then dying, and your friends/family grieving your death, if you know what I mean. It's not just about yourself

[Shamas]

Death
and worse.

haha I don't think anything is worse than Death O.o

I disagree. Imagine a long life of chronic, intense pain.

Speaking of Chronic pain, check this out: http://www.movnat.com/

You can read everything on the site fairly quickly, it's pretty interesting,

"Are you experiencing chronic pains, are you overweight, do you often feel depressed or do you suffer from frequent illnesses and general lack of vitality?

These symptoms indicate that you are experiencing the zoo human syndrome. Modern society conditions us to think that this is normal and unavoidable. "

Then check out their vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKGF-ErsJiI&feature=PlayList&p=F4C44B0CFFFB4E2F&playnext=1&index=31

Erwan Le Corre is a beast haha

edit- but then again, if you think about either having chronic pain, or dying, think of everyone else.. Your friends, family etc. I think it would be much better being able to live with chronic pain and still be able to interact with your friends/family, rather then dying, and your friends/family grieving your death, if you know what I mean. It's not just about yourself

Wow, intense.

[Adam Doll]

Pain does NOT equal Injury.  Injury can occur without pain.  If you hurt yourself from a drop, likely you've done far more damage than you are aware of, and WILL suffer the consequences of the drop much earlier than you expect.

I am honestly starting to get scared away from parkour after looking through some of these injury threads. . . I can not afford to lose my job this summer(which requires manual labor) due to an injury.  My bones seem to break easier than most people; I might just refrain from parkour till I go back to college this fall.  

[David Jones]

Pain does NOT equal Injury.  Injury can occur without pain.  If you hurt yourself from a drop, likely you've done far more damage than you are aware of, and WILL suffer the consequences of the drop much earlier than you expect.

I am honestly starting to get scared away from parkour after looking through some of these injury threads. . . I can not afford to lose my job this summer(which requires manual labor) due to an injury.  My bones seem to break easier than most people; I might just refrain from parkour till I go back to college this fall.   :- 

Nothing to worry about. Many Traceurs don't include drops in their Parkour.

[Muse_of_Fire]

Yeah, this seems scary because we have an injury section. What we don't have is a "non-injury" section where people can post and say, "I trained all day today, and my body feels great!" because that is the norm (assuming proper training). So don't let the presence of an injury section deter you.

Train smart, progress slowly, check your surfaces, and examine and respect your natural fear reactions to things, and you will be fine.

Yes, parkour is risky and can be dangerous, but no more so than any other physical activity.

If your bones break easily, you might want to talk to a doctor and/or make some dietary changes to address that.

[hardcoretraceur]

HC Traceur - If you always train responsibly then you will almost never get injured in your training. Training responsibly to me means only doing things that will make you stronger, not accepting any unnecessary risk, and always keeping in mind the fact that while you only have one body, there is always another day to try something.

[Adam Doll]

Hey guys, thanks for the responses; I will just try to remember not to attempt anything I don't feel comfortable with.   

[Trevor McDowell]

Well I have been following the old Yamakasi rule, don't drop off of something you can't jump onto for your first year... Is that safe? I have been told that first year is just to condition your body.

[Timothy Chen Allen]

Well I have been following the old Yamakasi rule, don't drop off of something you can't jump onto for your first year... Is that safe? I have been told that first year is just to condition your body.

I heard something like, don't drop off anything unless you could do it in bare feet.  Of course, that's a judgement call, and my judgement can be skewed in a moment of hubris.  So maybe your rule is better.

[Mr.WWII]

Well I have been following the old Yamakasi rule, don't drop off of something you can't jump onto for your first year... Is that safe? I have been told that first year is just to condition your body.

I always hear this "1st year" stuff, and it's misleading because it doesn't account for any prior sports conditioning. I began parkour as an extremely fit individual, with years of strength training and athletics under my belt. I would imagine that many other practitioners are also beginning Parkour in great shape, because athletes are always looking for a new thrill.

My point is just to assess your own abilities, before you follow a "1st year" sort of rule. If you know you're out of shape and havn't been active in a long time, then yes, condition more first. But if you have glutes of steel, run marathons, and do a million pull ups, then there's no reason for you to "soley condition for your 1st year." Get out there and start vaulting everything in sight, you probably won't have much trouble with it.

[Trevor McDowell]

I wasn't the fittest guy on October 31st, 2008. But the past year or so have taught me a lot, and sure I might not be as tone as some guys, but I'm sure as hell stronger, faster, and have more endurance than a lot of them. But I followed the 1 year thing and I'm still not dropping off of very high things. The high drops thing was clouding my judgment for my first... 4 or so months, then I found APK. lol

[Impulse1990]

it all depends on what your comfortable doing, i can jump off a 10-12ft no problem hit the roll and feel no pain i dont go much past that because ive never tried.  dont go out of your comfort zone and work up to things.

[Ken PKChiro]

No it doesn't depend entirely on what you are comfortable doing.  And feeling no pain is not an accurate indicator to damage.  As I've mentioned in the past, you can create severe damage to the disc, the bones above and below the disc, and yet still FEEL NO PAIN. 

[David Jones]

Ken I admire the battle that you are facing. I've given up on trying to explain the dangers of taking drops without the proper strength, technique, and experience.

[Joseph Gorman Pugh]

By drops I assume you mean landing without rolling?