I've been to the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, numerous times for parkour jams. The town has quite a few hotspots that offer some great training food to the hungry traceur. But there is one spot in particular that always gets my fingers aching and my feet dancing: the Philadelphia Art Museum.
Anyone who's seen the movie Rocky will instantly recognize the place I'm talking about. It's the famous Rocky Steps, the abnormally huge set of stairs that leads into one of the museum's entrances. Not only is it great for watching hundreds of people do Rocky Balboa impressions all day, it has some fantastic walls/stones/rails for PK training. Case in point...
Pretty sweet huh?
Now, I've been there several times: many Philly jams start out there. And every time I'm there, I dare myself to attempt The Rocky Challenge. Look at the above pic again. See those stone walls on the far right side, the giant Lego looking ones? That's the Rocky Challenge. I start at the very tippy-top, take off, and must navigate my way down (and up) each of those blocks until I hit the final one. And then I turn around and go back, without rest, until I'm back where I started. That's probably 100 yards of distance but 8-9 drops and 7-8 climbs, ranging in wall height from five feet to eight feet. And trust me, an eight foot wall is absolute murder, mentally and physically, after running through the rest of it. The first time I tried, I had to crawl up the last wall, even using my chin to roll onto the top.
I've attempted the challenge several times and every time I have been completely wasted at the end. Falling on the ground, chest heaving, vision blurred wasted. But I like to try the challenge because I fell that it is close to the fundamental idea of parkour: a deceptively short distance, impedded by obstacles, that must be traversed quickly, safely, for a reason. (I imagine that there's a horrible car crash at the street below and I must get there as fast as possible)
Now the point of this thread. I've realized after my many attempts that in order to complete the challenge in a timely fashion, without death from exhuastion, I need a near-perfect blend of strength and endurance. I need the endruance, obviously, to keep my muscles pumping and my lungs chugging. I need the strength to scale the walls and withstand the forces of each drop without crumpling like a ragdoll. So...how do I do it? How do I find that blend of everything?
I've read up on strength training, on heavy weights and exercises like squats, deadlifts, and other related topics. I've also read up some on cardio building/strength endurance building, a la CrossFit style workouts and sprint interval training/long distance running.
I'm not in bad shape to begin with, not perfect but not bad IMO. I did a fitness assment challenge at my college gym today and scored 58 pushups in 1 minute, 56 situps in 1 minute, and 3:01 minute half-mile. My heaviest bench press was 180 pounds for 5 reps recently and my squat was 200 pounds for 3 reps. I know my cardiovascular endruance is lacking but I plan to work on that soon.
So again the question is posed...what is the best way to get the highest level of strength vs. endruance to finish this challenge? Should I focus on more of one than the other, or vice-versa? What is everyone's opinion?
P.S. Try finding your own Rocky Challenge and tell everyone how you did.
