Topic: My take on conditioning

[Steven Low]

When you hit that plateau with your training don't come here to ask for help. Thanks.

[NateVD]

Everyone here is entitled to their opinion as long as as they can back it up and not insult others in the process. Don't do that anymore.

i didn't insult anyone.

Actually, I didn't see any personal attacks from NateVD.  I saw a lot of unsupported claims and attacks on their arguments from Nate, but no personal attacks.

anecdotal experience (tautology?)

When you hit that plateau with your training don't come here to ask for help. Thanks.

why do you keep thinking im going to hit a plateau?
may i ask how you train your movement?

[Spencer B]

why do you keep thinking im going to hit a plateau?
may i ask how you train your movement?

Because you will.

Your strength will only grow so much, and then you will find yourself unable to do some things you want to that require a higher strength level. An 11' foot precision? Not likely without conditioning.

[Charles Moreland]

Time to chime in...


First off, if you actually wanted some serious replies, you wouldn't have set this thread up like a troll. I back-burnered this thread after reading your first post.

why even lift?
you're not preparing your body for parkour.

You don't know what you're talking about. Please explain to me how squatting and improving your strength doesn't prepare oneself for the stresses that parkour exerts on the body.

have you seen daniel ilabaca?
phil doyle?
dan aroyyo? (sorry if i spelt his name wrong).
they don't condition not nearly as much as you guys.

Congratulations. You've listed three people out of THOUSANDS that train parkour. I'd also like to point out, Daniel has an extensive background in gymnastics which put him in a better place than most anyone who initially starts parkour.

Here's some reality:
I am a full time student in college
I hold three part time jobs
I co-run the rochester parkour community
I am a part of three campus clubs
I volunteer a lot of my weekly time to APK

I don't have the luxury right now of getting paid to train all day. If I did, you bet I'd be out there doing the same stuff as Danial Ilabaca. But I'm not Daniel Ilabaca. I have my own life, with my own troubles, and my own responsibilities, as I'm sure most of the community here has. Conditioning is THE MOST EFFECTIVE way for me (as well as many others here) to get stronger, become more explosive, and still progress in the discipline I love.

i bet if you go a month without specific conditioning, and you CONDITION THROUGH THE MOVEMENT
your parkour would be far more efficient.

I bet you're right. But what happens when that efficiency optimizes to its fullest?

biceps, hammies and chest? lets get serious man.
hhow long have you been training?
ive been training for 3 years now and have experienced more injuries due to athletics (which is why i quit) than i have in parkour.

One experience does not establish a universal rule amongst an entire discipline. You are an exception. Not a rule. It took me a little over a month to develop biceps tendinitis from bouldering.

what?
if you got all this strength but your mind is weak then your parkour won't go anywhere.
why would i come to you?
my training sessions are plyometric.
i can do more muscle ups now than i use to when i used to condition.
im not weak - for some reason i can hold a front lever for like 6 or so seconds and i don't do anything isometric.

This does nothing but tell me that you don't know how to condition. A muscle up involves technique, yes, but the technique can be mastered and normalized extremely quickly. That means it's a strength equation and a properly designed program tailored to improving the muslce up will always be more efficient than no program at all.

conditioning just gives you that athletic potential.
it wont make your technique any better.

Alright, you take a random person and put them through your style of training. I'll take Frank Yang. After a year we'll see who has the most potential to make it big on something as shallow as the MTV Ultimate Parkour Challenge.

Over the Summer a friend of mine started showing up to the weekly jam. It was funny to watch him mainly because he is an incredibly strong CFer with no parkour background. His first day he could barely get up a 9' wall because he kept shoving his plant foot down, but whenever he did manage to grab, he was up faster than anyone. He didn't have technique, he had strength. Two weeks later he was doing wall passes like a pro. Would he have gotten to that point without his CF background? Did his CF background "limit his potential"?

In the end, different strokes for different folks. If you think everyone here only cares about "getting better at parkour" then you're wrong. We have a lot of diversity on these boards and frankly, we don't need your extremism. Conditioning through the use of a typical gym and weights works, is well researched and documented, and is extremely safe and effective. I'm sorry you don't see the overwhelming logic in this. Congrats on your successful troll.
 

[WQ F]

if you got all this strength but your mind is weak then your parkour won't go anywhere.
why would i come to you?

I disagree. When you train your body, your mind also makes progress. Of course skill work is important, but how can you achieve the toughest skills that you don't have the strength for?
People with higher strength have high capacity for learning faster. (By the way, I am weak and unskillful.)

Also ironic that Steven Low's mind certainly is not weak. He has a degree from the University of Maryland in Biochemistry and is pursuing a doctorate of Physical Therapy.
Read his articles at http://www.eatmoveimprove.com/ He knows what he's talking about.

conditioning just gives you that athletic potential.
it wont make your technique any better.

train correctly and your need for conditioning slowly decreases.

First sentence is true. Second sentence is vague.

Everyone has given you helpful information. Accept them.

[NateVD]

An 11' foot precision? Not likely without conditioning.

11 feet is like 3.2 metres (rough estimate).
my standing long is about that and i know for myself that i can precision something that is 3 metres apart.
i'll be happy to provide a video.

Alright Charles and WQ F.

I have accepted your information.
But i still believe conditioning isn't absolutely necessary.
PK training should override strength and conditioning training.

bye now

[Charles Moreland]

troll

[Jake Vigil]

i'll be happy to provide a video.

 11 foot broad jump, measured from the toe to the heel, all in one shot. Go.

[Shawn Meilicke]

nate, i think if you came into this discussion after being on this site longer and you had more credibility, people would probably be more open to listening to you. however, your seven posts come strictly from this thread; you claim you have been training for three years but no one has heard of you here, and you couldve easily been training for three days. when your on the internet, you have no reason to believe anyone, unless they give proof. you said youll supply a video, yet we could still say "thats not you!" simply because we dont know you. youre being called a troll because of this. you are ignoring the advice of people who (im assuming so do not yell at me) probably know more than you EVER will when it comes to strength training and anatomy, you should expect to get yelled at. and you cant say you dont condition...you dont STRENGTH TRAIN, you seemingly do endurance training though, or else i dont think you would know you could do more muscle ups than before... seeing as there is no "real life scenario" where multiple muscle ups in a row will have any use. endurance training is great for parkour, and when you have the strength beforehand, its even better. you are making many mistakes in your wording, and youre making yourself sound ignorant. if SO MANY people are telling you there are gains to be made by doing something, and theyve been doing parkour LONGER than you, then listen.

also, i find it weird that you can almost match the olympic record broad jump without conditioning, and with "ease"... this distance would be 12 feet 2.1 inches.


i think you need to find yourself an agent and get into the opympics; get the US another gold without ever strength training and show up all those world athletes...


sorry, when you make claims like that, you will be called a liar, get used to it



___
just saw jakes comment.....

exactly..

[Chris Salvato]

I have actually been thinking about this thread a lot lately.  It hasn't bothered or annoyed me, really, but this sort of question actually comes up every few months so I decided to indulge in it a bit.

Nate, you have made it very clear that you are a troll.  For this reason, I am locking this thread.

With that said, anyone who thinks you can progress in parkour without conditioning is absolutely, 100% correct.  The question is not "can I progress?" but, rather, "how far can I progress?"  -- it is not "will i get injured?" but "when will I get injured?".  This is true for parkour, soccer, baseball, snowboarding, or any other sport/discipline.

Each modality of training will only get you so far.  Some people (a very small population, in general) can focus on just their sport/discipline and be extremely good.  A much larger population needs focused strength and conditioning.  For people like NateVD, my recommendation has and always will be to train parkour as much as you want until you are not happy with your progress...then explore other options.  For a more serious traceur that wants to be well rounded and prepared to deal with the stresses of parkour, I always recommend a structured and safe program that focuses heavily on parkour but incorporates much conditioning - particular work for strength and power development.  This will minimize injury, decrease time spent fiddling around with a low level of strength, make PK more fun and much more safe.

As for the ridiculous claims being made here, I don't care.  I don't care if your broad jump is 11 feet.  I don't care how many superstar athletes you know.  I don't care.  If you want to bicker about that stuff, you would save everyone a lot of time by posting a video.  Then maybe we can measure penises and compare those, too.  I am here to help people make themselves better -- not argue with you about how awesome your broad jump is or how cool your friends are that never condition.