Topic: KrayzeRunner

[KrayzeRunner]

Please comment and help me out!!!!

First of all, call me Travis  A little about myself... I'm a college student living in Washington State. I weigh around 140 lbs at 6'1'' (hopefully I got the ' thing right :S).

Why I want to start doing Parkour? WHY NOT!!!! I stumbled upon a "free running" video on Youtube and pretty soon it was like 5 hours later and I was so inspired to start doing that too. I eventually found a link to this site and have been reading tutorials and training workouts and I decided to track my progress in this forum.

I actually started like 3 days ago but today I found the "Starting Point" like what you should be able to do before attempting any Parkour so I gave that a try!!! I did 50 non-stop squats, 25 non-stop push-ups, and 2 pull-ups. So I think I'm on my way of course I need to work on pull-ups but who doesn't??

So that was my exercise today, I also worked out last night around midnight cuz I took this random 4 hour nap  I don't remember exactly what I did, I think it was about 2 rounds of the APK warm-up minus all the pull-ups and agility because I didn't want to wake everyone up.

Nutrition?? Well I've always had an extremely high metabolism so it's impossible for me to gain any weight. This is great!!! but I get very lazy with my diet because of this.... My diet is not good, but I'm going to work on it for sure!! More fruits and veges. I have started to drink a lot more water too

Goals? Hmmm I haven't really had a lot of time to come up with any goals yet because I don't really know where I should be or exactly where I'm going... Once I figure that out though, I'll post it For now, try to do 5 pull-ups and learn more about different exercises to get fit

I think that's it, Please comment any suggestions for a new comer!! I would love to learn more about what kind of exercises to do (mainly by staying home if possible) or ANY other suggestions!!! Thanks, cya tomorrow!

[Spencer B]

It looks like you've read up at least a little in general fitness, that's good, read more though, the repository of knowledge there is massive and will help you more than I ever could.

However, if you have questions abotu any of it, I'll be glad to help.

[Andrew Stockton]

You probably are going to want to gain weight, actually. It's very hard to gain muscle and strength without also gaining weight (which is not necessarily fat, could be muscle). The thing is, you can learn to eat right and still gain weight at the same time. There's a dieting sticky in the General Fitness forum (I think it's there) which can help you out greatly. For exercises, make sure you learn proper form for the squat (again, the general fitness forum- look through the threads, use the search function) and keep doing your pushups and pullups. At this stage in the game, you will probably see quick gains in strength because all the adaptation going on in your muscles is neurological. Still, if you start eating to gain weight now it will help you later.
For goals, again there is a sticky in the General Fitness Forum (I'm starting to sound like a broken record, aren't I? )It's a pretty intimidating sticky, but if you want to get strong you're going to have to do your homework learning how, simple as that. For right now, 5 pullups is a perfectly reasonable goal that I can see you achieving in several weeks. But take a look anyways.

If you want a really, really excellent book on gaining strength for novices, get Starting Strength: 2nd Edition by Mark Rippetoe. Great book. But that's not really necessary, just would be a good thing to do at some point in your parkour journey.

I'm glad to see you haven't been trying out too many "parkour moves" yet. Getting started too early on skill work can lead to injury. I myself have spent months and months in physical therapy with parkour-related injuries because I wasn't strong enough.

Anyways, sorry for this novel that I wrote. Keep working on the APK warmup, make sure you learn proper form, eat right. Welcome to the forums, Travis! Please post your progress.

 

[KrayzeRunner]

Woah I got a couple comments already, I feel speshal  Umm I'm not as interested in just "gaining weight and muscle" if it doesn't coincide with parkour because I don't really care about being big and strong, I want to be more fit and agile(at this point anyways). I understand that I have to get at least a base of strength before I really start though. I do plan on adding more exercises within a couple weeks but for now I'll just work on the APK warm-up.

I do have a question though!! Doing those 50 squats and 25 push-ups were totally my max. If I'm tired from that which is considered the "warm up", should I be resting a couple days in between or just do them everyday? I'm also going to start doing calf raises because I want to work on my jump. What other exercises could I do to improve my jump? I want to start with the basics before practicing all the vaults and different techniques so I think jumping and basic strength is good

Thanks for the help!! I'll be sure to post my progress and realizations here ^^

[KrayzeRunner]

New Goal!! Start running again, I haven't ran in forever so yea :S
Soooo my goal is to run 2 miles without stopping. I think I'll do a real light jog tomorrow(Friday) then attempt the 2 miles Sunday

[KrayzeRunner]

Continued to do the APK Warm-up!!
Today I tried the agility portion

So I did all 3 rounds of the agility except!! On the last round I didn't do the burpee's and quad movement because I was just too tired and a little short on breathe. I also did 15 calf raises before and between rounds.

I was going to do the other portion with squats and push-ups and stuff but my muscle's are still recovering from yesterday when I did as many as I could do. I did do 3 rounds of 2 pull-ups though.

And that's it for today!! My ankle is feeling 100% today so I tried some basic rolls on the ground but it was making me hella dizzy after like 3 :S I'm not used to spinning or being up-side-down so it makes me kind of sick.

New Goals??
I want to try a hand stand against a wall and hold for 10 seconds.
Complete the whole agility portion of the APK warm-up in 10 minutes.
Keep practicing my rolls to build up a tolerance for being dizzy.
Make a sweet playlist of "Get Pumped Up" songs! 

[Spencer B]

I'm also going to start doing calf raises because I want to work on my jump. What other exercises could I do to improve my jump?

Read the general fitness stickies! 

[David Glass]

Calf raises won't help your jump a whole lot. As stated earlier, read the sticky on Posterior chain.

If you don't believe me about the calves, try this: Stand straight, legs straight, arbs beside you... now jump using only your calves... not very high, right? I regard calves as the "fine tuning" portion of both landing and jumping.

Also, put a deadline on your goals. If you look at my journal, I have until March 11 to achieve my weight loss goals, and I monitor my progress daily. While this might be more commitment than you actually need, it will get you motivated

[josephpk]

Well, gaining weight and strength actually definitely will help you in parkour. You are underweight to say the least at 140 pounds and 6 feet 1 inch. The more muscle and strength you gain, the faster you will be able to improve safely in your parkour. If you're worried about getting "too big", don't. It would take years of dedicated weightlifting to reach that point, so it's not a big concern right now.
I can't stress enough that the fastest gains that one sees in parkour come from strength training in the early stages.

As for letting your muscles recover, it's a good idea. If the APK warmup was a full workout for you, resting one or two days (until you feel ready again) can help prevent muscle injury. Make sure to eat well and get lots of rest on your "off" days as well.

By the way, this is actually Andrew Stockton, just on my friend's account that I was in too much of a hurry to log out and change

[KrayzeRunner]

Yea I know that jumping doesn't come from your calfs, I'm just trying to work more muscle groups I guess. And I'm not having trouble getting motivated or anything like that. The only thing slowing me down at this point is knowledge about what exactly I should be doing. Once I know that, I'll commit to it 110% 

I checked the gym schedule at my school and it's open from like 6-7:30pm so I might start working out there. I'm not sure cuz I've never been much of a gym junky. People keep telling me it's important early on to gain some strength so I guess it's a good idea to start . I know the weight room has pretty much all the basic machines... Could someone tell me what A) machines or B) muscle groups I should work on? It would be a huge help to just know what's important and what I can skip

And I will start setting time lines for my goals fairly soon once I get a feel for where I'm at physically. So hopefully I'll be able to do that within a couple weeks. Thanks for the help and support!! I have no friends (kidding?  ) so it's good to have a community of people helping you out

[Spencer B]

I checked the gym schedule at my school and it's open from like 6-7:30pm so I might start working out there. I'm not sure cuz I've never been much of a gym junky. People keep telling me it's important early on to gain some strength so I guess it's a good idea to start . I know the weight room has pretty much all the basic machines... Could someone tell me what A) machines or B) muscle groups I should work on? It would be a huge help to just know what's important and what I can skip

Have you read those stickies yet? Seriously they will answer your questions. I know they are daunting as hell, but still...

Anyways, free-weights and maybe bodyweight compound exercises all the way. No machines, no worrying abotu muscles groups right no either.

[PeteS]

hey! forgot to tell you some stuff after you posted on my log. if you want advice i guess i could try to help, but i learned most of my stuff from here :
http://www.youtube.com/user/UrbanCurrent#p/u/40/gUvDWwZwIvg
they have a tutorial for just about everything and its easy to follow. and i have found that exercising is a very important part of parkour and suggest you make a daily routine. it sure helped me

[KrayzeRunner]

SpencerB I have read the stickies.... some of them twice. They're more about just working out and getting big or gymnastics instead of parkour. Or they're way too advanced. I would love to have a list like: Benchpress, leg press, pull-ups, dips ect. I've read a lot about WHY you want to develop a workout routine and why it's great and setting goals and staying motivated blah blah. I can stay motivated and committed to this, I just need to know what I'm doing and I'll do it. Once I have a few exercises, I'll find a pattern, experiment a little and find out My routine, but a little help first would be awesome

PeteS, I checked it out and it's pretty cool, I like the seminar training how they only use Parkour to practice. I just hope I can find a place to practice... we just moved to some nice neighborhood and there's like nothing to climb or jump off of. There is a little kids park next to my college tho, so I'll see if there's anything useful there when it's dry.

I'll post my workout later Thanks for the help guys!!

[Spencer B]

SpencerB I have read the stickies.... some of them twice. They're more about just working out and getting big or gymnastics instead of parkour. Or they're way too advanced. I would love to have a list like: Benchpress, leg press, pull-ups, dips ect. I've read a lot about WHY you want to develop a workout routine and why it's great and setting goals and staying motivated blah blah. I can stay motivated and committed to this, I just need to know what I'm doing and I'll do it. Once I have a few exercises, I'll find a pattern, experiment a little and find out My routine, but a little help first would be awesome

Nothing about getting big. Stuff for strength, but not size. Unless they've changed the stickies, then I knwo I'm right here.

Gymnastics is very similar to parkour and builds great amounts of strength with just your BW. Thus high trnslation.

And there were many weighted exercises recommended in many of the stickies, but if you want a breakdown;

Squats, Deadlifts, Overhead Press, Benchpress a/o Weighted Dips, Weighted Pullups, Front Lever progression, Back Lever Progression, Planche Progression, etc.

Buy Starting Strength. Or try and learn power clean form on your own, which is really hard. But Oly Lifts are good too.

Better?

[KrayzeRunner]

Thanks for your patience and understanding SpencerB I'll try to start working in some of those exercises when I go to the gym.

Today I ran down to the park and along the river for a bit, not long. But I got some cardio so good I also checked out some spots where I could practice some vaults and jumps and stuff which is good but it'll be impossible until it dries up still 

I also did some of the APK warm-up which consisted of 3x15 squats (last 15 were explosive jumping up) and 3x10 push-ups.

I have a question regarding my push-ups tho!! My (uh oh don't know the tech. name... pecs?) hurt still from my push-ups 2 days ago. I remember I had a wide stance with my arms (past should width apart). Today I tried them shoulder width apart and it didn't hurt but then I did one with wider and it hurt pretty bad. What's the right way to do just basic push-ups? And should I start trying to do those planche things while I can only do about 20 push-ups at once? or should I hold off on that for a while?

Goals:
Stop the rain. Stop the cold. Do my calculus homework. Beat David Belle in a race.
Go to the school gym to check it out sometime next week and try some machines.
Convince my girlfriend to run with me.

[Spencer B]

Planches are very difficult, and strength based. You want to work the specific progressions when you're a bit stronger, IMO.

[David Glass]

Forget machines.

All you need is a barbell. For Starting Strength, the barbell is your best friend... actually, it's your only friend.

Try to get coaching on the Back Squat. SS Advocates the low bar back squat, but I have find the high bar back squat to be more suitable for what we do. Get coaching on the DeadLift. The Military Press and Bench Press need no coaching IMO, as long as you have full range of motion.

You want to do a program where you alternate and do one day of Upper Body (Military Press or Bench Press), Lower Body (Back Squat and Deadlift), in 5 sets of 5 with about one minute rest in between. Your workout should be 1 day on, one day off, but you will actually work 3 days a week, resting 2 days after the third. If you finished with upper body, the next week you start with lower body.

Make sure your diet is appropriate for strength gains. If you try to cut down on calories while strength training, you're waisting your time.

Use pull-ups as a suplemental exercise as well, but forget all other exercises. Do not try to suplement your training with anything else. I mean anything. For strength training, rest and recovery is of utmost importance. If you begin adding exercises to your programming, you're actually doing yourself a disservice.


This program is perhaps the highest regarded among this and many other forums. You'll see a lot of people here using it. Good luck

[KrayzeRunner]

Just to clarify, I do upper and lower body all in one day, every other day? Or upper body one day, rest day, lower body, rest ect... Also do I do both lower body exercises each day and pick just one upper body?

Thanks a bunch for the advise!! I'll Definitely try this out!!!

[David Glass]

Upper, rest, lower, rest, upper, rest, rest, lower, etc

And by upper, I mean Press/Bench Press, and Lower, Deadlift, Back squat, just those 4 exercises and one per day. You will be lifting about 75% max for 5 sets of 5... Between that and your warm-up, you'll get about 30-40 minutes of work per session

[KrayzeRunner]

Ok just one exercise per day. That means I'll have more than a week of rest in between the same exercise? And what should I do as a warm-up then? Because you told me to ditch all the other exercises like push-ups and squats.

Today I helped my dad move a bunch of stuff from his shop into our new house. We made one trip to the dump and 2 trips to the house full of stuff. That was my workout of the day