Topic: Barbells

[Mii]

So I've been told that squats, deadlifts, and other such barbell work is good for increasing jump height... but to be honest, I've never seen a girl working with barbells, and I'm kind of concerned I guess- is this kind of workout safe for a 16 year old to be starting out with? or is there some other progression I should be doing before this? (Right now I can squat without weight, full ROM, ~50 times without rest)
Thanks

[Neta]

Parkour is control over your own body - not over barbells etc. Why do you want train on gym if you would like start train parkour? Just go out and do parkour. Barbells are useless in parkour, because it help work on another muscles, in another way...
It's methode naturelle too, right. Inter alia "work with weight, with stones, stump wood etc.". But first, you should work on basics. ;]

[Mii]

I have started training parkour around whatever I can find, at the park and in the city, but I'm saying this because I found that I could not reach many high places, and although I've been trying to practice jumping by jumping for ~a month, I'm not seeing much difference.

[Skye]

Yeah, its totally cool to use barbells to workout. I use them all the time. Yes squats will increase your jump height and the the power in your legs. Yeah, I'm kind of the only girl who uses the barbells, dumbells, and squat rack at my gym. The girls tend to stick to the treadmills and such. I mean there are a few who focus on strength, but in general they tend to have no intrest in strngth...

Yes going out and just doing parkour will help you with parkour, but it is good to add onto that. If you want to develop certain areas then I would definitely recommend doing strength training for those areas.

Like i said, if you want to help increase your leg strength/jump height, squats are awesome! I mean truly amazing. Keep doing them. Find out the variations, like pistols, walking squats, ect...  And if you have a gym with a squat rack, I say use it.

Also, if you want to focus on getting stronger overall ect, set your goals, and create a program that focuses around those goals. There is a really good article in the general fitness section. (link: http://www.americanparkour.com/smf/index.php/topic,21445.0.html )

[Joy-Marie]

Yes, you want to start by moving and finding out how your body works in movement but also, as soon as your technique starts to get better, you will be doing bigger jumps and such so you will need the strength and it is very important to start building that strength in the beginning, otherwise you will find yourself in a desert with no water.

Box jumps are great for increasing jump. Also do sprints. Not just running as fast as you can kind of sprints but huge striding sprints. So try to bounce, kind of like mario but not on just one leg. That will hugely increase the distance and height of your jumps. Also, here is a video I put out of some lower body training that I have been doing. Read the description on youtube for some explanations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mywLcUJQTqk

If you have any more questions, feel free to contact me. Hope this was helpful!

[Mr.WWII]

Parkour is control over your own body - not over barbells etc. Why do you want train on gym if you would like start train parkour? Just go out and do parkour. Barbells are useless in parkour, because it help work on another muscles, in another way...
It's methode naturelle too, right. Inter alia "work with weight, with stones, stump wood etc.". But first, you should work on basics. ;]

This is a tremendously incorrect statement. Please go to the "General Fitness" forums and read the sticky and spend some time on the forums, because if you believe what you just said then you are denying the gross body of scientific and experiential evidence for why barbell training will SIGNIFICANTLY improve your parkour. To say it is "useless" is just insane.

And method naturelle is great and awesome for a generalized overall fitness, but it doesn't hit specific power/strength for parkour as well as weight training. Your body will get significantly stronger and you will jump higher, longer, and run faster in 2 months of linear progression barbell training then you would lifting rocks and carrying logs for 2 months. I mean I love method naturelle, just the idea and philosophy behind it, it's awesome and feels amazing to do, but none the less it pales in comparison to barbell training for improving one's jumping power, speed, strength etc.

SO please come spend some time in the General Fitness forums, everyone there is a huge help. I've learned so much there and I think you'll benefit greatly from it

[Joy-Marie]

It's not insane to say that barbells are useless. It's just a startling statement. There are a lot of people who use their own body weight and leverage to become stronger than you ever could with barbells. Also, if you're lifting, that strength will not transfer to body weight strength but the reverse is true. Body weight strength training will enable you to lift heavier.

Yes, barbells will get you in shape and make you look cut. Yes, it can also make you strong. However, body weight strength training will make you stronger and you never have to pick up a barbell in your life which, for those people makes barbells completely useless. Also, when conditioning lower body you will have to use weights because there is only so much leverage you can take away. However this weight is in the form of a weight vest, free weights, and resistance bands. You can do it without barbells.

So, please be careful of the tone you use here. Also, Neta is a strong girl and I know how she works out. Plus, she is Polish and her English is rather broken so sometimes I think it is hard for her to get her point across fully.

Thanks for the input!

[Mr.WWII]

and to Mii, listen to Askyfioriginal, Barbells are absolutely how you want to be training. Most women in gyms don't use them because there is such a stigma against women doing anything except cardio equipment and 5 lb dumbells. Modern American society has formed and pushed this image of female fitness full of yoga mats, dumbells less than 10 lbs, and treadmills;-- and so it becomes embarrassing to do heavier weights. It's absolutely ridiculous and it is wrong. Start doing those squats and deadlifts Mii!

[superdude88]

I didnt boys could post here but okay.
I see woman doing stuff like this all the time theres even a world strongest man with 4 girls in it trust me, me and my dad powerlift all the time in fact we just did dead lifts the other night

[Mr.WWII]

It's not insane to say that barbells are useless. It's just a startling statement. There are a lot of people who use their own body weight and leverage to become stronger than you ever could with barbells. Also, if you're lifting, that strength will not transfer to body weight strength but the reverse is true. Body weight strength training will enable you to lift heavier.

Yes, barbells will get you in shape and make you look cut. Yes, it can also make you strong. However, body weight strength training will make you stronger and you never have to pick up a barbell in your life which, for those people makes barbells completely useless. Also, when conditioning lower body you will have to use weights because there is only so much leverage you can take away. However this weight is in the form of a weight vest, free weights, and resistance bands. You can do it without barbells.

So, please be careful of the tone you use here. Also, Neta is a strong girl and I know how she works out. Plus, she is Polish and her English is rather broken so sometimes I think it is hard for her to get her point across fully.

Thanks for the input!

I agree and disagree. Certainly, body weight strength techniques are incredible for the upper body. I train a lot of body weight moves myself like levers and planche, and yes they translate over better than the other way around (except for the lack of ROM in most of the movements, that is their only real con). But as you said, training lower body with body weight doesn't do much, and I definitely do not think that resistance bands, weighted vests will ever give you as much as barbells. I have never seen someone get tremendously strong legs from using resistance bands (but state a case if you know of someone who has, and I mean just as strong as they could have got with a barbell). And a person can only shoulder so much weight with a dumbell. Basically, sure these things can be used, but they will still pale in comparison.

And I'm sorry if I played Neka for a fool, she did mention method naturelle so certainly she knows stuff about fitness. I just still think it is a bit radical to say that barbells are useless, since they are so useful (and perhaps that is just due to language barrier) No matter how many other ways one can figure to strengthen the lower body, barbells will likely always dominate as the primary modality for doing so

Thanks for the response! and sorry if I'm like invading these forums, I just always check all new posts from all forums and so "barbells" stood out to me

[Ashley McC]

I didnt boys could post here but okay.
I see woman doing stuff like this all the time theres even a world strongest man with 4 girls in it trust me, me and my dad powerlift all the time in fact we just did dead lifts the other night

Usually you guys don't. Just certain things like this is when they post.

[Alissa J. Bratz]

Technically guys aren't supposed to post in here.

Regarding barbells--definitely go for it if it will help with your goals (more on that later). Don't let the fact that it's rare to see women do it, intimidate you. Heavy lifting days (when I have the money to go to the gym) are some of my favorite workouts.

Method Naturelle, parkour-specific training, and weightlifting all have their place in parkour training. It depends on your goals, your strengths, and your weaknesses.

Your best bet for answers to these questions can be found in the General Fitness forum. There is a FAQ and a couple of sticky topics that are packed with good information about these types of training and how to put together a training program that works for you.