Topic: Starting Parkour

[Tony]

So my name is Tony, I am 14 year old Freshman in High school and I live in Kansas. Me and a few of my friends are considering getting into parkour, but I'm making sure to get a good routine/plan going and set some good goals.

I am a little under average height, 5' 6". And a little underweight, Somewhere around 105-110 lbs. I am also trying to put on some weight, which I know requires a diet change. I normally eat a lot of protein, lays potato chips , and drink A LOT of water. I generally stay away from milk because I was allergic to it until I was 5 and I still have a little distaste for it now. I'm willing to try it again, and new foods. I am lacking on vegetables, fruit, and the other goodies, which I hope to start correcting and start eating more of said goodies. My dinner throughout the week usually consists of: Pork, Chicken, Ham, Steak, Apple sauce, or when my parents dont feel like cooking, pancakes. I normally don't eat breakfast, which I know I need to start changing. I also don't eat very healthily for lunch, and I normally don't eat lunch on the weekends as well. My lunch consists of mostly snack foods like beef jerky, pretzels, graham crackers, licorice . SO I NEED to change that, definitely.

As for my strength and endurance, I am generally fit. I can do around 25-40 pushups without stopping, 75-80ish sit-ups, 10-15 pull ups, I can run a mile in about 8 minutes. I want to know what I should be doing to increase my endurance and strength. I read a few of the articles on these forums and I learned that if you can do more than 10 of something, it's not building stength, rather endurance. I have also learned to set good quality goals with specific numbers and perhaps time/dates that I want it completed by and not just "I want to improve pushups."

I haven't thought of a plan/routine/schedule yet, but I plan to before Monday. With some help from the forums of course
I think I should be working strength/endurance 2 or 3 times a week, and be running a mile or a few a couple times a week.

I think some realistic goals for me to set are:

• Run a mile in 7:30
• Put on 5 pounds of muscle (Is this too low? I'm not quite an expert)
• Do 20 pull ups with good form

Any suggestions?

I think my schedule will be a little wavy but this is what I want as a basis:
Monday:
Workout day, eat healthy
2 reps of 30-45 pushups (moving slowly)
2 reps of 11-13 pull ups (Moving slowly, but its a start)
2 reps of squats (How many is good?, I did 60 a few minutes ago but I'm not sure I did them right because I looked it up as well)

Tuesday:
Rest day, eat healthy, maybe go for a little jog but not anything too big.

Wednesday:
Workout day, eat healthy
Same thing as monday? Any ideas?

Thursday:
Rest day, same as tuesday

Friday:
Running day, run for a mile and see how far into a second mile I can get without stopping and record time

Saturday:
Skills day, practice parkour skills

Sunday:
Maybe another running day, or skills day? Im not sure

Thoughts?

Anyways, I hope I can start to get into this. It seems like something I'll really enjoy. Thanks!

[Paul Exter]

I want to know what I should be doing to increase my endurance and strength.

To increase your strength all you need to do is "up" the difficulty of the task.
To increase your endurance all you need to do is increase the number of reps for each set.

I think I should be working strength/endurance 2 or 3 times a week, and be running a mile or a few a couple times a week.
I read a few of the articles on these forums and I learned that if you can do more than 10 of something, it's not building stength, rather endurance.

When training, strength and endurance are at opposite ends of the spectrum and so when setting goals you need to keep that in mind and properly train for them.

If you can only do 11-13 max pull-ups, I think 2x10 would be too much, breaking it down to 4x6 or 3x7 will get you above the 20 mark.

For squats (Strength) 2x30, anything above that will be endurance.

You've seem to neglected to add a core workout to your training days. Leg raises, L sits and planks are good for core conditioning.

As for squat form:

Think about sitting back in a chair and moving through that position. Make sure your knees don't go past your toes. At the bottom of the squat you want to drive up through your backside. Improper squatting can lead to injury.

Give yourself 48 hours between training sessions, this is due to the healing process. Stretching with light exercise is encouraged to help the process.

Warmup before each time you train, stretch afterwards.

I think you should rethink your goals in terms of parkour. Have a couple of sessions and see what you are good and what you are bad at. Then reshape your goals accordingly.

Hope I helped, Goodluck!

[Tony]

To increase your strength all you need to do is "up" the difficulty of the task.
To increase your endurance all you need to do is increase the number of reps for each set.

When training, strength and endurance are at opposite ends of the spectrum and so when setting goals you need to keep that in mind and properly train for them.

If you can only do 11-13 max pull-ups, I think 2x10 would be too much, breaking it down to 4x6 or 3x7 will get you above the 20 mark.

For squats (Strength) 2x30, anything above that will be endurance.

You've seem to neglected to add a core workout to your training days. Leg raises, L sits and planks are good for core conditioning.

As for squat form:

Think about sitting back in a chair and moving through that position. Make sure your knees don't go past your toes. At the bottom of the squat you want to drive up through your backside. Improper squatting can lead to injury.

Give yourself 48 hours between training sessions, this is due to the healing process. Stretching with light exercise is encouraged to help the process.

Warmup before each time you train, stretch afterwards.

I think you should rethink your goals in terms of parkour. Have a couple of sessions and see what you are good and what you are bad at. Then reshape your goals accordingly.

Hope I helped, Goodluck!

Yeah, i was actually coming back to rethink my work out and saw that I had a post on it now

I kind of get the pull up thing, but why do you do 3x7 and 4x6 instead of taking it a little higher? And what exactly do the "A"x"B" things mean? Like 6 sets of 4 or 7 sets of 3?

And yeah, I haven't really made a work out plan ever so I didn't know about the core stuff. So I think I'll experiment with the core exercises you said and some other ones I find.

I'm glad I'm figuring this out now, as I'm planning to start my work outs and diets on next Monday.

And I would go outside to see what I can currently do, but its snowing
And I don't have very many actual skills yet...
But from memory:
I can do Speed vaults (Kinda, need polishing on the technique, mostly just jumping over things like couches )
and Im a good climber


If it becomes nice out this weekend, Im planning to go out with a few friends and see where we're at.

[Paul Exter]

When doing any sort of routine you will always work in sets (first number) x reps (second number)

So for 3x7 you would be doing 7 reps - rest for ? (time depends on you) and then move onto the other set.

If your max is roughly 12 pull-ups and you want to do 20 (so another 8 ) then your arms would be at their limit by the end of your first set.

By decreasing the number you do per rep whilst increasing the number per set you can effectively cover 20 pull-ups. That way your arms will get a rest when working towards your goal.

I kind of get the pull up thing, but why do you do 3x7 and 4x6 instead of taking it a little higher?

Given your max rep I wouldn't expect you to do another set within 60-90s of doing that. So by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable reps the task becomes easier as your arms will get a rest but you will still be doing more than 20 reps (your goal). Your arms can't flat out do 15 reps in their current shape. Give them rest and make them do more than 15, given time your max rep will increase.

I hope I explained that well.

Couple of things for you to try:

Pull-ups: No kipping. If you're doing parkour and your tired/whatever, kip away. When doing actual training don't kip. Kipping is cheating, you rob your muscles of work.
Do them slowly. 2 second up - 2 second down. Maintain that rhythm. A slow controlled pull-up will work your muscles harder than a fast one. A fast one you will be using momentum to carry you up. A controlled one will task the muscles the whole way up and back down. A slow controlled descent is a negative pull-up.

You may find that you are doing less reps with those two but don't let your ego get in the way. This may seem like a setback as it will rob you of reps but you will get stronger quicker.

[Tony]

When doing any sort of routine you will always work in sets (first number) x reps (second number)

So for 3x7 you would be doing 7 reps - rest for ? (time depends on you) and then move onto the other set.

If your max is roughly 12 pull-ups and you want to do 20 (so another 8 ) then your arms would be at their limit by the end of your first set.

By decreasing the number you do per rep whilst increasing the number per set you can effectively cover 20 pull-ups. That way your arms will get a rest when working towards your goal.

Given your max rep I wouldn't expect you to do another set within 60-90s of doing that. So by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable reps the task becomes easier as your arms will get a rest but you will still be doing more than 20 reps (your goal). Your arms can't flat out do 15 reps in their current shape. Give them rest and make them do more than 15, given time your max rep will increase.

I hope I explained that well.

Couple of things for you to try:

Pull-ups: No kipping. If you're doing parkour and your tired/whatever, kip away. When doing actual training don't kip. Kipping is cheating, you rob your muscles of work.
Do them slowly. 2 second up - 2 second down. Maintain that rhythm. A slow controlled pull-up will work your muscles harder than a fast one. A fast one you will be using momentum to carry you up. A controlled one will task the muscles the whole way up and back down. A slow controlled descent is a negative pull-up.

You may find that you are doing less reps with those two but don't let your ego get in the way. This may seem like a setback as it will rob you of reps but you will get stronger quicker.

Oh alright, I think I understood all of that.  Thanks!

[Chelton]

Welcome man!!

-About the eating/weight thing: EAT MORE. Seriously, one of the main things you have to do is eat a lot more! When the guys over here told me this I usually got pissed of ( lol), but I started doing this, and it is really paying off. Just eat, but if you think that you're eating enough just check out a site that can calculate the calories of meals and that stuff, you need +3000 calories AT LEAST.

-First of all you have to decide if you want a Strength or Endurance aimed routine, after that we'll be able to give better and more "accurate" feedback. As Paul said, they are at opposite sides so you can't work them at the same time.

-Replace the squats with weighted squats. If you don't have access to weights do pistols, air squats, shrimp squats or any other variation.

I agree with everything that Paul said (well, mostly everything). Only disagree on these:
- You don't really need 48 of rest between workouts. Working M/W/F is a good way to start. If you notice that you can take a step further, do M/T/T/F. 3-4x a week is the way to go.
- And doing explosive (or normal) pull-ups will work better. There's no need to do pull-ups negatives if you can already do 11-12 of them.

*If you post the workout/routine for feedback on the General Fitness section you'll get more feedback

Happy Training!

[Tony]

Welcome man!!

-About the eating/weight thing: EAT MORE. Seriously, one of the main things you have to do is eat a lot more! When the guys over here told me this I usually got pissed of ( lol), but I started doing this, and it is really paying off. Just eat, but if you think that you're eating enough just check out a site that can calculate the calories of meals and that stuff, you need +3000 calories AT LEAST.

-First of all you have to decide if you want a Strength or Endurance aimed routine, after that we'll be able to give better and more "accurate" feedback. As Paul said, they are at opposite sides so you can't work them at the same time.

-Replace the squats with weighted squats. If you don't have access to weights do pistols, air squats, shrimp squats or any other variation.

I agree with everything that Paul said (well, mostly everything). Only disagree on these:
- You don't really need 48 of rest between workouts. Working M/W/F is a good way to start. If you notice that you can take a step further, do M/T/T/F. 3-4x a week is the way to go.
- And doing explosive (or normal) pull-ups will work better. There's no need to do pull-ups negatives if you can already do 11-12 of them.

*If you post the workout/routine for feedback on the General Fitness section you'll get more feedback

Happy Training!

Alright, I think im gonna formulate the workout in the other forum like you said and leave this thread unattended and unupdated until I get into the real parkour and have everything figured out.

Thanks for all the help guys, I'm gonna follow the advice and see what I can do parkour wise, and get a good diet and workout going. THanks guys!