American Parkour

I haven't had much success with consistency, but I'll try the online journal method. Maybe having this up will keep me motivated just by knowing that others may be watching.

I'm 27 yrs. old and am new to parkour (actually I've been a groupie for quite a while, but I'm giving it a go now). For those of you unfamiliar with my "Newbie Needs Help" thread, I'm starting from scratch here. My body is conditioned well enough to handle the very basic moves of martial arts. I have extensive knowledge and experience in that area, but for the last couple of years I have been focusing on theories, letting my conditioning and skill go to the wayside, which, by the way, I'm ending here and now.

So now that I've established that I'm starting from rock bottom, I'll lay out my goals. For my first stage, I'm going to use the Animal Workouts from Urban Freeflow. The goals outlined there are very similar to my own, and they have a very good structure to go about attaining them. This choice came about from the comparisons made with suggestions for my other thread, and a few additional sources, as well as a complete evaluation of my goals.

My overall goals are to:
- Obtain the physical fitness necessary to perform the APK and CF WoDs as prescribed.
- Be able to perform the basic parkour movements (everything in the tutorial video).
- Be able to run a mile in 6 min (my best was 5:30 in highschool).
- Be able to touch my toes and do the splits both ways (never been able to do either).

I have other goals, but they are unrelated to either fitness or parkour so I'll not list them to save on space .

Here is the link to the workouts I'll be performing: http://www.urbanfreeflow.com/2009/02/04/animal-workouts

The first stage (Gibbon) has this listed as the goals:
6+Pull-ups.
10+ Inverted Rows.
4+ Pistol Squats each leg.
30 push ups in a minute.

As of right now, I measure up as:
3 Pull-ups
14 Inverted Rows
1 Pistol Squats each leg.
35 Push-ups in a minute.

A few are above, some are below.

To make my goals SMART (acronym), I'll place a time restraint of 1 month. I'll take the test (try to hit all of the values above) on Oct 10th.

For my first goal, 3 sets of 10 each sounds good. Right now I can do 3 pull-ups and 5 dips.

Ok, here goes.

For strength goals, to start, I would like to be capable of performing the APK Warm-Up, as prescribed. I figure this is necessary to be capable of completing the WoD (especially since most of them feature it )

For endurance, I would like to be able to run a mile in 8 min (running the entire time).

For skill, I would like to hold a handstand for 30 sec without any assistance from a wall, etc. I haven't even performed one in so long, I'm sure it would only last 5 secs, at most.

For flexibility, I would like to be capable of touching my toes and doing the splits. I'm pretty far off from both of those, and the splits are the only milestone I can come up with for the abduction flexibility.

What do you think? Concise enough, or should I adjust any of them?

I don't really have a weight problem. (Don't remember mentioning it). I'm 185, about 10 lbs over my ideal. It would be nice to lose, and I'm sure that it is affecting my performance to some degree, but I eat healthy, I think I just need to stop being so sedentary.

Hey guys,

I've been exploring the training tips on these boards for some time now, and I'm still confused. I know a bit about fitness, but I'm starting from scratch. I need help.

So far, I've been GTGing a few basic exercises (push-ups, reverse push-ups, and squats, along with some stretches). Now I want to begin a training program and need help on where to start.

My goals are simple, be able to complete the WoD as prescribed and perform martial arts (self-defense focus, not competitive). I've got the martial arts movements down pretty well. What I need is fitness.

Should I start with the WoD? I'm nowhere near the ability to perform them right now, and I'm a little discouraged by the many times I've tried to get this off the ground. The fitness program design articles I've found here are really good reads, but I spend so much time making a training routine, refining it, then finally trying it and finding that I'm not ready for it and burn out.

Here are some starting stats relating to the APK warm-up:
Push-ups - 15
Pull-ups/Chin-ups - 4
Squats - 18
Jog - 3 min (before I have to walk)

All of those are my max reps per set using only my bodyweight. I must say, seeing those numbers in print is pretty painful.

If anyone can help me out, I'd really appreciate it.

I discovered GTG on these boards actually. Someone (sorry, don't remember who) posted an article on it on another thread that I was trolling.

Well, my goals are a little dispersed. I'm a martial artist primarily, using parkour as a means of fitness and escape (for when the martial arts doesn't work out . My fitness goals are to possess an inclusive ability in most feats, like that of CF, but focused on the movements of parkour and the needs of martial arts. Olympic lifts are fine, but I'm more into bodyweight and 3-5 core lifts.

For definitive goals that are SMART, I'm shooting to be capable of performing the APK WoD as prescribed (don't possess the endurance or skills to do that yet) adding some lifting WoD's from CF from time to time (which I also cannot complete atm). Since most skills are covered in the WoD, that would dictate which skills I need to master. I can't perform the warm up, as prescribed, yet, so that is my first goal.

As an aside, I suffered an injury last year that prevented me from training fitness skills, and most martial arts skills. It is healed now, and I only feel tightness if I don't stretch often, so I'm capable of starting a fitness regimen again. Just sucks to have to start from scratch.

I've been trying to get a hold of you guys for some time. Facebook, Myspace, etc. But no replies. Does your group still get together?