Parkour Training And Joint Actions

Recently my attention was turned to training specific joint actions (I'll describe those in a minute) by one of my instructors. He asked me what I thought would be the best functional opposite to an overhead press (shoulder flexion). I thought for a minute and came up with the answer he was looking for: a wall climb! It's (in my opinion) the perfect expression of shoulder extension. So what are these words I'm starting to throw around? They're pretty much anatomical jargon for the ways the shoulders move in a specific plane of motion. This plane is called the Saggital plane and is one of three planes of motion the body can move in.

Here are the two joint actions of the shoulder in the saggital plane:

Shoulder Flexion

Ignore the funny face...my photographer caused it!

Shoulder Extension

Flexion and extension are exact opposites when it comes to joint actions, and training opposing muscles using joint actions trains functionality much better than you standard push-pull workouts.

This also go me thinking about the possibility of combining strength training/calisthenics with parkour training to make a complete, functional workout, both for the parkour enthusiast and for the average person wanting to be more functional and efficient (or just move better).

I had my first opportunity to test this idea (which ended up being quite successful) during my jam with NorCal Parkour.

Needless to say, there will be many more experiments like this one! Now let's get down to the nitty-gritty:

The Handstand Pushup

Please excuse the quality...I only had my phone on me.

The Handstand pushup is considered one of the best exercises for the upper body. It's a difficult one, though, and I'm not saying everyone should start here. If you can't do a handstand pushup quite yet, you can do dumbbell or kettlebell presses at whatever weight you can handle for 5-6 reps without going to failure. You can also do pike pushups (put your hands on the floor and your feet on a chair or bench with your hips high and your back straight). Combine with handstand practice against a wall (try to do timed holds...every time you practice try to stay up longer than last time). Here's a great handstand tutorial.

The Wall Climb

Didn't get a shot of the pull-up portion, I'll have to do a video tutorial.

The wall climb is one of the most complete expressions of shoulder extension, especially if, instead of doing the standard parkour climb, you transition to a dip and press up instead of going all the way up with straight arms. Here is a great tutorial for the standard wall climb. If you watch the last couple minutes of the NorCal Parkour jam video, we all do a wall climb. The way we do it in the video involves the dip and is the best demonstration I have (at the moment) of the wall climb as an exercise. I would recommend starting to practice the wall climb with a wall about shoulder height to get the right mechanics, then try it on progressively higher walls. You get extra credit if it's a wall you need a running start to get up. It adds an extra level of intensity to the workout!

Flexion/Extension Workout:

Try this one out for size. 3 rounds, 60-90 seconds of rest between rounds, no rest between exercises.

Handstand Pushup (or any of its regressions), stopping 2-3 reps before failure
5-10x Wall Climb, stopping 2-3 reps before failure
10x Burpee

It's technically full body, but it has a strong flexion/extension focus. Try it out! If you have a kettlebell, you can substitute swings or snatches for the burpees, or just add them to the workout for an added challenge.

My First Parkour Experience...A Lesson In Graceful And Efficient Movement

Sunday, September 4th, was my first true parkour experience! I had a blast with my friends Bryan and Brandon (and some new friends!) from NorCal Parkour. I also learned quite a bit about efficient movement and got to act out a few training ideas I have related to parkour. That will be in an upcoming article. For now, I'll focus on what happened at the jam.

We started with a very thorough warmup (Bryan teaches parkour class in a gym, so he's got the warmup down to a science), focusing on leg and hip mobility and dynamic flexibility. Then we learned basic shoulder rolls to protect our spines and reduce impact when we land from higher jumps, or forward dives. I'm not ready to try dives yet, but I'll get there soon.

Next we moved on to speed vaults, kong vaults (I used to be afraid of these...always thought I would catch my toes and smash my face. I'm glad I got over that fear! Now I just need to learn to keep running once I land), lazy vault, precision jumps, and kip-ups. I also learned the mechanics of a front handspring, which I'll be trying very soon. I was also inspired to start my handstand practice again. I'll have to write about hand balancing soon!

This form of efficient movement was originally developed by Georges Hébert, a member of the French Marines. He wrote the book, La methode Naturelle, his treatise on efficient movement in both urban and natural environments. Now it seems to be split into two separate methods...one called Parkour, which means "the sport of moving along a route, typically in a city, trying to get around or through various obstacles in the quickest and most efficient manner possible, as by jumping, climbing, or running: his amazing parkour skills." The other method, MovNat (Movement Naturelle), named and made popular by Erwan Le Corre, is based on efficient movement in a natural environment.


Anyway, my experience was an awesome one. I plan on going to as many jams as I can from now on and working on my skills when I can't! It's definitely something to check out. We can all benefit from the ability to move better in our environments.


Check out NorCal Parkour's website.


Here's MovNat's website.


Here's American Parkour's definition of Parkour.


Here's the video of my first parkour adventure...and there will be many more!


Train Smart!