Me too, and guess what? It’s time to put down the screen, and pick up a book. Here are eight titles for people who love human movement:

The Story of the Human Body 

Believe it or not, flat feet and low back pain were rare in the ancient world. In this research-heavy book, evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman compares the environment in which our bodies evolved, versus where we live now. Spoiler alert: The two are vastly different. Understanding how and why our bodies developed as they have, allows you to take a more upstream approach to your health and fitness. Have a pen and paper ready. You’ll want to take copious notes.

Spark 

Have you ever wondered why you start to feel a bit stir-crazy after missing a few morning runs? In Spark, psychiatrist Dr. John Ratey explains why exercise is crucial for cognitive function and general wellbeing. Out of all of the books on this list, this is the one that I’ve recommended most frequently to friends and family. If I were president, it’d be mandatory reading for educators, counselors, and everyone in healthcare.

Move Your DNA 

Prediction: In a few short years, Katy Bowman’s name will be recognized by physical therapists and PE instructors across the world. A biomechanist by training, her thoughts on tissue loading, and exercise versus movement are invaluable to health and rehabilitation. Move Your DNA begins with a look at how mechanical forces shape your body, and ends with practical advice on how to live and move better.

Why We Run 

Before Born to Run took the world by storm, Bernd Heinrich’s book explored how persistence hunting shaped humans into ultimate endurance machines. Part memoir, part evolutionary biology exposé, it uncovers the physiological adaptations that allowed humans to overcome prey through slow, sustained running. Even if you’d never be caught dead jogging, I guarantee you’ll find it a fascinating tale.

The Rise of Superman 

Today’s extreme athletes perform feats that were unimaginable a few decades ago. From insane big mountain skiing, to surfing monster waves, the evolution of sport is occurring right in front of our eyes. How is any of this possible? In The Rise of Superman, Steven Kotler explains how tapping into a flow state allows athletes to complete complex and frightening skills with ease. Whether or not you aspire to be a world-class athlete, this book provides the ammunition to ensure progression in your favorite sport.

Let My People Go Surfing

Why is there a story about an outdoor apparel company on this list? One word: passion. Yvon Chouinard’s tale of how he started Patagonia, demonstrates how the love of sport can lead to an amazing life and do social good. If you’ve already read it, consider picking up Raising the Bar as an alternative. It explains how the founder of Clif Bar, an avid cyclist, built another extremely influential and successful business around his love for movement.

Natural Born Heroes 

What could be better than a World War Two adventure tale crossed with one man’s diary of learning new movement skills? Christopher McDougall is a master storyteller and his latest book takes you on his journey of acquiring the skills to become a real-life hero. Ride along as he learns from parkour, axe throwing, and martial arts instructors.

Exuberant Animal 

Domesticated life is the pits. Escape the cage to a world of more playful physical activity. Frank Forencich’s essays on life, movement, and the human predicament, are soul-quenching antidotes to our fitness-industrial complex.

What other books would you add to this list? Let me know below.

Kids need to be carried down the fire escape. A grandmother needs help exiting the building.

What do you do?

Rush to the rescue, of course.

After all, isn’t that what your years of physical training were for? The climbing, the squatting, the lifting: Everything was a preparation for the freak chance that one day you may need to play the hero.

Christopher McDougall’s newest book, Natural Born Heroes, is 324-page ode to our yearning for physical preparedness. Based around the tale of how a small band of fighters on the island of Crete subverted their Nazi invaders, the book explores the many ways people hone themselves into fit and useful humans.

While it isn’t a parkour book per se, you will be pleased to know that he uncovers the origins of our sport, from Georges Hébert’s Méthode Naturalle, all the way to David Belle and the Yamakasi. He even explores the streets of London while attending a meet-up with Parkour Generations students.

His passion for human movement is infectious. After a few pages in, you’ll be chasing him across the globe, training Mov Nat in Brazil, and tomahawk throwing outside of Philadelphia.

Few authors write about learning to use your body so well. From the subtleties of body position during Wing Chun Kung Fu, to the ideal pacing for ultra-endurance running, McDougall captures our deep fascination with how to become better athletes.

Aside from being an adventure tale, it is chock-full of anecdotes about past presidents, special agents, and human physiology.

The book is hard to put down, but as soon as you do, you’ll be running out the door to start your own hero training. That’s a guarantee.

It brought me into myself and taught me the connection between my body and mind. Thus, it was no accident that when I started to read books about the spiritual dimension of martial arts that I became even more enamored. I saw how my time spent in the dojo was crafting me into a better person. Obtaining goals, overcoming obstacles, becoming a better citizen, karate was helping to steer my young self toward a more fulfilling life.

Vincent Thibault’s book, Parkour and the Art du’ Deplacement: Strength, Dignity, Community, captures the spiritual essence of parkour in the same light as those early martial arts books. In highlighting humility, effort, and social awareness, he makes a compelling case that parkour is a powerful vehicle for transforming oneself into a better citizen.

It is a poetic little book that opens the door to a whole new discussion about the role of parkour in our world. Previous authors have explored the physical practice of parkour, but none dive so deep as Vincent in regard to how the practice itself changes the individual.

Don’t expect his book to help you obtain a better kong vault or a more efficient climb-up. Other books can help you get there. This book, it’s something different.

It’s the type of book that all parkour athletes need to read, regardless of one’s level of expertise.

Less about technique and more about self-cultivation, books like this are what will reorient parkour from a hype-driven extreme sport, into a discipline that can benefit millions of lives, for years to come.

Good parkour training will go some way to helping you reach your true potential and you will come to realize that your limits are far beyond what you could ever imagine.   – Dan Edwardes

For my second parkour-specific book review, I take a peek at Dan Edwarde’s “The Parkour and Freerunning Handbook.” If you’re unfamiliar with Dan, he is the co-founder of Parkour Generations, as well as the co-creator of the A.D.A.P.T. and Parkour Fitness Specialist certifications. 

What does that mean?

He doesn’t just teach people parkour. He founded an organization that teaches others how to teach parkour.

That’s a serious credential.

So, about the book: It’s a thin little volume, weighing in at 144 pages. Yet, don’t let the size fool you. Within the pages you’ll find a solid primer on the skills needed to get started in parkour.

One of the main things that really stands out is that Dan covers both the mental and philosophical framework for parkour, alongside the physical. For instance, after identifying running, jumping, climbing, and balancing as foundations, he singles out stealth and touch/sensitivity as two more skills that need cultivation. He goes on to mention how parkour is a transformative practice, in which you hone your inner self through targeted effort. And, my favorite part is that he includes enjoyment as just as important as exercise, rest, and proper nutrition for one’s overall well being. To take it a step further, the last page of the book has the heading “Philosophy and physicality”.

How cool is that?

He sounds like the type of guy we’d all want to hang out with, and his passion for the discipline captures why parkour is so popular.

Another aspect that I really appreciate is the discussion of the need to “forge your body” through specific conditioning. That’s the purpose of this Parkour Conditioning website, so his emphasis on toughening your tissues and building “body armor” out of your muscle really resonates.

Moving beyond the first chapter, the book dives into movement skills. There are three pages devoted to landing, with solid advice for injury avoidance.

Balls of feet, people!

Following that he instructs everything from rolls, standing jumps, running jumps, balancing, vaults, mounts, wall runs, drops, laches, and underbars. What we know as “cat leaps”, he refers to as “arm jumps”, and yes, they are highlighted as well.

Now, I consider myself an aficionado of exercise illustrations. Maybe it’s an attempt to reconnect with the picture books of my childhood? Perhaps it’s a natural interest for someone who prescribes exercise for a living?

Regardless of my reasons, I was excited to find that Dan uses illustrations to describe movements in the final tutorial section. On an image or two you have to squint your eyes to understand what is being shown, but the pictures are a unique addition and add style over regular photos.

Aside from the skills taught in the middle of the book, the tutorial section includes more complicated drills like the “Corkscrew Pop-up”, “Turn Vault” and “360 Tic Tac”.

It’s enough of a teaser that you are left with desire to start exploring more advanced skills on your own.

Bottom line: The book achieves what it states in its title — it’s a solid handbook for those looking to get acquainted with parkour/freerunning. With basic movements and a sampling of more advanced skills, it’s a well-written and easy to follow resource to help you get on your way.

Did I mention it’s super affordable?

At only $10 on Amazon.com, you’d better clear some space on your bookshelf for this gem!

Yet, it can be done.

Many months ago, I received a copy of the 2^nd edition of “The Ultimate Parkour and Freerunning Book”, by Jan Witfeld, Ilona E. Gerling, and Alexander Pach. Given the relatively recent release of Mad Skills, I had been more than busy with my own promotions, so I really didn’t have the time to do a proper review.

Things have finally slowed down a bit and I had a chance to pour through the book over one weekend.

The first thing you notice is its high production quality. From the foldout cover to the full-color interior photographs, the publishers put out an excellent product. The action shots are crisp and the sequences truly capture movements from start to finish.

Digging into the book, you’ll find a thorough history of parkour and freerunning. Georges Hébert, méthode naturelle, Raymond Belle, the Yamakasi, David Bell, Sébastien Foucan, and l’art du déplacement — you’ll gain a nice understanding of parkour’s development to the present day.

There is even a long passage directly from Tim Shieff, one of my favorite athletes!

The authors then delve into muscle fiber function, energy sources utilized in training, and general strength and conditioning. If you’ve never taken a physiology course, it is a nice primer on how your body works under athletic loading. 

Tied into the initial section are a few pages devoted to training principles that beginners should observe. Footwear, clothes, safety awareness and general behavior — it’s a nice refresher.

After that, the book dives into specific skills. By my count, there are about three-dozen movements described. Given the breadth of moves used by traceurs and freerunners, one might argue that it is a shallow account of potential skills. However, for the individual getting started, it is more than enough to get you going down the right track.

One of the neat things that the authors do is to include illustrated diagrams of how instructors might set-up obstacles to assist with teaching their students. They also cover how to “spot” someone for safety and how to provide cues for error correction.

It bears mentioning that this book is an excellent resource for aspiring coaches. Aside from offering ways to help students at a one-on-one level, the book goes into how to bring parkour and freerunning into schools and classroom settings. There are even 6 distinct lesson plans for how one might structure a series of classes. 

In summary, you can think about this book as a general textbook on parkour and freerunning. It’s enough to get beginning students familiar with concepts, movements, and philosophy. And then it has the depth to inform aspiring coaches on some of the basic science and teaching techniques needed to help athletes develop.

Give it a peek. If you don’t already have a book on parkour and freerunning in your library, then fill the void with this worthy addition!

Matt Antis and his wife Whitney have been the co-owners of Revolution Parkour since 2010, and they definitely know a thing or two about running a successful gym. In fact, they are currently looking to expand to a second Portland location. 

In between a thriving class schedule, Matt was able to sit down with me to talk about his experiences in the parkour gym business. 

If you’re considering going down this path, let his insights help you get started on the right foot:

How did you decide to make the leap into owning your own gym?

For me, I had known for some time that I didn’t want to just work for someone else my whole life. I had been reading some very influential books, like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and realized that being a business owner was one path to the freedom that I sought.  When the opportunity to purchase Revolution Parkour came up, Whitney and I did some soul searching and came to the conclusion that it was the right move for us. The timing was right so we scrambled to get the funds together, and the rest is history.

What does it take to expose new people to parkour and get more people involved in the sport?

I’ve found that holding free events for people to get their feet wet with parkour is a nice way to get fresh faces in the door. It’s hard to compete with something that’s offered for free. And, if someone has been sitting on the fence about trying parkour, holding a free seminar is a nice way to have them get some exposure.

What are your thoughts about conditioning for you students? 

One of the great things about parkour is that, in many regards, it is a “self-conditioning” discipline, meaning that through repetition, the student’s body builds the necessary strength and endurance.  However, progression is also key, so in cases where the strength is not yet there, we use drills to help students build up their strength and stamina.

One of our favorite activities is to have people run a “parcours”, meaning we set up a series of obstacles and have them run through for a set number of runs. By keeping track of the repetition and variety of skills in each course from week to week, we can get a sense of their progression, and when and where it’s necessary to build from.

What is your advice to helping someone interested in starting their own parkour gym?

Establish a good team! You can’t do it all on your own, and you’ll need to have a good team of lawyers, marketing people, real estate agents, and insurance people on your side. Set yourself up for success by having a network of people who possess the skills, knowledge and resources you might not have.

I’ve found that an “insurance broker”, not an agent, is the first bet for finding the right person to connect you with a good insurance plan. Likewise, it really pays to hire someone who is an expert at branding, to help get exposure for you gym. Pay to do it right the first time.

It also helps to have a supportive spouse. Marry someone with an entrepreneurial drive if you can!

In terms of the potential liabilities of running a parkour gym, what types of injuries have your students encountered?

We haven’t really had as many injuries as people might think over the past few years. Probably the most common injuries with our beginner students stem from not falling correctly, for example, bracing yourself with your arms extended, which can lead to a broken wrist.  This is why we focus on teaching techniques (such as break falls and rolls) that equip students to avoid injury by properly absorbing the force or transferring the momentum of a fall.

Think of how quickly a football player would break an arm if they tried to catch his weight with his hands when being tackled. He’d break it for sure with all of that pressure. They’re taught to absorb the fall with their chest and torso.

Parkour is obviously different, but by using a roll or a break fall many injuries can be avoided.

What has been one of the hardest parts about running or opening a parkour gym?

Well, we are trying to open a second location, and I can tell you that just finding a suitable space is really hard. You have to have the right square footage, the right height ceiling, and of course it has to be zoned appropriately. Getting all of those things together at a good price can take a lot more effort than you’d imagine.

It’s weird to say, but until you’re confronted with it, you don’t realize that you’ll actually run into competition for space. Not from other people trying to open a parkour gym, but from other business owners who have similar space needs. Say someone wants to open an indoor batting range, you’ll probably end up competing with that person to find a suitable space.

Prepare yourself for a treasure hunt.

Where do you see the discipline going in the next few years?

Well, things are definitely looking up. Events like American Ninja Warrior have brought a lot of people in to our gym to train, so I suppose that will continue to build momentum.

I think more local and mobile events will become commonplace over the next few years. The Alpha Warrior event is a traveling obstacle course race that is starting to gain publicity. Parkour athletes would have a distinct advantage in a race like that. Speaking of races, even mud runs like the Spartan Race and Tough Mudder are a chance for people to get exposure to running obstacles.

Parkour gyms should definitely be positioned to benefit from that trend.

(For the record, my audio recorder failed, so the text above is my attempt to paraphrase Matt’s wisdom.)

In between his world travels, he was kind enough to answer some questions that I had for him. Check it out:

Would you break down a week of your training schedule in terms of how you keep your body and mind prepared for the rigors of free running?

I have no schedule. I get out when I’m free and motivated to train. I don’t try to force anything or create routines, as I get bored quickly and lose motivation. I do however do yoga when I get a chance. No favorite types of workout. Sometimes I really like gymnastics centres, so I’ll go for months enjoying it. And other times, I don’t, and prefer to train outside for months instead. Whatever gets me pumped. There’s no aims or pattern really, other than trying to be spontaneous and react like a kid to the environment around me by exploring constantly.

You and Damien Walters have been putting out some really fun videos showing creative calisthenics and lots of super inventive motion. Can you give us some background into your relationship as training partners and what it means to you as an athlete?

Thanks! We first met maybe 10 years ago, when I was a breakdancer and wanted to try some gymnastics. Then, I got into freerunning and showed him some tricks and he could do them all first try. Then I showed him some videos and he learnt every trick out there so quickly. He’s always been a creative guy anyway, so was great to train with him and bounce ideas off each other. He really has incredible spatial awareness!

I’m always impressed by your upper body strength and how you weave b-boy skills into your freerunning. Where do you draw your inspiration to keep pushing yourself?

Thanks! My inspiration comes from some videos and athletes, but mostly from within. We are all unique. It’s nice to remember that and not try to repeat other people’s style or creative moves, and just explore the possibilities.

I feel the best way to serve Parkour is to try to be as unique as possible, so it widens the horizons of what we do and what people see us doing.

Spirituality is definitely a big factor in being able to observe myself and others objectively, in order to further my career and spread this art positively.

I had been a vegetarian for 10 years and I heard that you have recently transitioned to a vegan diet. I am wondering if you could tell us a bit about that experience and any insights to how it has impacted your fitness? 

Yea, it was a huge awakening for me. I always thought I was a kind, compassionate guy, cared about animals, loved cats and dogs, etc. It was a big wake-up call when I realized some simple daily choices were KILLING other beings. Once I discovered we can be not just as healthy, but in fact healthier without interfering, kidnaping, and killing the innocent creatures we share this planet with, there wasn’t a doubt in my head: I had to stop taking part in this holocaust.

Sounds grim, but I assure you, I’m not saying this for shock factor. I’m just telling you how it truly is.

With 3 past appearances under your belt, you’re a solid veteran of American Ninja Warrior. Are you planning on going for it again this year?

I’m not going for it this year. The camaraderie amongst the athletes is amazing and I’ve met loads of inspiring people and made friends, but I just don’t like the way it is more about being a good TV show then finding the best athletes.

We recently completed this interview, and I’m sure you’ll find his reflections on parkour as some of the most elegant on the planet. He knows his stuff and has been putting out some awesome tutorials. If you’re looking for help take your training to the next level – just keep an eye on whatever Rafe is talking about!

Q: Tell me a little bit about yourself. I know you are the co-founder of Parkour Visions and from what I can gather from Facebook, you have an interest in anthropology. What else would you like the readers to know about you?

A:  Yes, I co-founded Parkour Visions with Tyson Cecka, and I was an Anthropology major in college and have been interested in the subject since I was a kid. I started reading old anthropology textbooks and ethnographies in my early teens and I continue to follow development in behavioral genetics, cognitive science, neuroscience, and human evolution closely. However most of the best information on human nature comes out of other fields at this point.

The study of human behavior and evolution definitely contributes greatly to my teaching of parkour.
 My approach to parkour is also informed by  studying martial arts throughout childhood, including brazilian jiu jitsu, Muay thai, Aikido and Tang Soo Do, and coaching gymnastics and CrossFit as a young adult.

I also grew up in the hippie community at the end of a dirt road with acres of forest all around and the freedom to explore them as much as I wanted. That experience plays a huge part in my parkour practice.

Q: As a coach for many years now, what are the biggest fitness deficiencies that you see parkour-newcomers demonstrate? What sort of strength and conditioning advice do give for the student who is just starting at your gym?

A: Most students who come for their first class are quite weak; it’s uncommon for people to be able to do a single pull-up. They’re also usually very limited in mobility, particularly in ankle dorsiflexion, every aspect of hip range of motion , and every aspect of thoracic extension and shoulder range of motion. The biggest limiting factors for novice traceurs are the strength to pull themselves up and over a wall and the proper mobility and stability to land well and absorb impact.

The basics to get a student up to speed are simple: do low impact parkour focusing on good mechanics complemented by basic calisthenics, squat, push up and pull up working to improve motor patterning and mobility as well as strength. The secret to a really successful program is understanding how deep the basics go and how to scale and develop them appropriately. Most people think they can do a push up but are actually far from doing it correctly and in such a way that it will optimally develop strength and complement their movement practice.

Q: When I visited your gym a few months ago I was impressed by a large area dedicated to weight training with a few power racks, a Roman chair and many kettlebells. Aside from dead lifts and squats, what are a few “must-do” weighted exercises that you encourage your athletes to perform?

A:  I actually don’t think there are any must-do strength and conditioning exercises in parkour that apply to everybody. The only must-do for parkour is parkour. There is a certain mindset from the fitness community that has crossed over into parkour – the lionization of exercise for exercise sake with very little attention paid to the goal of the exercise what it is supposed to train you for. Parkour is conditioning for parkour,  if you’re doing something else to help your parkour it must be more effective for developing towards a specific goal.

Given the set of weaknesses we mentioned earlier, almost everyone we work with needs to squat, hip hinge (deadlifts and similar exercises), do push ups, rows, and pull ups, and that is probably a good list for most novice athletes.  But we need to remember why we are training those exercises. It is too easy for the exercise to become the goal and for people to lose sight of what they are actually trying to change its also too easy to fall into the exercise ADHD mindset and try to do every good exercise. There are 100’s of exercises that are are potentially useful when applied intelligently towards someone’s goals, but any given athlete only really needs to be working on a handful.

In addition to the exercises listed above, with intermediate athletes we start adding in split squats and romanian deadlifts if they have mobility weaknesses 

With advanced athletes we do complex weight training plyometrics and add work on dips, muscle ups, gymnastics levers, planches and handstand presses depending on their goals. 

Finally glute ham raises, back extension, sled drags, farmers walks, and glute bridges, single leg squats, and various mobilizations and prehab movements all make appearances based on a given athlete’s needs.

Q: Can you give some key advice for people who are looking to improve their standing broad jump? 

Start by training the standing broad jump in an intelligent way. I see lots of traceurs advocating doing 100 reps of precisions and the like. A better idea is to train 5 to 10 sets of 3 jumps with full rest between sets, focused on jumping as far as possible on every jump. If you are getting less than 95 percent of your best jump for 2 reps in a row, stop. 

The next question is what is the limiting factor on your jump? Film your jump; are you consistently co-ordinating your arm movement with your hips? Are arms fully extended behind the body at the peak hip depth? Are they fully flexed overhead at full hip extension? Is your angle at take-off consistently 45 degrees? If not, then work on technique.

Next look at the movement signature. How fast are you dropping down through the eccentric? If it is slow, focus on squats and depth jumps to build up your ability to load eccentrically and produce a stronger reflexive contraction. Next, look at positioning at the bottom of  the eccentric; is your back rounding, are your knees collapsing inwards? If so, work on deadlifts, glute activation, and lateral stability; to improve your ability to hold neutral positions during the amortization phase (the transition between the downwards and upwards part of the jump). Finally, look at how deep you can get in your setup and how much hip extension you get at the end of the jump. To improve that, work on split squats to open up your hip extension and strengthen your glutes and work on your squat mobility. This will also help you get distance at the end of the jump by improving your compression.

Vince Cossette is an example of an athlete who loads quickly, holds good position and has great depth and hip extension. Particularly pay attention to how deeply he loads and how far into hyperextension his hips go.


Q: We all know that using a weight vest is a great way to add resistance to classic body-weight exercises. What do you think of actually training while wearing one, i.e. running obstacles with a vest?

A: I have not experimented much with the use of a weight vest in parkour skill training. I would be worried about negative skill transfer and developing competing motor programs for any full on course work or more complex skills like kongs, cats, hurdles, speed vaults etc. I would use it solely for training simple jumps and only when the skill is mastered. If your standing broad jump does not have a consistent take off angle, you have no business trying to do it while dealing with the extra problem of a weight vest.

Q: Do you subscribe to any particular programming schedule or philosophy in your weight training? 

A: My biggest influence right now is Sparta Performance Science. For our higher level athletes we do weight training and plyometric complexes progressing both in weight and density like Sparta advocates. So my training for instance looks like this:
 3x 7 Split squats, 6 bounds x2 progressing in autoregulated fashion by either doing it in less time, 4 minutes per set to 3:30-3:00-2:30 or by adding weight.

 I weight train 2 x week when I can, for about 45 minutes. The rest of my training time is devoted to sprinting, jumping, practicing parkour skill and mobility and recovery.

Q: Are you currently focused on improving your skill in any movement in particular? What is it and why the emphasis?

My last real focused training cycle was in preparation for the Origins Parkour NAPC competition. I worked extensively on diving kongs and kong to precisions. I got up to an 8 foot kong to precision and 10 foot double kong in the gym. My next goal is to nail down my approach run ups and my long jumps and strides

Q: Who in the sports or fitness world has had the greatest impact on your thoughts about athletic performance?

A: Most recently I have been inspired by and influenced by the aforementioned Sparta Performance Science for strength and conditioning, Ido Portal for mobility, movement complexity, and training method, Kelly Starret for mobility and understanding of movement, Bo Schexnayder for understanding jumping and a local track coach Mike Cunliffe on understanding sprinting technique. In the past I have gotten a lot of value out of Steven Low, Mark Rippetoe and Vladimir Zatsiorsky.

Q: Ryan Ford and APEX Movement have promoted the 5-rep climb-up as an epic measure of power and efficiency. Do you have a favorite performance test for your athletes?

A: My experience with tests is that the major value of a test is taking the time to really look at a movement in depth and learning to look for the various elements of movement quality. Then you take that back to observing athletes do parkour and you find you can see the same things by just watching them train that is the best performance test. I can watch someone step vault and learn a lot about their mobility, stabilization, strength and coordination. A handstand or swing tells me a lot about someone’s shoulders, etc. 

The big test we are using recently is just the standing broad jump to look at different elements of force production the rate of eccentric force production stability during amortization and ability to dig deep and drive fully through the hips that I mentioned earlier.

Q: I love the video you did for Prana, demonstrating parkour in a forest setting, and I’ve also heard that you’re an epic tree-climber. Would you expand your thoughts on training in nature versus the urban environment? 

The short version is
:

• Nature is what we evolved to move through.
• Being in nature makes up happy.
• Natural environments are usually easier on the body.
• Natural environments offer a more complex environment, which develops more intelligent, sensitive, and transferable movement capacities.
• It’s the forgotten aspect of parkour and it needs to be rediscovered.

Parkour is brilliant because it is a meme that has conditioned our brains to be triggered to play in the urban environment in new and powerful ways, which is a  wonderful and empowering thing. I think though that that association between parkour and urban has become too strong and people are missing an element of the practice that can be intensely rewarding, that really is innately more rewarding. So, like the title of my video, I believe that doing parkour in nature is literally returning to the source of the movement. 

The Yamakasi say that the body of L’art du deplacment (the other term for parkour) was born in Evry (which is urban) but the spirit was born in Sarcelles (a forested area). However, that aspect is forgotten by most of the community.

I personally like training in natural environments better and I would guess that actually most people would if exposed to it. We watch videos of people jumping between buildings and vaulting concrete walls and so that’s what we think parkour is.

To me, parkour is rooted in the movement play that is innate in all of us and that children especially will express given a chance. We want to climb, jump and run for a reason; those skills were vital to our survival as a species through the vast majority of our evolution. We are built with psychological triggers to engage those play capacities when given a chance, and natural environments are more potent triggers because thats what we evolved to respond to.

Being in nature in general is just good for us it engages our attention in distinct way that is restorative; for instance, when we are tired a walk in the woods has been found to be as good for the brain as a nap. Parkour in nature offers us the psychological benefits of being in nature plus the benefits of parkour. That’s the recipe for happiness for me.

I have found that the softer surfaces in natural environments also  allow me to practice more and more intensely without breaking down my body.

My last big argument in favor of Natural environments is that they are inherently more complex than urban environments, and complexity in movement is what parkour is all about. It’s what being a good mover is all about.  The city is very uniform in shapes you encounter in the degree of grip, dampness, penetration into the substrate. In the woods, even the visual field is far more complex.  That complexity is good for your nervous system.

Q: How does MovNat intersect with the training that we already do as parkour athletes?

A: I was fairly deeply involved in MovNat at the beginning of the MovNat project. I was the first certified MovNat coach in 2008, but I parted ways with Erwan soon after.  However, I continued to believe in the need for a model of fitness based on our innate nature. I wrote down my general synthesis of my thoughts about an evolutionary approach to human movement on the Evolve Athletics Blog. 

I chose to focus on parkour because I believed that fundamentally moving your own body through space was the most basic task of any model of fitness and having a deep understanding of it would inform all other elements. I believed it was necessary to specialize in understanding one area first to really reach a level of mastery in teaching and I believed that the parkour community offered an amazing window into our innate play drive, our creativity, and many interesting thinkers to learn from. 

To me a complete physical culture would include not just overcoming obstacles but controlling the body in the air and on the ground, moving and manipulating objects, dealing with combat situations and dancing and it would understand the need for humans to move in nature and would place a high value on this.

In that sense MovNat is more complete then parkour and I would like to see more practitioners take up that broader scope. Right now I am in middle of expanding our method at Parkour Visions to include dealing with moving objects and combatives, and getting people out in nature more. That has always been my goal. We are evolving towards offering our own model of an evolutionary approach to movement and fitness.

It always comes down to your goals but I think many people who enjoy parkour could benefit from expanding their movement horizons to include combative movements, strength and conditioning dance and of course acro which most traceurs already do.

Q: Given the huge popularity of obstacle course races, like the Spartan Race, Tough Mudder, and Alpha Warrior, do you see this as an opportunity for parkour training to reach a wider audience?

A: Yes, the show Ninja Warrior always brings in a crowd to our gym and we get people prepping for Tough Mudder and Spartan Race regularly too. The mindset of the two groups are rather different though. Traceurs do not generally enjoy running for long distances and philosophically favor the development of explosive strength capacities which is at odds with high levels of aerobic training, so the transfer between the two communities is often less than perfect. I am not sure what to do to bring them closer.

Q: Parkour Visions was founded in 2007 and last year you underwent a large expansion of your gym space. Do you have any cool news about upcoming Parkour Visions projects or other personal developments?

A: We made it a goal this year to not do another expansion, but we have lots of other fun developments. We are splitting up our summit event into a Summer Competition and Jam, on the 18-21st of July.  We are calling this event the Classic, and already have a bunch of top traceurs committed, including our first Mexican athletes, Daer Sanchez and Danee Marmolejo, as well as Brian Orosco, Jesse la flair, Paul Darnell, Brandon Douglas, Jake Smith, Amos Rendao, Joey Adrian, Max Henry, Elet Hall, Paul Whitecotton and more.

We will also be co-hosting a pure teaching parkour summit with APEX Movement in Denver this October. That is just in the beginning phases of development though, so keep tuned to our blog and YouTube channels to hear more about that. 

And we will soon be announcing the official details on some three-day nature training seminars this summer.

I caught up with Thomas last weekend, and had a chance to learn more about his background and parkour training.

Here is a transcript of our conversation:

Tell me a bit about your background and how you got into parkour?

My twin brother and I grew up in Greenville, Texas and we come from a regular sports background of soccer and track. One day we were searching around on the Internet, and we came across a David Belle video. I thought it was super cool seeing him run across buildings and climb up things like Spiderman, and thought “Man, I got to try this!”

The first thing we did was to get on top of our roof and jump off like idiots!

After that we started training and took all of the discipline that we had learned from soccer and implemented it into our parkour. We were doing two-a-day sessions and trying to learn moves from the videos that we watched.

We would press pause, then play, trying to figure out what his (David B.) hands were doing, and then go outside and practice. We were 16 at that time, when our bodies were starting to develop with strength, so it made it easy to transfer the techniques.

Shortly after that, we started filming ourselves doing parkour moves.

Our parents freaked out and said that it would ruin our soccer career and that we shouldn’t do it! We told them we’d stop, to get them not to worry.

That was in ’06. But we kept on training, and started putting videos out on YouTube and emailing tons of people our video, like TV producers. Then we got picked up to do a commercial and had to come clean with our parents, because they had to sign the contract since we weren’t 18 at the time.

They were pissed off at first, but then when they found out we were going to be in a commercial they were okay with it.

What other TV appearances have you had?

Well, we did all of the testing for American Ninja Warrior in Dallas, to make sure the course wasn’t too easy and not too hard. And then they wanted us to come to Vegas as well.

We also did an international commercial for Heelys, which was pretty fun. They have this new board that they wanted to promote, and it was a pretty sick commercial; with a really good director on it. It had a lot of slow motion.

That was in 2010.

What’s the story behind LearnMoreParkour.com?

After we started training, we started to get hit-up constantly with emails or through our YouTube channel, with people saying:

“Hey, you’re doing really cool stuff. Can you teach us how to do it?”

After answering tons of these type of emails, we just decided to make a website to dedicated to helping people how to do it.

The first product we launched was “Get Your Backflip Now.” It was the first time we had ever made a product, so it was pretty hectic.

Then we launched the “Crash Course into Parkour” shortly after that, and it went a lot smoother!

It was difficult to make a living from the commercials, so the courses helped us to be able to just work on training parkour.

Now, we just moved out to California after meeting a stunt coordinator. And it’s been really awesome.

Anyhow, the website is really a resource for people who are just starting parkour, and is aimed at people from age 13 to their early 20’s.  It’s really for people just starting off in their training.

For people who are experts or on the higher end – it’s not for those guys.

We’ve also done workshops and have started to teach classes over here – just small classes for now.

So, what’s life like in LA now that you’re out there?

Well, doing the stunt work has been great, but we realized that we like teaching parkour the most.

We’re going to mainly focus on training, teaching, and spreading parkour

Can you tell me about your parkour training over the course of a week?

I have it spread out so that this is how it goes: 3 to 4 days a week of training parkour and free running; and in between it’s conditioning. If I’m going really good with the training, sometimes it’ll be two workouts a day.  For instance, I’ll do conditioning in the morning and then will go work free running later on that day.

One of the things that I really focus on is what I learned from Ryan Ford of APEX Movement, which is called the Training Triangle.

The three sides are the Physical, the Technical, and the Mental.

If you take care of those three things, then you’re on your way to becoming an ultimate parkour athlete.

The Physical is the conditioning, including work on fast twitch and slow twitch muscles.

The Technical is working on the parkour movement and breaking down what you really have to do in a move.

The Mental component is to help address fear, with techniques like using gradual progressions. It’s also about learning to stay positive and not get down on yourself when training.

What sort of specific conditioning are you doing nowadays?

Right now I’m gearing up for Ninja Warrior, so I’ve got a big rope to climb and some box jumps in my backyard that I use a lot.

Aside from the rope climb and box jumps, I do a lot of quadrupedal movement and butt scoots.

The butt scoot is an awesome movement to strengthening your core, where you balance on your butt with your hands by your hips, then lift up and scoot forward across the ground. It looks kind of ridiculous but it’s an extremely good workout.

I also like to use a weight vest for pull-ups and push-ups, and I’d be using weights for squats but I just don’t have access to a squat rack right now.

Most of my training right now is with body weight, or with a weight vest, and also picking up sand bags.

What’s your favorite exercise?

Definitely a pull-up. It’s so basic, but there are all sorts of variations that you can do: narrow grip, wide grip, regular form, chin-up style/reverse grip, side grip, and then circular pull-ups.

The Bartendaz are a neat resource – they’re awesome, and have inspired me a lot.

Another thing that I like to focus on is explosive power. I’ve noticed that a lot of parkour people don’t really train it that much. They’ll train at a slow pace all day, but it’s really important to train with explosive movements too.

If I’m doing pull-ups, I’ll raise myself up as fast as I can, then lower down slow.

Same thing with if I’m doing jumping precisions – really working on exploding.

Are you doing any cross training?

I do a lot of the agility training that we used to do for soccer. I’ll set-up cones and will work on cutting in and out really quick.

It’s kind of like the training that you see football people doing. Set-up a square and run between the cones or on different angles, even backwards for footwork.

What sort of advice do you have regarding injury prevention?

Gradual progressions are key.

Also, listening to your body in terms of fatigue and not going for risky stuff when you are tired or late in your training session.

You should also be working on conditioning your joints, in preparation for shock absorption.

Finally, what can people do when training to improve their movement flow during parkour?

Having good flexibility and mobility are important.

I’ve also found that a background in dance helps with flow, for body control. What really helped us was some training we did with break-dancing.

In terms of everyday training, it’s just essential to work on breaking down the movements, then drilling the moves together in a pattern. Visualize the progression from one move to another, then drill the movements.

Of course, just filming yourself can really help. You’ll see where you got sloppy and what movements you need to work on.

What you wear can help, too. Baggier pants and looser fitting clothes don’t restrict motion as much.

Well it’s been great talking with you, is there one last thing you’d like to mention?

Yeah – we just released a new product called our “In-home Fitness Training”, which again is for beginners and focuses on the physical side, the conditioning. It’s to help people build up the strength needed to train for parkour.

It’s really not about technique, but rather strength, flexibility, mobility and things like that. It’s a 60-day program and was launched a while ago.

He’s a busy guy, working to finish his doctorate in physical therapy, but he was kind enough to answer some questions that I sent his way.

For those of you who don’t know, he is co-founder of the blog Eat. Move. Improve., which has 60,000 page views per month. He launched the website about three years ago, “focusing on educating people newer to fitness and bringing them up to competent fitness knowledge.”

Here is a transcript of the interview:

Are you close to completing your DPT  and what are your plans after graduation?

My expected graduation date from PT school is in May 2013. I’m hoping to work for at least 5 years full time and then decide where I want to go from there. I eventually want to put out some injury-type books, so that’s on the project list aside from the Overcoming Gravity 2^nd edition as well. That’s not including writing articles for EMI too. So there’s lots of things left to do still!

It has been a year since Overcoming Gravity came out and it looks to be a huge hit on Amazon. How many books are in print so far, and has the success led to any neat speaking engagements or other professional opportunities?

We’ve sold a couple thousand books so far. I wouldn’t exactly say it’s led to more opportunities. I was able to speak on bodyweight training at Parkour Vision’s Summit 2012, but I was planning to get out there to speak on bodyweight training for a couple of years now.

The main thing it has done thus far is allowed me to reach a wider audience to teach people interested in bodyweight exercises online. I have been getting some requests for seminars and other things of that nature, so that is a possibility in the future.

I think one of the hardest things for most beginners and intermediates to understand is the concept of programming. That’s the main reason why I wrote Overcoming Gravity. I wanted to teach those who are new or getting into bodyweight exercise how to construct a good routine and all of the factors that go into that process.

The book is massive and truly impressive in scope. How long did it take you to write and do you have plans for future versions or other titles?

It took me approximately 18 months to write the material for the book and have it published. In retrospect, I wish I wasn’t a student and had more money so I could have gotten it professionally edited before it was released.

Currently, I am in the process of starting to make edits for the 2^nd edition of the book which I hope to be much more friendly to absolute beginners, beginners, and intermediates alike. My general sentiment is that if you are fairly advanced you tend to have a good foundation of knowledge on how to train already. Thus, you are less likely to need help with programming.

Any specific advice for extending the info in Overcoming Gravity to parkour conditioning?

Upper body bodyweight exercise, especially strength training with bodyweight exercise, applies very heavily to Parkour.  Increasing the force output – strength – of the muscles in the upper body in closed chain movements applies directly to many parkour techniques. For example, many parkour techniques such as vaults like kongs, climb ups, and laches rely on your ability to move your body through decreased leverage positions and apply acceleration forces. The stronger you are and the better you can control these movements the bigger they will be and the smoother they will be.

It’s no secret that optimal performance in any discipline or sport requires both a skill practice component and a strength and conditioning component. Parkour, like gymnastics and climbing, tends to have a very large skill component as there are many potential movements to master. However, you can improve the speed at which you improve by applying proper strength and conditioning training. Bodyweight strength training, especially for the upper body, tends to apply the best to parkour and freerunning.

I think that most people really underestimate how much strength and conditioning applies to various sports. However, I think that many of those educated on strength and conditioning tend to overestimate how much people need. I’ve been talking with Rafe Kelley, Ryan Ford, and many of the other PK/FR coaches, and there needs to be really a good mix of working a lot of skills versus strength training. It’s hard to find the right mix right now, but the gyms those two help run – Parkour Visions and APEX along with many others – will really help refine the methods within the coming 5-10 years.

What ways can athletes best improve their grip strength, with an eye to hanging bar and ring skills

The deadlift, in particular, is extremely good for building grip strength. One other movement to consider are farmers walk. Otherwise, if you are devoted bodyweight strength advocate, you will most likely be training with rings. Rings tends to build great grip strength.

Combine deadlifts, rings, and potentially farmers walks, with parkour skill training on bars and you have a great foundation of grip strength.

I think many people try too often to look for the “magic bullet.” For most types of training it’s best to keep things relatively simple, and then if you need to change something make very small changes.

I love the trunk compression move you suggest for core strength, where your hands are by your legs and you lift your feet.  Do you have any other favorite core strength skills you recommend for routine practice?

Generally speaking, the best core exercises are the ones that you can measurably progress with. L-sits, hanging leg raises, planks, and ab wheel are tough exercises that you can progress with fairly well. I typically don’t recommend anything like crunches or situps because they get too easy very quickly and there’s no progression with them.

I have a love-hate relationship with hollow rocks. They are good from a body line perspective on how to learn how to hold the body in a nice hollow/straight position which is required for many of the upper level bodyweight strength skills. However, they get too easy very quickly. I suggest them for beginners, then I like phasing them out once you have a good idea of where your body is in space and can maintain it through tougher exercises.

Finally, can you break down a week of your personal training routine, and the specific skill sets you are working on?

Currently, my routine is sporadic which sucks. I’ve been stuck in a period of overtraining for a protracted period of time (though I am slowly recovering!). Right now I’m working on fixing my sleep which one of the hardest things to do since I have tons of bad habits from high school and college. Many people forget that  training is just but one aspect of improvement. You need all of the big four to make good progress with training – Sleep, nutrition, training, and lack of stress.

At the moment I’ve taken up a bit of rock climbing 2-3x a week, and I mostly focus on maintaining my handstand and V-sit/manna.

If I was able to workout seriously I would be focusing on the main movements that allow me to maintain my progress which are for the pulling exercises the iron cross, one arm chin, and front lever. For the pushing exercises it is rings pushups into planche and rings dips. For the legs I try to get in deadlifts and sprinting.

Of course, if you mix in PK/FR work then you have to reduce the amount of strength and conditioning work you do. So it’s all a continuum depending on your sport(s).

Many, many thanks to Steve for contributing his answers to this interview. Count on me to be first in line to sign up for any upcoming seminars!