As parkour athletes, we pursue our craft in the elements, rain or shine. Progress demands flexibility, perseverance, and a willingness to get a little wet, dirty, and cold.

Just as exposure to a wide variety of obstacles strengthens your movement repertoire, exposure to a wide variety of temperatures, and other environmental features hones you into a tougher athlete.

Fair weather practitioners miss out on the opportunity to harden themselves into better humans. Steel hardens steel. Avoiding exposure to what some might consider inclement weather betrays your efforts to build yourself into badass.

If you catch yourself wanting to skip a training session because the temperature is dropping or precipitation is expected, flip it around and consider it a chance to take things to the next level. Be smart about how you interact with the environment, but don’t shy away from challenge.

Aside from getting outdoors regardless of the weather, you should also explore training at different times of the day. Early morning sessions have a different feel than midday efforts. Late night soirees compound complexity with poor lighting and greater fatigue.

What other elements might you play with? What about changing up your wardrobe? What happens to your ability to move if you aren’t in sweatpants? What about when you are wearing less-than-ideal footwear? Can you still perform the basics without getting tripped up?

You’re not going to have your best performance when your routine is scrambled, but that’s the point. Training under duress forces improvisation, and ultimately makes you better.

It’s said that the best photographers can take amazing photographs with simple point and shoot cameras. Expensive gear and ideal conditions aren’t necessary. They make do, letting their skills speak for themselves.

Likewise, a pro athlete in a tuxedo and dress shoes could still wow you with power moves. The animal beneath the clothing doesn’t care about attire.

Bottom line, you’re missing out if you don’t embrace every opportunity to train. Injuries aside, don’t let elements beyond your control keep you from becoming a better athlete.

Weather, time of day, clothing—let nothing hold you back.

Overall, your training has been going really good, but you’re looking for a way to spice things up.

Enter the realm of “short-form” versus “long-form” training missions.

Although the terms short-form and long-form are arbitrary, they reflect an interesting distinction.

The idea is this: If your routine basically looks the same and lasts about the same duration every trip out the door, than you aren’t experiencing the full spectrum of parkour.

Getting in a rut is easy. You know the obstacles and features at your local park. You can run over and drill a flow that you’ve been working on without too much thought. You know the best places to train your climb-ups, precisions, and work on your upper body conditioning. You’ve got the spot dialed.

I understand, and often succumb to the ease of a well-known routine. Heck, there is this killer spot just a block from my house, why would I bother searching out another place to train!

Okay, so the situation described above encompasses what I would refer to as a short-form training session. You hit up 1 or 2 spots for about 30 to 60 minute of total training time. You drill some techniques and also fit in a bit of conditioning. Although it didn’t last a long time, your body feels good. You burned off some steam, and were able to see some progress in your skills.

Nothing wrong with that.

Short little missions definitely get the job done when you have a packed schedule. They are convenient after a full day of work and will certainly fulfill your need for a daily movement fix.

However, if you can carve out a bit more time, something magical starts to happen once you take your training above 2 hours.

At the most superficial level, when you explore your city via a long-form mission you’ll encounter unique obstacles and interesting challenges. A quick session in your local park can’t touch the exposure to newfound features that you’ll enjoy on a longer walkabout. Aside from the thrill of finding new training spots, there is a simple pleasure in learning about the different streets, buildings, public areas, and hidden gems that you might not have found before. It is a very grounding experience, joyous really, to connect with the place you live in this manner.

Next up, on longer training sessions you’ll notice that endurance becomes a new dimension to conquer. Do you have the fortitude to keep pushing your body when it has been on the go for two or more hours? Tired, fatigued, and possibly cramping up, here is where you learn your true strength. Can you muster the nerve to keep pushing yourself, drilling jumps, climbs, and vaults, when your body is screaming to throw in the towel and head home?

If you’ve ventured far and public transport isn’t readily accessible, the need to pace yourself becomes crucial. Rather than end up a mess, dead tired, and unable carry yourself home, you must be smart about energy expenditure. Carrying water and extra calories makes a lot of sense if you’ll be somewhere without a convenience store. Be strategic. Think about it like a mini adventure, with the goal of venturing out for a few hours, but still making it home in one piece.

Personally, I like to run from one spot to another. I enjoy firing up my cardio-respiratory engine, feeling my chest heave, and working to master my breathing.

Running between different training spots on a longer mission isn’t necessary, but it does add to the sense of accomplishment. Non-stop, moderate-intensity motion forces you to dig deep and tap reserves that aren’t challenged in our daily life.

How far you venture, and whether you walk or jog are fun variables to tinker. Could you make it an all day expedition, covering 10 or more miles? What would a parkour marathon look like?

To give you an idea of distances and duration, these two screen captures (via the Map My Run app) illustrate the differences between a short and long form session. For the short mission, I was out and about for under 55 minutes and hit up 2 different spots in that time. The distance covered was negligible, less than 2 miles, but given the obstacle-based conditioning, it was still a solid little workout.

Compare that to the longer mission: In nearly 2.5 hours my training partner and I covered 4.7 miles. Although not a huge distance, it provided enough variety to hit-up about 5 or 6 distinct spots. With that amount of unique terrain, we encountered enough obstacles to almost exhaust our full parkour vocabularies.

And, to be honest, even after 2.5 hours of training, we could have kept on going were it not for other commitments that day. What’s more, all of that movement actually leaves you in a heightened state. Your brain is truly awake and ready to conquer other challenges.

What would it feel like to crush 5 hours of training? How much ground would you cover?

Only one way to find out! See you outside.

While it’s a cool feeling to walk away from your first double kong, parkour gains need not always focus on going full beast mode. In fact, incremental improvements with basic skills is a much more important a goal.

The Japanese term “kaizen” relates to this phenomenon of continuous improvements achieved through small changes.

When you are always shooting to land a new skill or prove yourself on a monster obstacle, you are setting yourself up for burnout and potential injury. Striving for big performance bursts in a short period isn’t sustainable in any athletic discipline, and can (paradoxically) cause you to plateau sooner than necessary.

If you can implement kaizen into your training, your parkour career will last a lifetime. Disregard it, and, well, you do so at your own peril.

So, what does continuous improvement look like?

It means that you stay focused on the small details that make up your training.

What happens if you rotate your shoulders so your elbows don’t chicken-wing during your top out? Does how you point your toes during a muscle-up impact your ability to generate whole-body tension? What’s the best distance to take off for a dash vault? Will the position of your head at take-off alter your jumping ability?

By paying attention to nuances you begin to eliminate the habits and body mechanics that have been holding your back. Trial and error coupled with massive repetition cleaves away the faults that slow your progress.

Keep it up and continuous improvement is certain.

How do you know it’s working?

First, consider the subjective component. You feel more confident in your abilities. You have less fear with certain skills. You trust that your body can achieve what you aim to accomplish. Basically, you feel stronger and more competent. Maybe you even start to feel smoother, as if flowing over obstacles is becoming second nature.

Second, use objective measures to provide the hard data:

• Record yourself on video to observe for major faults in your technique. Does anything obvious scream for remedy? Sloppy posture? Heavy foot strikes? Watch, listen, and scan for biomechanics that need improvement.
• Use a stopwatch to time yourself for a given skill or specific run. Have you shaved a few seconds off your ability to ascend a given wall? Can you complete a set obstacle course in less time than last week?
• Pull out a measuring tape to quantify if your precision jumps are actually getting farther apart. Likewise, see if you are gaining height on the highest obstacle you can pop vault.
• Keep a small journal to record your best times, distances, heights, et cetera. Let Pearson’s Law be your new motto:

“That which is measured improves. That which is measured and reported improves exponentially.”

When you train methodically, continually improving your technique, and drilling better and better mechanics, you progress is guaranteed. Remember this concept whenever you are feeling stuck or discouraged.

Small changes accumulated over time yield big results. That’s the kaizen way.

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.

As if owning a gym and clothing line weren’t enough to keep him busy, he is also a sponsored athlete for Vivo Barefoot shoes and is a FitFluential Ambassador, helping to promote fitness through different social media channels.

I had the pleasure of attending a seminar led by Ryan at the 2012 Seattle Summit, where he talked about harnessing creativity to use your environment to its fullest extent.

A super humble guy, he was kind enough to exchange contact info so that we could talk after the event. Some time has passed, but I finally got the chance to catch up with him and talk about his take on parkour conditioning concepts.

Here’s a transcript of our recent phone interview:

I saw that you just got back from Europe. What were you doing over there?

Erica Madrid went over to the Red Bull event in Greece, so I was over there to support her and be around for that. That’s how the trip started off and then we spent a few weeks traveling around the islands of Greece, Italy, Croatia, and Bordeaux, where we got to train with the locals.

What did you notice as major differences with how people train over there versus what is going on in the U.S. or at APEX Movement?

It’s hard to say. When we were in Santorini there were people from all over the world, so I certainly couldn’t put them in one category. Some were more freerunning, some were more parkour, or had a background in tricking, breakdancing or whatever. Some were more into big jumps.

In Colorado, we’ve really tried to promote all of those things because we do merge them together nowadays. We’ve never been about any one of them. We want to be well rounded through parkour, freerunning, gymnastics, and all that kind of stuff.

 I saw that you have three APEX Movement gyms in Colorado. Tell me more.

We have two of our own gyms, and then a third that is out of a gymnastics gym, so I like to say that we have two and a half.  And, were actually about to start our first out of state APEX Movement soon.

I was the founder of APEX, and now focus more on parent company stuff, like coaching certification and other projects.

How much training do you get to do on a weekly basis yourself?

It depends. I do at least an hour or two almost every day of the week. Sometimes it’s a lot more. When I’m not traveling and at the gym coaching or whatever, I’m always doing a little bit at least.

How much time would you say you devote between strength and conditioning versus skill development?

Probably around half and half. I try to limit my impacts. I actually heard some interesting stories about the early guys doing parkour how they way over-did-it and they’re now feeling it later on. I definitely don’t want that to be me.

Every jump you ever do adds-up. I try to limit the big jumps, and usually only do big stuff when filming, performing, or occasionally when out training on my own.

For the most part, it’s ground level stuff, low impact, and lots of strength and conditioning.

For someone trying to workout at home, what sorts of equipment might they consider for a gym space?

Well, one thing that I’ve been trying to do with Demon Drills is that I’ve always shot the videos outside, because I want to show people that you don’t necessarily have to have a gym to workout.  It’s a matter of taking parkour, and applying it to workout with everyday obstacles, like benches and walls.

So, that’s one thing that I’ve wanted to show, but at the same time I’m also an advocate of some weights for parkour. Basically 5 main lifts and some gymnastics style conditioning. As far as weights go, it’s some basic barbell stuff, like deadlifts, squats, press, and weighted dips and weighted pull-ups. And, if you do those 5 basic moves and gymnastics training you pretty much cover everything you need to for parkour.

What else do you do for cross training?

What I did through high school and college, was mostly team sports, soccer, track and football. And then, when I got into college and more into parkour, I started cross training more with bouldering and rock climbing. I do quite a bit of that.

With APEX Movement we try to blend everything together. We all train and dabble with tricking, gymnastics, slack lining and all kinds of stuff.

As the head coach and founder at APEX what sorts of injuries have you seen with people starting out with parkour?

Well, we haven’t had any injuries aside from cuts, bruises, strains and stuff like that.  I think the number one thing for parkour people to watch out for is overuse injuries. Especially with stuff like drops, if you use bad form – you might not really feel it. Cartilage in your knees doesn’t have nerves, but then in a couple of years your cartilage is cracked, torn, and gone.

That’s the biggest thing we try to get people aware of – that you always have to have good form, and basically install the mindset to think about staying healthy over the long run.

What do you have to say about injury prevention and prehab concepts?

There’s three main things for staying healthy with parkour. There’s good form, there’s good strength, and then good flexibility/mobility. It’s always important to pay attention to good form, stay strong, and stay flexible.

For good hip flexibility, I’m a fan of the caveman or “third world” squat, with feet flat on the ground, and a full squat.  It’s so important for good landings.  When you lack full flexibility at the hips and knees your landings can really injure you.

It doesn’t matter if you’re strong and have good form, if you don’t have the flexibility and mobility as well.

I try to get people to use a lacrosse ball and foam roller for mobility aside from basic stretching. I’m a big fan of the mobilitywod.com.

Any final cool news that you wanted to share?

Yeah, there are a couple of things that we’ve been working on pretty hard. We’re excited about the coaching certification. We did our first one in Philadelphia this summer.

We’ve also started to release our own workouts, which are posted on Facebook and will hopefully become more widespread. The idea is to list them blog-style, then provide hyperlinks to the Demon Drills videos.

With Movemental, I want to make it into a lifestyle brand, to promote the movement arts. I want to promote things like martial arts, tricking, parkour, and have all of us learn from each other and then collaborate to come up with new things. That’s what I want Movemental to represent, so we’ll be reaching out to those other communities.

Want more? Keep in touch with Ryan on Facebook.