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29 April 2013

Look Ma, No Hand!

Week 6: Day Two
The other night I was talking to one of the guys about my handstand-up-the-stairs challenge and he suggested starting small by using a precision trainer to start with.  So, in the open gym hour this weekend I grabbed a trainer, put it against the wall, and kicked up into a handstand.  I tried moving up and down, on and off the precision trainer leading with my left arm and then my right arm to see which felt better.  It was a struggle at first, but once I figured out that it felt better when my left arm went first, I could focus on the shifting of my hips and general body awareness.  I worked on this for the majority of open gym time, probably about 15 sets of 5 if up and down is one (that's a guesstimate).

At some point during this, I felt like I wasn't making enough progress and the thought that a one-handed handstand would help me was teasing me in the back of my mind.  I took a break from my precision up&downs and went over to T.  How do you do a one-handed handstand? It was so challenging and I had no idea where to start that I was already frustrated and felt like throwing a tantrum.  He came over to the wall to practice and figure it out with me.  Just to be clear, one-handed handstands are incredibly difficult.  And not just for normal people.  Even for people with insane strength and physical ability, this move can be extremely challenging because of the blend of strength and balance required.

We took turns trying it against the wall, experimenting with our legs at different distances, and with each arm.  I spread my legs a little more than shoulder width apart, moved my arms closer to my ears, and shifted my weight back and forth.  I lifted my right arm and put it at my stomach.  Holy shit.  I'm doing it.  I couldn't believe it.  I felt like a little kid, EVERYBODY LOOK AT ME, I'M DOING IT!!! (I didn't really yell that out... but I wanted to) It was against the wall, but still.  It was a huge accomplishment for me.  Naturally, I ran to get my phone and made T take a picture for me.  Photographic evidence:


I keep staring at this picture, trying to figure out what I did right and how I can transfer this handstand to a freestanding one-handed handstand.  The strange thing is I could do it on my left arm, but not my right even though I'm right-handed.  Also, most of the one-handed pictures I see on the internet show people with their legs basically in a straddle and totally crooked to balance out the weight.  This makes absolutely no sense to me because when I tried to spread my legs wider, it just threw me off completely.  I think it's also the gymnast in me that wants my legs to be straight up in the air when I nail this move.

I'm amazed with what I've been able to accomplish in the last six weeks.  Not only with this move, but with every move that pushes me as I continue learning.  I feel so much stronger already, physically and mentally.  And I always want more.  It's not about reaching a certain level, or being better than so-and-so.  It's about being the best version of me.  Setting my own goals for myself and then accomplishing them.

Next stop: free-standing one-handed & walking up the stairs on my hands

25 April 2013

Awkward Movement and the Twinkle Toe Method

Week 6: Day One
It's killing me that I can't get to the gym more right now but I guess this whole school thing is kind of important.  Two more days of classes, a few final exams, and I will be free! For now.

We did a fun warm up in last night's early class.  Lots of different body movement and some fun exercises/challenges.  T had us lie down on our stomachs and get up without using our hands.  Then we had to lie on our backs, holding one foot, and try to get up without letting go of that foot.  That one was the easiest for me.  I just rolled forwards and pressed up with my free leg.  That was too easy for T so he wiggled around on the ground trying to find a more creative way to get up while everyone else tried to figure it out.

Once we were done with the warm up, we worked on hurdles.  It sounds relatively simple, but the way you have to bring your leg(s) out feels incredibly awkward.  I went through it so many times, and every single time I felt awkward.  Also, if you do it awkwardly enough then you look like a little girl frolicking through a meadow kicking her legs up.  It's pretty hilarious.  I was getting really frustrated with it because it just wasn't working for me.  Occasionally I got the right idea, but overall I just really didn't like them.  Clearly something to work on.

We wrapped up and moved downstairs for the late class.  Our choice was between barefoot training and ninja warrior training.  I'm really bad at making decisions so we did both.  There was a guy training with us who is participating in American Ninja Warrior so we worked out with him for most of the class.  First, we did quad steps.


If you watch the above video, you might have guessed that I was not crazy enough to try the stride method.  I was more eager to try to the unfortunately named "twinkle toe" method (that's not what they called it in our class).  It took a few tries to get past the first jump.  I wasn't hitting high enough on the second box so I had nowhere to go but down to the floor.  After realizing that's what I needed to change, I actually managed to make it through several times.  I know I always sound surprised when I say I accomplished something but a lot of these obstacles are really intimidating so yes, I am surprised when I make it through.  I'll work on that whole confidence thing.

Now that I felt like a badass for conquering the quad steps, I was ready to tackle our next obstacle: rope swings.  Basically, you need to be able to jump from a certain distance and catch the rope high enough so that you're not touching whatever is below you (ground, water, sharks, lava, etc.) I actually love rope climbing and swinging so this was really fun for me.  Until I managed to get rope burn on my forearm (why was I catching the rope with my forearm??)

We wrapped up with a little barefoot training (actually super comfortable) on some tall vaults and then stretched out and called it a night.

Accomplishments: quad steps
Things to work on: hurdles & making awkward movement less awkward

23 April 2013

Are you stuck? No, I'm just getting to know my space.


Yesterday, I was in desperate need of a break from school (I’m currently in my last week of classes aka finals season) so I decided to head over to the Katzen Arts Center on AU’s campus with a friend, blast some Lindsey Stirling and play around in the space.  I realized why her music is so perfect for parkour too.  The electronic aspect gives you energy and pumps you up while the violin fosters your creativity and flow.  I walked around the sculptures and looked to see where all the drops were, if there was anything to climb on and where I could reasonably do a handstand.

As I danced around to the music—jumping, climbing and walking on my hands—my friend V was taking pictures and helping me think of new challenges.  And occasionally yelling out ARE YOU OKAY?! when I got off-balance or looked like I was falling.  Or when I tangled myself around the railing... are you stuck? do you need help? No, I'd respond, I'm just getting to know my space...

I was playing around a lot on the railing of one staircase when I decided I really wanted to walk up or down the stairs on my hands.  My rationale: I can walk around on my hands on a flat surface, so why not up or down the stairs? A lot harder than it looks.  Physically and mentally.  Mentally because it’s hard to ignore the fear that you’re going to fall down the stairs or land on your face.  Physically because of the distance you have to lift your hands to go up or down.  On a flat surface, you’re only lifting your hands a maximum of a couple of inches which shouldn’t throw you off because they stay relatively even.  When you have to lift your hands 6+ inches, you’re essentially doing a one-handed handstand until you can place your other hand on the next step.  The slower you move, the longer you’re balancing on one arm, but if you move too quickly then you’ll throw off your balance anyways.  So basically, it’s really f***ing hard.

I did manage to just barely get one step before losing my balance but I took a break shortly after, realizing my challenge was a lot harder than I first expected.  I’m not giving up.  I’m simply putting it on hold until I am better prepared to conquer it.  Even though I couldn’t quite do what I wanted to do, I had a really good time just playing around in a new space.  I also really enjoy doing this kind of stuff when there are tour groups of prospective students coming through campus because it totally weirds them out.

Here’s some pictures from the day, courtesy of V:







19 April 2013

Awesomeness, Hilarity & Style

Week 5: Day Two
Last night’s class was so much fun! I’m really being pushed mentally to let my creativity flow and just go with it.  I also decided Lindsey Stirling is a great artist to listen to while doing parkour.  Try it, she’s awesome.

We started the late class with a little game of add-on where each person in line adds a move to the course and you have to follow along, repeating every person’s add-on.  This wasn’t getting weird enough for T so he had us play a game they played in his kid’s class.  Everyone had 15-30 seconds to run the course, doing anything that came to mind, and they would be judged on style, awesomeness and hilarity.  That’s a lot of pressure to be all three things at once.  Of course no one wanted to go first so finally T made one of the guys begin.  The chosen one looked at the course for a minute, dropped his pants and proceeded to run (hop) around, do some vaults and a cat leap and some rolls all with his pants around his ankles.  Hilarity: check.

It’s kind of hard to top that.  But we tried.  Everyone came up with some pretty stylish, funny ways to get through the course.  Eventually we we moved on to a jam-style session where we all just messed around on the course, teaching each other different moves and trying out new things we thought looked cool.  I learned some flow moves and messed around doing a straddle to a handstand on one of the vault boxes up against the wall.  Then we played around with the balance beam that was leaning up against one of the higher pull-up bars.  There was a rope hanging down near the bottom of the balance beam and a box a little farther away so our goal was as follows: run up the balance beam, slide down, catch the rope at the bottom and swing to land on the box nearby.  On my last try, I caught the rope and tapped the box but couldn’t quite land on it so I started swinging back towards the balance beam, where I pushed off and tried to get back on the box.  Not quite.  Swung back towards the balance beam and swung one more time towards the box and finally just managed to let go of the rope and stay on the box.

Accomplishments: balance beam to rope to box; handstand on vault box
Things to work on: creativity/flow

17 April 2013

How to Handle a Handstand

Week 4: Day Three
I’m starting to really enjoy Saturday morning sessions.  There’s only a handful of us, and it’s usually just myself and a bunch of kids younger than me so it’s a very different environment.  This week we did a warm up and then started working on handstands, my personal favorite.  I’m not actually being sarcastic this time.  I love handstands.  Gymnast, remember? I’ve been doing handstands since I was like 3 years old so the idea that they can be considered a workout is fun for me.  While I was working on mine, I offered some advice to one of the kids (K1) and before I knew it, I was teaching a miniature handstand class.  Normally, I don’t consider myself a good teacher... mostly because I lack patience.  But these kids were cool and I was in a relaxed mood so I worked on their handstands with them, holding their feet up so they knew what a good handstand should feel like, and giving them pointers.

K2 asked me how you get from doing a handstand against the wall to doing a good free standing handstand.  I have no idea.  I have no recollection of when I learned to do a handstand.  That’s how long ago it was, which makes it a lot harder to teach.  Usually when I teach something, I try to remember how I was taught and then add to it.  In this case, I kept doing handstands and trying to figure out why mine were good and then attempting to relay that information to the kids in a way that made sense.  I guess I said something right because K1 got a couple of really good ones before we were done.  Maybe I’m not such a bad teacher after all!

After our handstand class, we built a little fort and worked on shimmying around it and climbing up and down and jumping across and climbing up.  My arms were still pretty sore so I was happy to move on to vaults during open gym instead of climbing around.  I worked some safety vaults and then I decided I wanted to try it without my foot, apparently called a speed vault.  This took me a while.  Not to just do it—that wasn’t too hard.  But to do it right and to do it smoothly, that was the challenge.  The best part for me is I’ve started really getting a feel for things and I can tell when I do something well.  It just feels right.  A couple of times, I could tell just by the way it flowed that I did a good one.  I was also working on my reverse safety vault (the one for getting away from zombies) and strangely enough, this one is much smoother than my safety going forwards.  I even did it a few times without my foot.  Again, way smoother than going forwards.  Weirdo.

Accomplishment: speed vault
Things to work on: stationary handstand (I tend to walk around on my hands when my hips shift)

14 April 2013

Running up walls and other casual activities

Week 4: Day Two
We went outside for the first time the other night! The weather is finally starting to get nice enough.  There's a school around the corner from the gym with ramps, stairs, railings, and walls of different heights.  A perfect little playground.

We started on the ramp, looking over a wall with about a 5ft drop—an "intermediate" drop.  No mats this time, just vault over the wall and land on your feet on the other side, 5 feet later.  Okay sure, no problem.  That's not scary at all.  I took it really slow, trying to find my rhythm.  Just when I started to feel mildly comfortable with that one, we moved on to a much higher wall—an "extra medium" sized wall.  I felt like asking to play in the kid's corner for a while longer but instead I just went really really slow balancing on the edge of my comfort zone.

After about an hour, we started playing follow the leader, each leader creating their own course through the space outside the school—over, under, under, over, turn, run, balance, push, drop.  It was a lot of fun until we'd done it 5 or 6 times and then T was the last leader in the game and really pushed us.  I am actually incredibly proud of myself for finishing his course without dying or collapsing on the side of a wall.  I haven't pushed my body as hard as I did during that outdoor training session in a long time.  It felt amazing afterwards, but my muscles were screaming at me while I kept pushing, ready to collapse.  When we were done with that course, we each had 10 wall runs and 10 wall climbs to finish up.  Yes, after 1.5 hours of working out, I ran up and over an 8+ ft. wall... 10 times.  Oh, and then did some pull ups and dips on a wall.  This might not be a big deal for some of the guys I train with, but I felt like superwoman for being able to accomplish this.

It was really cool for me to start training outside, especially because it helped me work on my skills mentally... thinking about my new environment and conquering my fear of the obstacles that were new to me.  That's one of my biggest challenges right now—letting my creativity flow, trusting my instincts and not over-thinking the moves I'm about to make.  The only downside of training outside? I haven't built up any calluses on my hands yet so they were basically ripped to shreds by the end of the night.  Okay fine, maybe only like five or six little tiny rips... still painful.

Accomplishment: pushing through the session, and getting up & over that wall 10 times
Things to work on: endurance, letting go mentally

11 April 2013

The skill to use when being chased by zombies

Week 4: Day One
Until last night's class, I hadn't worked out since Saturday morning and my body was starting to feel anxious with all of that pent-up energy.  I was psyched I finally got enough work done to go to parkour.  In the 7pm class we worked on different kinds of vaults which are really fun for me.  I guess I just like jumping over things.  To clarify, vaulting in parkour is not like vaulting in gymnastics... well, not really.  I guess you're still running towards a stationary object but the getting over it part is very different.

One of the vaults we were working on was the reverse safety vault which is ... yep, the safety vault but backwards.  Why would you need to do this? Well, if you're ever being chased by zombies and you need to turn around to shoot at them, this move allows you to do just that.  Seriously, that was the example T gave us... and then he didn't give us another example.  So I actually have no idea under what circumstances I would need to use this vault.  But it's pretty cool so I'll go with it.

It definitely feels a bit awkward at first, so it took me a few turns before I started running into it.  Once I got the hang of it though it felt really smooth.  Someone even told me I had nice flow after a turn which made me feel really great.  Flow is the ultimate goal in parkour, and a lot of other movement arts when you think about it.  There's nothing better than a smooth performance that makes your movement look effortless and comfortable.

After working a few more variations of vaults, I was stretching out and eyeing the beginning of the 8pm class (more advanced) when one of the guys asked T when I'd be able to stay for that class.  T looked at the clock... 26 minutes ago? Woo! I finished stretching, chalked up and went over to the bars where the rest of the guys were training.  They were working on laches:


Basically getting from one bar to the next one.  I may have been a gymnast at one point in life, but all of that fearless attitude managed to escape me sometime between then and now.  I'm working on trusting my body and my instincts though and it's getting a lot better.  Tonight we were trying to get from Bar A to Bar B to Bar C (Bar C is against the wall) and then backwards from Bar C to Bar B and end with Bar A.  Some of the guys were working on doing it directly without a pause to swing to the next one.  I just wanted to do it period.  The first time I caught the bar was a huge triumph for me.  It's been three years since I've played on the uneven bars and about 8 years since I've trained on them so yeah.. a little unsure how I was going to do.  After realizing I was perfectly capable of swinging from bar to bar, my challenge became catching Bar C against the wall.  Oh and then jump backwards from the wall to catch Bar B again.  Finally, I managed to do the whole thing A to B to C to B to A and I was ecstatic.  I dare you to try to wipe the smile off my face after that.

I took a break after that because I didn't want to put too much stress on my fingers while they were still healing.  Such a minor injury but also an essential part of my body so I didn't want to risk further problems with it.  Somehow our class then devolved into a wrestling match between two of the guys... erm, boys... and then we stretched for a while and relaxed.

Accomplishments tonight: flow, and completing the mini course on the bars

That awkward moment when Student Health is wrong

As you know, I jammed my four left fingers Saturday morning and was somewhat restricted for a few days because of it.  Who knew you needed both hands for so many things?  In an attempt to cover my bases, I went to my student health center (big mistake) who had me take some X-rays and then called me 1.5 days later to tell me everything was 100% fine and I'd feel better in a few days.  Oh yeah, student health?  My personal defense instructor felt differently.

I went to my defense class this afternoon and explained that I wouldn't be doing any left-handed punches today because I couldn't make a fist with that hand.  My teacher asked if she could look at my hand, felt around a bit and then told me she could fix it if I wanted to stay for a few minutes after class.  What do you mean you can fix my hand? Apparently I had jammed the ring finger and middle finger and some of the teeny tiny bones were out of place.  Conveniently, she knew how to un-jam fingers (definitely a useful skill to have... up there with popping dislocated limbs back in).  So I stayed after class and she massaged my fingers for like 15 minutes, moving things around, working through the inflammation, popping things back into place and ... Ta da!! All better.  15 minutes of massage and I was fixed.

Note to self: learn how to un-jam fingers and don't trust student health

10 April 2013

New Goal: Back Tuck Burpees

I know I said parkour wasn't about flipping around, but being in the gym with all of the gymnastics-related equipment has made me crave a little tumbling action.  I've been itching to see if I can still do a standing tuck and then I saw a video of someone doing backflip burpees (because normal burpees aren't tiring enough for some people).  I couldn't find the original video I watched but here's the basic idea:

Courtesy of Youtube

Insane, right? Naturally, I see my next challenge forming... but first I have to see if I can still do a standing tuck before I can do tuck burpees.  I've always hated saying backflip because there's so many different ways you can flip backwards, and you can do all of those ways running or standing.  So I'm going to call them back tuck burpees when I get them.  Which I will.  I don't know when, but it will happen.

In other news, my hand is not broken! Just in a lot of pain for a few days.. hopefully I'll be back to training tomorrow or Thursday.

07 April 2013

At least it looked cool...

Week 3: Day Three
Yesterday morning I went to the gym for a class and then open gym time.  It was mostly kids which threw me off at first but then I ended up really liking it.  It made it really fun and a little less intimidating.  But then some of them were better than me.  It's fine.

We did a fun warm up, played a game that helped us work on our balance, and then set up an obstacle course and played don't-touch-the-lava.  Woo!

Then it was time for open gym.  Pick something you want to work on, and work it.  I looked at T* (my instructor) - I wanna get on top of that, pointing to the tall box against the wall.  Ok, let's do it.  As I mentioned in my last post, top-outs are not my specialty at the moment.  Basically, you run towards a wall, use your foot to punch off/up enough to grab the lip with your hands and pull/push yourself on top of it.  For me, I struggle with a mix of getting the right momentum and just not having the strength yet.  Surprisingly, the first couple I did were the best ones.  I managed to hit at a good spot with a nice amount of power and then I wiggled my way up.  Enter lack of strength needed.

While I was working on these, I saw some of the guys working on kong vaults and kong to precision:


Don't worry, I was working on a baby version of the video above.  Basically, there were two boxes next to each other and I wanted to vault over the first one with my hands and land on the second one with my feet.  I played with it for a minute and told T what I was trying to accomplish.  That's great, go for it.  It wasn't one of those things I needed a step-by-step for, I kind of just had to feel it out and go for it.  (This is only because I already had the basics down.. please don't go out and try this thinking you have to just go for it and it'll work... it won't).

Surprisingly (to me, anyways), I got it after a couple more tries.  Hell yeah.  I even got a high-five from T.  It's cause I'm awesome.

Naturally, I wanted to keep working on it so I ran a couple more... and then I destroyed my hand.  I'm still trying to figure out how this happened, but basically I did the first part right, and then somehow I hit the second box with my feet, slammed my knees into it (I really don't know how I got my knees to hit the box) and all of a sudden I'm flying face first towards the ground.  Training, Adrienne, training.  You gotta roll.  So I went to put my hands down and roll, but my left hand decided to stay where I shoved it into the ground while my body rolled away from it.  Next thing I know I'm lying on the ground holding my hand cursing it for not cooperating with the rest of my body.  T came over to check on me.  Probably because I was still lying on the ground.  I guess it's a problem when you don't get back up.  I looked at him laughing a little and pointed to my body, this is all fine, and then pointed to my hand, this not so much.  Can you move it? I wiggle my fingers around a little and twirl my wrist.  Okay, we're good.  Let's go get some ice.

I stand on the sidelines for a bit icing my hand and being really irritated that I hurt myself.  Then one of the kids came running over - are you okay? Yeah, I'm good.  It looked really cool!! I started laughing.  Well, at least it looked cool.

I feel like I should say that it was my own fault I got hurt and nothing is broken, I'll be fine.  If anything, the fact that I knew to roll probably saved me from going head first into the ground.  My instructors are great, the gym is great, and I just got sloppy.  There's my disclaimer.

Accomplishments: a couple of pretty good top-outs and a baby monkey vault to precision
Things to work on: left hand must learn to coordinate with rest of body

*I usually use first initials rather than full names

03 April 2013

Stop, Drop & Roll


Week 3: Day One
I went to a level one class the other night that was me and about 6 or 7 other guys.  Yes, the ratio is a little off.  I don’t know why more girls aren’t doing this.  It’s freaking awesome.  Anyways.  We did a warm-up with some rows, squats, hand-stand kick-ups and rolling forwards and backwards.  Once we were all warmed up, we started working on parkour rolls... so basically rolling when you hit the ground from higher-up instead of splatting when you hit the ground.  If our roll looked good enough, we could move to higher platforms to drop off into our roll.  I was fine with the medium-sized drop but then I was sent over to the higher one which was several feet above my head (I’ll get the real height next time I’m at the gym) and I freaked out.  You want me to just fall off of that? Yeah, you can do it.  Uh uh.  And then it hit me.  Wait, but first I have to get on top of it.  Yes...yes, you do.  I can't do that.  (top-outs/wall climbs are part of my parkour training but I haven't quite built up the upper body strength to master it yet).

Luckily, some of the nicer guys took turns giving me a leg up instead of watching me struggle to pull myself up.  Once I got up there, I sat for a minute having a stare-off with the ground.  It was taunting me.  Okay, I thought, hit the ground on the balls of your feet, punch forward, and do a perfect parkour roll.  You got this.  After what felt like several minutes, I just threw myself off the wall and flew towards the ground, surprising myself with a pretty good parkour roll.  I asked one of the guys in my class if I looked terrified while doing it.  He said I looked excited.  Perhaps I’m crazier than I thought.

To wrap up the class, we had to balance on the balls of our feet on a railing for 2 minutes without holding on - and for every time we touched, we were rewarded with 10 seconds of a handstand.  Who even thinks of this stuff? You’d think that was enough for me, but oh no, I wanted to stay for the intermediate class.  Who wants one hour of intense parkour when you can have two? I’ll feel it later, I promise.

First we worked on  more rolls on much harder surfaces.  I have bruises to prove it.  Then we set up an obstacle course.  That’s right, my workout is like playing don’t-fall-in-the-lava as a little kid.  Okay, maybe a teensy bit more difficult.  Although most of the guys were much faster than me on the course, I didn't feel like the runt of the class.  I was so excited that I could do it period that I wasn't worried about the kid running the course at just over 3 seconds (seriously, dude?)

Accomplishment of the night: jumping from a block to a raised balance beam and back on the balls of my feet without falling
Things to work on: rolling rolling rolling and more rolling... with minimal bruising.

Because nobody actually likes going to the gym

Since I returned from India in late December, I’ve readjusted to American ease and comfort... and I’ve been really really bored. That sounds ridiculous, right? I mean, I should be relieved to be home and not face the daily challenges I was dealing with in India. But I can’t help it, I’m craving some more excitement, some way to push myself. I’m not satisfied with just coasting through work and school. So I started looking for new ways to fill this hole I’d developed since coming home. My answer? Parkour.

That’s just flipping and jumping around doing tricks, right? No, not really. Parkour is the discipline of moving through your environment and overcoming obstacles using only your body. Here's a fun video I found that covers some of the basics:



There’s a little debate about parkour vs. freerunning. I thought it was all the same thing when I started (and some will still tell you it is) but from what I can tell freerunning is much more about self-expression and that’s where all the flipping and tricking comes in. I'll focus on parkour for now.

Some of you may think doing parkour is crazier than going to India for four months. I wouldn’t blame you. It’s pretty crazy. It’s intense and incredibly challenging... and I can’t get enough of it. So why parkour, you ask? I mean seriously, who just wakes up and says hey I think I’m gonna start doing parkour today? Strangely enough, that’s exactly what happened to me. I didn’t hear about it from a friend or see an awesome Youtube video or anything. I was searching alternative fitness options, stumbled upon parkour and found out that one of the first parkour gyms in the world (APK Academy) is headquartered right here in DC at Primal Fitness, and I dropped in on a class.

The class I went to was working on balance and bars that day - something I hadn’t done in too many years to count. I was sore for at least a week after that class but when I left the gym that night, I was completely hooked.

I mean when was the last time you were super excited to go to the gym? I love being active and I still dread going to the gym sometimes. It gets pretty boring going on the machines, lifting weights, etc. As a gymnast/cheerleader by training, I’m more comfortable using my own body to workout with anyways which is what I love about parkour. It’s all about using your own body to develop strength and agility.

I signed up for the foundations class which is basically an introduction to parkour session that’s three times a week for a month. No, I won’t be a professional ninja by the time I’m done with it. But I’ve already learned a great set of skills for jumping, landing, rolling, climbing, etc. in the first two weeks (I'm in my third week). Now wherever I go, I’m looking at my surroundings and thinking how would I get over/under that or giving myself new challenges. I also spend a good chunk of my time reading about parkour and watching Youtube videos.

I think my friends are starting to get tired of my 24/7 obsession so I decided to express my excitement through this blog. Enjoy.

(This blog has nothing to do with the gym where I train or the people I train with. These are my own personal thoughts & experiences that I wanted to share)