Parkour Goggles

So, do you just walk around and look for things to jump/climb on? This is one of the most common questions I get when I tell people I train parkour. And the answer is yes. Yes, I absolutely do.

Honestly, one of the coolest things about training parkour is that your entire perception of the world changes. Handrails, benches, jersey barriers, walls, lines on the sidewalk... they all become opportunities. Every morning when I walk to the metro, I balance on the curb and make the jump when there's an opening for a walkway. Yes, I do this wearing sneakers, boots, Sperry's or whatever I happen to be wearing that day and with my backpack full of books, etc.

When I'm on the metro wondering why everyone looks so miserable all the time, I think about how much fun it would be to swing around on those bars. If there's not a lot of people on the train, then I'll hang on the bar above my head in between stops—the goal is to hang on as long as possible. This gets really exciting when you have a crazy train driver and your body starts swinging around. Best not to do this during rush hour. I also like to "metro surf" (balancing in the middle without holding onto anything). People give me strange looks but it keeps me entertained while I commute.

In the summer I like to walk to the gym instead of metro-ing which means even more opportunities. It's great because I'm already in gym clothes and I only have a small backpack on so it's easier to jump around.

On my way to class the other day, I saw a handrail coming up on my right that looked perfect for a safety vault. I swerved my path a little to the right, vaulted the first rail, then the next one then casually started walking along the sidewalk again. I kept going, balancing on the curb and jumping around on the lines of the sidewalk. Next up, two jersey barriers going right where I needed to cross the street. How convenient. I ran up to them and jumped up on one foot, ran/balanced my way across them, then kept going.

I've also started training during my breaks in class this summer. I'm taking statistics which basically sucks all of the life out of me so when we get a 10-minute break (class is 2.5 hours), I run outside and start jumping around. My classmates think I'm on crack, especially when I come back to class sweating and covered in dirt or blood (this only happened once, I swear) but it keeps me awake for the second half of class. Here's a little clip of training before class one day.

Am I conscious of the looks people give me? Of course. But I'm having more fun than they are. Life is better through parkour goggles. It doesn't matter what is around you, what you're wearing or how much time you have. It's just movement. Precision jumps on a curb. Balance on a rail. Cartwheels and handstands in the grass. I promise you no matter where you are, there is something you can do to move.

I'll Never Grow Up!

Week 69

What an awesome morning! I finally got to move around after such a long week. I have so much going on right now so I haven't had much time for training. My body (and mind) start to get really upset with me when I don't move around enough. I get restless and anxious. I need to move. I need to play.

Lucky for me, I have lots of friends who feel the same way! This morning, I headed out to Anacostia Park with a few of the girls to jump around and climb on things. The park just got some new workout equipment there which I was completely fascinated by because the machines operate on your own weight. Like the seat moves up as you move the bars with your arms... I don't know how to explain it. But it was really cool. Anyways...

The best part about this park is the giant pirate-ship-shaped playground in the middle. I'm not kidding. This thing was awesome. We did all sorts of challenges on the pirate ship like precisions around the ship, balance/climbing challenges, and QM-ing down the climbing walls along the sides. We also attempted to QM backwards back up the side of the ship but... well... it didn't go very well. I made it one or two steps and then went for the next hand grip and went head first into the ground. Don't worry, I did a sweet ninja side roll so I didn't get hurt.

Naturally, the main challenge in our minds was getting to the top of the mast of the ship to sit in the basket. This was until we realized that climbing a large pole Mulan-style is actually quite difficult. I did manage to make it up to one of the sails though.

It looks like it was built for climbing, but once I got up there it felt like I was on a real ship because the mast started swaying with the wind. Time to get down...

We kept playing around and we were about to head over to the grass to do some gymnastics-y stuff when this little kid (9) looks at us and goes, "wanna race?" Can't say no to that. We raced him and his brother (6) around the pirate ship and did some cartwheels and handstands with them. They were pretty awesome. The little one was hanging upside down on a bar after we helped him get up to it, and he goes "LOOK! I'M SPIDERMAN!" Pretty much made my morning.

I felt like Peter Pan running around on the pirate ship with my friends and finding new challenges. The kids kept giving us jump challenges or things to climb up to. It was a lot of fun. Just what I needed to de-stress and relax my mind a bit: a pirate ship and some awesome people. You're never too old to play on the playground!

Sometimes I think I'm a mermaid...

Surprise! Consistent Training Leads to Progress

Week 66

It's time for some new conditioning goals! It is such a satisfying feeling when you can cross something off your list. Especially a goal that has been sitting on said list for almost six months. I started working on this one at the end of October but looking back at my training journal, I realized that I've only focused specifically on this goal in about sixteen of my training sessions since then. The most consistent training (every week) was in April and May. Surprise! Consistent training = progress.

What was I working so hard to accomplish? The muscle-up. The elusive "king of bodyweight exercises" that everyone wants to do and apparently not many people can. It is a mix of strength and technique and it can be frustrating because it does not necessarily have any prerequisites (There are people who can do a million pull ups but can't do a muscle-up, and then there's me who can do maybe 7 pull ups if I'm feeling good that day but I can do a muscle-up...) I didn't know all of these things while I was training it. I just knew it was hard and it was something I wanted to do.

My training program was pretty simple: do five muscle-ups (band-assisted) every time I go to conditioning class, with about a minute and a half of rest in between. What does this look like? Glad you asked! Here's some product placement for you (and me being an awkward turtle):

I didn't train muscle-ups every time I stepped foot in the gym (which was stupid, I know) but when I wasn't training muscle-ups specifically, I was doing climb ups, dips, rows, pull ups, and negative pull ups somewhere in my training/conditioning.

After a few months, I was feeling pretty good about my muscle-ups and I wanted to try it without the band just to see how much work I had to do. I made it to the turning point on the bar—the top of the pull up where you need to rotate and push up—and I got stuck. I was high enough that I could keep pushing, but it was a serious struggle. I actually spent several torturous seconds squirming around on top of that bar, determined to get up. I finally did it and was amazed with myself. A few of the guys got excited for me and told me I did a muscle-up and I was like what? that doesn't count. I'm still a gymnast at heart. Unless it's done with good form, it doesn't count.

But this was good for me because it meant I should move down in band resistance. I moved to a smaller band that I nicknamed "Little Red" in my training journal. I was much more reliable this time in terms of sticking to a schedule. I did muscle-up training with Little Red every week in April and May. Five each time (sometimes six), with a minute of rest in between.

About two weeks ago, I did a real, good-form muscle-up with no band which was awesome. I did one. This is good. But I wasn't done. The next time I came in I wanted to do my normal set of five without the band.

I came in the next week and got set up to do it. But all of a sudden I was pulling that chicken wing crap with my right arm going first. Umm hello, Body... what are you doing!? I was so frustrated. I didn't know why it was happening. I went back to the band so I could fix my form before progressing any further and adopting the bad habit.

I'm not sure what happened between that session and the next one but I finally accomplished my goal. No chicken wings. No band. Oh, and no kipping. That feels like cheating to me.

I went over to the bar without stressing too much about it and thought let's see what happens! I did the first one and I was sitting on top of the bar when my trainer walked in. His eyes got all wide like what are you doing up there? and I yelled to him Look, I'm strong now! He laughed but was excited for me and gave me a high-five me when I got down. I did my set of five with no band and even did a few more later on because I had to prove to some of the other guys who missed it that I could do it.

I kept forgetting to get the final result on camera until the other night after my workout. It's not exactly perfect because I was tired but here you go:

I know I've said this before, but it is just so cool to see the results of my training. It always feels like a bottomless pit when you're working towards something that really does take weeks or months to achieve. But nothing beats the feeling when you finally reach your goal. Now, on to the next challenge...