To be totally fit for Parkour and Freerun, the practitioner must consider the ‘7 components of fitness’. Arguably someone can appear fit without actually having all of the components. However, to avoid injury and to be at the top their game, a Traceur or Freerunner must have some of each, or at least train each to some degree. It is true that one component may be more important than another depending on the sport trained for. But by ignoring one or two, because they do not seem applicable to your sport could potentially leave you open to injury.
The 7 Components of Fitness:
- Flexibility
- Endurance
- Skill
- Stamina
- Strength
- Speed
- Power
Flexibility
“The maximum range of movement around a joint allowed by the muscles”
Each training session should involve a comprehensive warm up including mobility work and dynamic stretches. Static stretches are not necessary and are really included out of habit, but if included should be held for 8 – 10 seconds.
Each training session should end with a comprehensive warm down and static stretch session. This will have a marked improvement on recovery time and help produce strong healthy muscles. These “maintenance stretches” should be held for 12 – 15 seconds. Certain muscles can be stretched for up to 30 seconds; these are known as “developmental stretches” and are extremely beneficial to the hamstring, quad and groin muscles for Parkour/Freerun practitioners.
Separate stretching sessions can be beneficial after a hard session or on a rest/rainy day.
Endurance
“The ability of the body to resist fatigue whilst performing relatively prolonged exercise of LOW to MODERATE intensity work”
A Traceur/Freerunner requires a good level of endurance to ensure he/she can keep performing throughout the entire session and not feel drained/tired.
A simple way to train endurance is to go on long, slow to medium paced runs. This is a gradual process and either time or distance should be used as a marker and built on. For example running 20 mins one session then 25 mins the next, then 30 the next etc. Or 2 miles one session, 2.5 miles the next, 3 miles the next etc.
It is not a necessity but it is beneficial to see if improvements are being made, to measure the rough distance covered if running to time, or to measure the time if running to distance.
Long runs such as this are not really specific to Parkour/Freerun, however they will considerably help your overall fitness and aid in the production of healthy muscles, cardiovascular fitness, healthy lifestyle and weight management.
Skill
“The ability of the mind/body to know when and where to use a specific technique, and to be able to use it successfully”.
These techniques can be found on our fundamentals page. “Perfect practice makes permanent”. By repeating a technique, properly, again and again it will become permanent in the muscle memory. However, repeating a bad technique is not good, as this is what is learnt. The old term “practice makes perfect”, is not true. “Perfect practice makes permanent”
Stamina
“The ability of the body to resist fatigue whilst performing repetitive high level intensity work”.
A Traceur/Freerunner requires a good level of stamina to ensure he/she can keep performing the large number of short sprints required throughout the entire session/run and not slow down significantly towards the end.
The best way to train stamina is to perform repetitive sprints a set number of times. A Traceur/Freerunner can be expected to sprint from stationary or while moving, usually short distances but often relatively large ones too.
A good way to cover a range of distances is to start at 20 metres and build up to 50 or 60 metres then start at 1 or 2 metres again and build up to 10 metres.
Or, start at 20 metres, go down to 1 or 2 metre then finish on 50 to 60 metres.
A car park is a good place to train, using the white lines as markers. It is best if you do this in pairs and race to ensure maximum effort.
For the smaller distances, 1 – 10 metres, these can be paced out with a water bottle or sweatshirt placed in between 2 practitioners, who both sprint to get to it first.
Each sprint should be performed a set number of times which is set down before the first sprint, rest should be given between each one so as not to turn the session into an endurance session. You should have almost caught your breathe before repeating, this is achieved with “active recovery periods”, say walking back to the start line or jogging around slowly. To stop completely is not as functional, and by walking the muscles aid “venus return” i.e. the muscles pumping blood back to the heart. Repetitions should be between 5 and 12 reps. This can be built up over time. Again, this type of training should last between 20 and 30 minutes.
This type of training is extremely beneficial as in not only increases fitness, but also increases speed which is also highly beneficial to practitioners of our discipline. Additionally due to the high work level this type of exercise is very good for weight loss if performed correctly.
Strength
Strength is the maximum amount of weight the body can move using specific muscles.
Strength is very important to Traceurs/Freerunners, but in most instances without too much weight gain. Good overall strength will ensure that we can perform all techniques without risk of injury, it will make us quicker when sprinting, able to jump further and higher, and will aid overall fitness.
If not using weights a simple circuit training session is a good strength session. Different exercises should be laid out in a logical sequence where you do each exercise for a set number of repetitions (10 or 20 etc) or repeating for a set period of time (30 seconds – 1 minute).
The exercises should be in order:
- Upper body (press ups, bicep curls, triceps extensions, shoulder press)
- Legs (squats, lunges, star jumps, box jumps)
- Torso (abdominals or back, sit ups, dorsal raises, core stability)
- Repeat order
This order ensures one group is not overloaded and reduces injury.
About 10 - 12 exercises can be used, mixed in with specific Parkour/Freerun techniques to make more interesting, i.e. a precision jumps, balance exercise etc.
If using weights a simple program involves using as many of the weights machines in the gym as desired. For each machine you should work out your 6 repetitions maximum. That is the weight on each different machine that you can lift 6 times but not 7. Once you have worked this out and recorded it, you follow a set programme where you lift a specific percentage of that 6 rep max weight. This should begin at 70% of the 6 rep max weight while performing 10 -12 reps, this should be done for 2 -3 weeks, this is then increased to 75% of the 6 max rep weight, again performing 10 – 12 reps. This should be done for 2 – 3 weeks. The next percentage is 72.5% of the 6 max rep for 10 -12 reps for 2 – 3 weeks, then 77.5% same reps and time periods, then 80%. At this point your 6 rep max should be worked out again as you should have improved without gaining too much muscle due to the high repetitions.
Speed
Speed is how fast the muscles can move given a set objective. We often think of this as our sprint speed, but it could be our reaction times. To train speed, you need to do repetitive drills when not overly fatigued. Similar to the sprint drills laid out for stamina work, but really concentrating on technique. Look out for an article on Speed and Agility training at a later date.
Power
Power is the functional relationship between strength and speed. There are three types of power:
- Explosive
- Reactive
- Fast
As both speed and strength are being trained anyway, power will increase. However, specific plyometric sessions will see power increase more so, which in turn will see you become more explosive, better reactions and generally faster.
Plyometric sessions involve bounds, jumps, hops etc over a distance of about 5 – 10 metres, like the sprints they are repeated a set number of times, with recovery in between.
Conclusion
For success in any sport it is important that individuals have an all round fitness training programme, and do not concentrate to0 heavily on one area.
Not all the components need to be trained in one session or one week. The components can be mixed together from one training session to the next, however, one type of training may interfere with another type, so the following order should be kept to if performing on the same day/session:
- Warm up
- Skill
- Power/Speed
- Strength
- Stamina
- Endurance
- Flexibility
This is obvious when thought about, as you would be too tired to concentrate on a specific skill if you did stamina training prior to it.
More About The Author - Sean Lerwill
Sean is a Royal Marines Commando Physical Training Instructor (PTI) with numerous sports, exercise and fitness qualifications under his belt including; REPs (Register of Exercise Professionals) Advanced Instructor Level 3 (Fitness Manager and Personal Trainer), British Weight Lifting Association (BWLA) Coach, Kettle Bell Instructor, and SAQ (Speed Agility Quickness) diploma. He also has a BSc honours degree in Molecular Genetics from King’s College London. His personal sporting background includes athletics (running), cross country, triathlons, football, rugby and martial arts.
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Disclaimer
All of the information contained within these articles on the Urbanfreeflow.com website are provided for informational and educational purposes. This includes any videos, fitness programs, fitness workouts and general articles. In no event shall Urban Freeflow or any individual or company involved with the development of these articles be liable for special, indirect, incidental or consequential damages of any nature, including but not limited to personal injury, loss of anticipated profits or claims from third parties. If you are unsure about your fitness levels, please consult with a doctor before you carry out any exercises demonstrated here.
Very helpful. Thank you.
thanks that ill put that infomation to good use
Never got the difference between endurance and stamina, until now. That will come in handy.