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All Round
Fitness For PK/FR And For Life |
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:
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.
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.
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