Parkour Training And Injury Avoidance
If you’ve trained in Parkour for a long time, you will no doubt have had an injury. Some of which have the possibility of cutting down your practice time and forcing you to take prolonged resting periods in which to heal.
As you may already know, Traceurs must have continuous speed and strength sessions on the various aspects of Parkour and Freerunning in order to progress in the sport. It is injuries that are our most dreaded enemy and picking one up, even the most minute of niggles, may result in a llong lay off and it can take a great deal of time to get back to the same level of skill.
I have suffered from many diverse types of injury over my years of practicing Parkour and Freerunning. Here I like to discuss the steps required that will aid the prevention of these whacky injuries.
What do most Parkour practitioners do?
Stick on any worn-out pair of running shoes, a set of jogging bottoms and a t-shirt. They head out of the door and start running, climbing and jumping around to their hearts content.
First of all, we will look at are the selection of footwear.
Whilst you can use running trainers for Parkour, they are not totally appropriate to all of the things that you need them to handle.
There are manufacturers that specialize in Parkour Shoes that will meet all of your needs whilst providing protection. They have soft cushioned soles, far greater than those on a running shoe. This helps with landing from elevation, which makes up a great portion of a Parkour session.
Grip is a massive part of Freerunning, without it we would most certainly get many more injuries. However the special compound used on the soles of these Parkour Shoes is 100% better than normal running shoes. K-Swiss, Nike and FiveTen are all manufacturers of these shoes and all of them use this special compound component to provide the best grip possible on walls and rails. This also means that the shoes themselves last much longer as they are tougher.
Arch support is also a key element and the insoles inside Parkour Shoes offer a more elevated arch to avoid collapsed foot arches. They also offer an increased area in the toe box part of the shoe, meaning after a long run you are less likely to get cramp in the foot as your toes can move more liberally.
Pre Training
Parkour is a risky discipline, but you can shrink that risk by performing warm-ups. Nearly every sport in the world requires some sort of warm up routine, and Parkour is no different.
A warm up routine can comprise of a slow paced jog to get the heart pumping and blood flowing. Followed by a relaxed stretching of the primary muscle groups, the arms, the legs, the neck and the back.
You don’t need to dread this warm up, you can make it fun also. Think of games you used to play when you were younger and try to incorporate them into a light parkour practice session. Walking races with your friends are great and you look so funny to your friends you will no doubt be limbered up up in no time! Perhaps you can think of better ideas however!
The Techniques
Each movement you take is very fundamental and in order to avoid being injured your technique must be very good. We need to concentrate on how we land from any height.
Landing from any height can be hard to the body, particularly on hard and wet surfaces. We need a balance of the correct attire, a warm up and correct technique.
The first 2 points have been covered above. Here is where we look at the actual training/practice element.
We train in parkour to improve on 2 things. Strength and Stamina. These are the first things we need develop before we can consider other elements, such as flexibility.
Strength in the Muscles and Stamina in the Muscles, is what we need to concentrate on first and foremost. From this core ability comes, agility, the exact mentality and confidence.
Advancement in parkour is paramount to these fundamentals and they should not be overlooked.
How to Train:
1. Focus on creating well-fixed landings with the correct technique. Have your buddy record you on his or her camera so you can watch after the session. This training aid alone will save you hours of failure.
2. Do not push yourself to the point where your body fails. There are some hobbies where this is encouraged, such as Bodybuilding etc. However in parkour and freerunning we should keep our bodies fit an healthy and build a solid foundation over time.
3. Practice on soft terrain such as grass. Local parks are fantastic for this and you even have obstacles in place, benches, bins, trees etc. A sandy beach is great if you are practicing flips as the super soft sand will take the brunt of the impact from any mishap!
4. You should cool down after each training session, ensuring you stretch each group of muscles.
If you follow these simple steps you will be well on your way to an injury free Parkour or Freerunning session each and everytime you train. Please take what you can from this article and add into your own training, I know you will reap the benefits.
Post a comment