So, I decided to start this thread since a discussion in this thread got onto the topic and I didn't want to hijack it. I figured I might as well get some kind of discussion going about being active in general. Are you active? What do you like to do? How often do you do it? Or are you someone who "used to" do everything but is now too lazy/busy? If so what did you used to do and what causes you not to be able/willing to do it now? Just been on a bike ride? Just finished a sweaty session in the gym? Finally made that Yoga pose you never thought you would make? Just learned about a new sport? Just tried something new? Let us know! I envision this thread to be like a trip to the Oil Rig; die, revive, die revive, die revive. So keep it coming! --- In reply to Huskie's enthralling post on Krav Maga and following questions on Parkour, I decided to post here my response so we didn't end up taking up khaos' whole thread with our chatter. So Huskie, here's your response: Wow, interesting stuff about KM! Read all of it! I never even knew about this stuff before this thread, so thanks guys :) I am no parkour pro and have only been doing it for a year or so, but I did read extensively on the topic before I began, since I had the same issue, where to begin! Well, in the end my view on what parkour actually involves expanded so far that simply "training a few moves" seemed ridiculous. My main focus turned to the phrase I had read: "Be strong to be useful." When you think of it this way, parkour can mean a whole lot more than what most people assume it is (French guys jumping off buildings). The very first change is a change of mentality. Look around where you live after watching a few parkour videos online and you will be surprised at how different a familiar place can look. It's about getting out of the boxed in mentality displayed by pretty much everyone but children today. The second thing I addressed was my muscle group imbalance. I've always used my legs way more than my arms (cycling, skateboarding etc..), so my legs are very strong while my arms look thin and weak in comparison. So the first action I took to start parkour was to start putting a bit more focus on my arms, since they become important when you want to hold your own weight and pull yourself up onto ledges and roofs etc... I now do 3 x 25 press-ups per day and since I started this routine a couple of weeks ago (3 x 20 at first), my body has changed noticeably already. Last year I headed to my nearest woods (I prefer woods to towns) since that is the type of environment I would like to be in most of the time. Also there is a distinct difference between the urban and natural settings in parkour. When I got to the woods, I found a nice private clearing I knew, climbed a tree and hung my bag there (already realising that hey, this is parkour already!) and began creating an assault course for myself in my mind, using the nearby trees. Often I practice basic techniques such as Quadrupedal Movement (walking on your hands and feet, like a big cat - harder than it seems!) > ...which can also be transferred onto a railing and is then called Cat Balancing: > Other basic conditioning can include standing on one foot for an extended period, walking along a specific (thin) line on the floor or accuracy jumping from one point to another. Well, that was a few changes I made to begin parkour. Hope they help you on your journey! First of all I'd look around Youtube and the internet for parkour videos and just see where it takes you. I know I'll be looking up KM after that explanation, I even think the two practices can be used together. Enjoy!
Cool, thanks for the tips, Dallas. I had alredy watched a couple parkour documentaries and even found a group on a social networking site that practices it in the city I live in, though they only meet up to practice weekends, and weekends I'm either: a) too tired or sore from KM trainings in the week; b) studying for law school; c) have a cold (I'm very susceptible to that, it even annoys me) or the weather is too crappy to train outdoors; d) I simply forget; or e) all of the aforementioned. :) Right now for example it's freezing cold down here, so I already put it on hold again until the weather improves a little. Although it's been taking so long I'll probably just have forgotten about it again when the weather is actually good again, lol.
As said in the other topic, i'm going to start KM when the weather cools down. It's over 35°C here, so exercising isn't really fun. Wanted to do some Parkour too, but like Huskie I didn't where to start. And I couldn't find good spots in my neighbourhood either (keep in mind I'm only 16 years old, so I can't really get to the cities every day) I also go mountainbiking every now and then. Already got massive quadriceps now :3 Wanted to go fitnessing too, but it's quite boring if you do it on your own. Although i seem to have one problem. My muscles are to big for the strength i have.
How active are you / what do you like to do? I train in Kempo, Muy Thai, and MMA -- though after the purchase of my home a few years back Ive found myself until the last 2 weeks working more on home related activities and working less on getting out of my former apartment! This has changed, as Ive gotten back into the training... with the conditioning phase my current area Im running up and down stairs for an hour daily, doing basic lifting, and doing some of that crawling stuff pictured above --- only backwards (head facing towards gravity) while going up and down more stairs! Yes... my trainer loves stairs. I also play music, and have been fortunate enough to play in bands that have toured the US and Europe, and have even been on MTV once or twice ;). Im working on starting up a new project this summer, so that perhaps by BOBfest next year I can take the stage with them, all things depending of course. Other than that I travel, hike when im out and about, and booze it up. Yes, thats right I booze it up. Its probably my favorite activity of all!
You'll change your mind about stairs after you're forced to go do your warm-up run and exercises out on an earth trail through a tall grass field, where horses go through leaving their little "land-mine" trail on top and then have to lay down to do sit-ups and find out there's a "little surprise" lying there on your spot. And you can't try to change spot or refuse to lie down, because well, it's basically military training. Oh, and after that you have to actually jump on another person's back (which is also filthy) while they carry you around running, and then switch places. Btw, Did I tell you our uniform is white, and that was the first day of that kind of training and I only had one uniform set? How do you like your stairs, now? :D (Granted I only had to do this on one of the field trips I mentioned in my other post in the other thread, but still, you learn to appreciate other exercises a lot more after something like that.)
