Extreme Recovery: Use Parkour to Get Fit

Parkour, without a doubt, builds strength both in your core and your bones. Your core is responsible for helping you bend, twist and transfer power throughout your body. This can help avoid lower back injuries. Unlike swimming and similar to skateboarding, parkour is a high-impact sport. That means your bones learn to build stronger from the impact that they undergo from the parkour movements you perform. There are several parkour moves that help make your spine strong too. Needless to say, free running is extremely beneficial for your back.

Another awesome physical benefit to parkour is its ability to build up your body’s endurance. Traceurs, the titular name for someone who participates in parkour, are constantly on the move. This pumps more blood and oxygen through your body, increasing your stamina. Your muscles are pushed to the limits, too. As you perform moves consecutively and with little pacing, your muscles use up all the energy from your oxygen intake and start producing lactic acid in order to get more energy. That’s what gives the burning sensation in your legs as you exercise. It’s safe to say that parkour really boosts your heart, lungs and muscles.

If it’s not obvious already, parkour utilizes all of your body. From your bones and muscles, to your heart and lungs, free running requires all of you physically. Full-body workouts are a staple option at the gym, but parkour lets you insert a bit of play into your exercise, adding a fun twist to your routine. Running and jumping utilizes the bones and muscles in your legs, back, and core while getting your heart pumping and breath racing. Climbing and vaulting (parkour slang for fancifully moving over or around an obstacle) utilizes the bones and muscles in your arms, back and chest. The fun of it all is deciding in what combination to perform them all.

Not only is parkour a fun alternative full-body workout, it’s also a very skill-oriented activity. The skills required to perform parkour moves are seemingly endless. Free running requires agility, balance, power, speed, and coordination. Developing and improving these skills can benefit you even outside of the obstacle course. We all use skills like these in our day-to-day, though to a much smaller degree. Now I’m not suggesting you start free running to work, but it does have its benefits. Who wouldn’t want to be more agile and coordinated while they’re moving through a heavy public crowd?

Aside from its many physical benefits, parkour offers several benefits to your mental health and well-being. The number one mental benefit to free running is creativity. When we talked about the “fun” and playfulness to parkour, we were really considering the creative nature of the sport. Parkour is a very expressive sport and each obstacle has multiple ways around it. The creativity exerted during free running is largely due to the quick-thinking skills needed for such a feat. Parkour not only exercises quick physical movements but also instinctive decision making. Parkour quite literally expects you to think on your feet.

Another mental benefit to parkour is increased confidence. As much as parkour is about pushing yourself, it’s also about trusting yourself. It’s about the pride and confidence that you experience making it over an obstacle or across a gap. You learn to conquer obstacles you didn’t previously know were in your ability, both literally and figuratively. The expanded quick-thinking skills and creativity can then be used in everyday life. You’re able to determine the safest and most effective route to success with the least amount of trouble and resistance.

Parkour has its emotional benefits, too. Following an increase in confidence and creative expression, parkour can ultimately make you a happier person.This increased happiness comes from a perspective shift caused by increased self-awareness and mindfulness. Mindfulness is a coping skill we talk about a lot here at Artistic Recovery and is powerfully effective during recovery. As you utilize both your mind and body more fully while free running, you enter a “flow state.” A flow state, a common phenomenon in many physical, kinetic, and artistic activities, causes you to become both focused and relaxed, giving you more joy during the activity.

Parkour asks you to re-imagine your environment and your relationship with it. The simple process of determining a different route from point A to point B can cause you to see the world in a whole new way. The self-awareness experienced from considering your own position in your environment can counter the feeling of being disconnected and numb. This can be a vital gift to those experiencing depression, something that’s often connected to addiction recovery. When the world can seem bleak, boring and unchanging, you can use parkour to run, jump, and climb over the obstacles of your addiction.