Building Strength

To improve form and therefore technique I am going to have to build strength through conditioning. I wish I had started at the start of autumn but I have only jut really just how important it is if i really want to improve.

The 3 main parts I want to improve on are:

• Legs (mainly Quadrecepts) For controll in precisions and general explosive leg power.
• Core (Abs and Back Muscles) For Controll of all movement and to hold form and improve general strength
• Upper Body (Biceps, Triceps, Lats and Pectorials) For improving climb ups, cat leaps and general movement ability.

"For more controlled movement we need better strength"
I've realised that Parkour is movement and for more controlled movement we need better strength so conditioning is a key part of parkour. I have also been suprised by the mental benifits. Obviously I will continue to try to improve handbalancing and hopefully my conditioning will help my hand balancing and my handbalancing add to my conditioning.

Somersault progression: June 24th

Basically this post is to mark my progression of flips in general at the end of June. This includes work at the gymnastics centre where me, Alex and Luwin go every monday to practise and to be advised on technique, and stuff i have been doing in regular training.

Today i managed my first back somersault outside showing me that the going to the gym every week is helping. I've been landing them comfortably at the gym for about a month and today i managed to land smoothly off a few different things. I got 1 or 2 on video so here it is...

I think what i need to improve is the reach up with my arms and the tuck. I am holding back with these because its my first few attempts. I would like to work towards getting a back tuck (back somersault on the floor) but for this i need to have exactly correct technique. I havn't quite plucked up the corrage to attempt them at the gym but have manages to try back somersualting off a springboard onto a mat of the same hieght:





The most resent thing i have been learning at the gym is wall flips so maybe we will see some of them outside in the future. Only time will tell...

Heres how they are going at the gym so far: (2 sessions work)

Rotation is a big issue at the moment as i have huges amounts of hieght but i am not landing fully upright. I am very happy with my progression so far though, because I have spent a very limited amount of time working on the technique wall flips as quite a large percentage of the time i have spent on them so far has been working up the full wall flip. I still find them very scary so I think it will be along time until I am racking up the corrage to try one on a concrete wall outside.

Thanks to Alex and Steve for filming :D

What I'm About

Ok. My names Ross Garwood and I have been doing Parkour for about a year and taken it seriously for about 6 months now. I like to look at how i move and work on things like form and strength to improve my ability. I train regulaly and I am now trying to shape my life to improve at my disapline. I try to go running once a week, condition regularly, go to the gym at least once a week and practise parkour as much as possible. Unfortunatly the weather and my massive amout of work from 6th form doesn't always help me to do this. Yeah so i thought i'd write a blog for me to see my progression and also to put all my work together in a sorta diary format.
So here goes...