Weight Training for Parkour?

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Hi, my friend has recently took up a sport called Parkour (Parkour - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and would like to increase his climbing strength, vertical jump, long jump and his speed + balance.

He wants to include weight training into his routine (his routine now just consists of him practicing the basic movements) but he's pretty new to weight training, and he's not sure which exercises/rep ranges/routinescould increase all this. He came to me for help, but since I'm new to weight training too (know a little bit now, but not much... and not anything sport specific) I couldn't help him.

I know there are some personal trainer's on the forum that cater to athletes, and I was just wondering if you could help get him started (whether it be providing links to articles, recommend books, give him your own personal advice, etc.)
Thanks for your time.
 
Well, you're best shot would be to get into contact with someone who is experienced in parkour. The best training for it is probobly doing the actual movements.

From what ive seen it seems you need alot of stamina, since you run alot and jump doing it, its very cardio demanding. Also, since theres quite a bit of jumping, some explosive training would probobly be in order.
And with explosive training comes strenght training. Theres no point in doing jump squats if you're leg strenght sucks. To be able to jump high you need the ability to use the strenght in you're body quickly.
if you can use the strenght you have quick, but you dont have alot of strenght, you wont jump high.

If you have alot of strenght, but cant use it quickly, you wont jump as high as if you had some speed.

In the beginning just doing basic compounds like squats will help your jumping and speed, but when you start being able to move some pounds speed training is needed. Now im just saying that, not knowing what level youre at, for all i know, you could be squatting 400 pounds.
 
Karky said:
Well, you're best shot would be to get into contact with someone who is experienced in parkour. The best training for it is probobly doing the actual movements.

From what ive seen it seems you need alot of stamina, since you run alot and jump doing it, its very cardio demanding. Also, since theres quite a bit of jumping, some explosive training would probobly be in order.
And with explosive training comes strenght training. Theres no point in doing jump squats if you're leg strenght sucks. To be able to jump high you need the ability to use the strenght in you're body quickly.
if you can use the strenght you have quick, but you dont have alot of strenght, you wont jump high.

If you have alot of strenght, but cant use it quickly, you wont jump as high as if you had some speed.

In the beginning just doing basic compounds like squats will help your jumping and speed, but when you start being able to move some pounds speed training is needed. Now im just saying that, not knowing what level youre at, for all i know, you could be squatting 400 pounds.
Click to expand...
Alright, well he's an average teen and doesn't have too much strength. Should he take something up like a 5x5 routine for strength? And what about bodyweight exercises, since that's basically what parkour is should there be some bodyweight exercises included and how would he go about incorporating both into a routine? I don't really know much about strength, personally I'm going for max hypertrophy.

Also he's talked to me about taking a gymnastics course, but since he's 15 isn't that a little late? Don't they want like younger kids to train for competitions and stuff? Not too mention a lot of the flips and such aren't needed for parkour, just the jumps, rolls, etc.
 
what he really should do, its hook up with someone who does parkour. That post was really just my guesses, how to develoup strenght and power etc. Im no parkour expert. Im sure you can find a decent parkour forum using google.

Taking up some strenght training probobly would hurt his parkour, but its not much worth if he doesnt have the techniques the parkour people uses.
 
I have seen a few parkour videos and I would probably say that gymnastics are the best way to go.
Some gymnasts are very strong.
 
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