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Sha-VanguardPK
Joined: 30 Mar 2008
Posts: 584
Location: Bronx, NY
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 Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2010 4:13 am Post subject: Training Blog: Physical Therapy and Body Fortification |
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So I've got a training blog going, but I tend to keep it in a format that others can learn from easily. I basically take my experiences, learn from them, and try to teach others what I've learned. Pretty simple, nothing innovative or amazing. Anyway, here's the most recent entry. It's one of the longer and more informative entries, so I hope it can have a positive effect on some of those who may need to hear whats in there. Here's a link to the whole shabang: http://shamualimmak.tumblr.com/ Otherwise, the "Moral of the Story" is posted here, followed by "The Story". The moral of the story is up first in case you don't feel like hearing all about Sha and his physical therapy right now.
Moral of the Story:
1. When a Traceur faces injury in an isolated area, such as a hyper extended ankle or a sprained wrist, we often get discouraged that we “Can’t train”. This couldn’t be further from the truth, as we should actually take it as an opportunity to develop on areas that we don’t normally focus on. If you’re injured, GET EXCITED! Getting too comfortable with a particular set of movements is among the greatest culprits for reaching plateaus in a Traceurs physical and technical development. I would even go as far as to advise playing a little game with yourself from time to time, where you pretend that a certain body part has developed a handicap, and force yourself to focus on less familiar muscle groups. This way you’re always progressing, always moving forward towards your next shattered barrier. You’d be amazed how much developing an under used area can benefit the areas you’re already comfortable with.
2. Keeping your body truly strong is all about preemptive measures and conditioning. “Landing Quietly” doesn’t mean your body is no longer affected by the dynamics of your movement, in both the department of “Impact”, AND the often overlooked “Range of Motion”. Adequate stretching to facilitate a healthy range of motion in all of your movements is beneficial to keep in mind, otherwise you’re constantly jerking your joints and muscles in and out of positions they’re not even comfortable resting statically in, yet alone at high speeds and adding impact to the equation.
3. Basic conditioning is important as well, as many of us zealously jump into the technical world of parkour and stay there, neglecting most of it’s fitness aspects. If you’ve dedicated so much of yourself to mastering all of these efficient movements that get you over obstacles in an instant, you’re setting yourself up for heartbreak if when you have to use them they don’t help much because you run out of breath and cramp up in 20 meters. Parkour is an athletic practice. So lets compare it with a sport, Baseball in this case. Professional MLB players don’t perform at they’re level by simply hitting the ball with the bat over and over again, and running from base to base over and over again. Sport-specific training is implemented. Consider parkour conditioning as sport-specific training. The sport in this case being parkour’s technical facets.
Story:
I’m currently suffering from an overuse injury. The kind of injury that develops gradually over time (months in my case), then teeters on the edge of a legitimate injury for a while, waiting for you to put that just one more ounce of pressure on it or twist just one more millimeter in the wrong direction. I reached that point during my last gym session and managed to earn myself a legitimately damaged rotator cuff in the process. A simple kong vault (and by simple i mean a full force, get more distance than I traditionally can, balls to the wall kong vault) led to a momentarily dislocated shoulder, which just as suddenly popped back into place before my feet hit the ground. Since then I’ve begun self implemented physical therapy, mainly consisting of specific stretches and Int/Ext Rotations with 5lb weights. This has been going great, and introduced me to a concept I call “Fortification”.
In my own made up terminology world, “Fortification” is one stage below “Conditioning”, which is one stage below (or on the same pedestal as) “Technical Training”. During the process of physical therapy, a period in which I couldn’t condition effectively, i realized That I was in a way “Strengthening my body to be able to strengthen my body”. Fortifying the smaller, neglected muscles in order to supplement both the performance and longevity of both the larger more dominant muscles, and my joints. In not doing this in the past, I found myself in the last year very slowly developing numerous overuse injuries that are only starting to arise now. No matter how well you control your momentum and disperse impact, if you’re running, jumping, clearing 15 feet, and landing over and over again, every involved muscle and joint in your body needs to be adequately prepared for that dynamic movement. Otherwise no matter how adept you are, you’re still doing incremental damage that may lead to irreparable and or long term injury. Lets do parkour so that we can be in amazing shape when we’re 60, not so that we can be in even worse shape by then than those who didn’t aspire to be as strong and resilient as we did.
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"We each walk under our own skies during our journey. But when we look up, we all see the same clouds."
Team Website: www.UrbanVanguard.com
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M1L3S
Joined: 02 Apr 2007
Posts: 1231
Location: Atlantic City, NJ
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IRISH
Joined: 30 May 2007
Posts: 1191
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| Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2010 10:01 am Post subject: |
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The longevity of a parkour athlete is yet to be seen, because Belle and founders are so young. My concern is that many of us may be suffering what you describe. Longevity should be our first goal, but try telling that to a hyped traceur who almost has that 12 foot kong to precision down...
I didn't read your entire post but, please take care, no-one wants to see friends get hurt or suffer long term.
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NYPK Vids: http://www.youtube.com/user/NYPKTraceurIRISH
PK Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/rirish18 |
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IRISH
Joined: 30 May 2007
Posts: 1191
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| Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2010 10:08 am Post subject: |
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OK, just read the entire post. What is the fascination with distance, height and extremes that traceurs seem to have? Just look at Jareme or Dom (the french Canadian traceur who visited) to see that extreme doesn't equate to better.
Love of movement = artistry.
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M1L3S
Joined: 02 Apr 2007
Posts: 1231
Location: Atlantic City, NJ
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