Storytime Sunday - Parkour and Muscle Damage

And it is time for the first ever... Storytime Sunday! Complete with memories of pain and stupidity and advisories to would-be Traceurs.

Ahh parkour, a much loved ex-hobby of mine. Before I continue, I would like to preface the particular story I'm about to tell, I should mention, as I've said a few times in the past, that I am an idiot and prone to stupidty occasionally. That said... lets begin.

For those of you who have yet to hear about Parkour (Or it's related, but actually different cousin, Free Running), it is something of a mindset and method of movement. To use a cliched style of speech, it's "A way of life." To describe it in a very simple and easy to understand way; Parkour is the basis of efficient movement. It's getting from place A to place B as quickly as possible. It's the "Through instead of around" argument. For comparisons sake, (and because I'm likely to get annoyed with you if you do a flip and call it Parkour), Free Running is something of an offshoot from Parkour. The objective with Free Running no longer being the fastest traversal of space, but the most stylish. Free Runners do flips and arbitrary movements that are visually appealing and obviously difficult to pull off, but the their objective is different. Anyways, now that you know what Parkour is, lets get back to how young people (AKA me) can be stupid and hurt themselves.

Once upon a time some young (well.... young-er) version of myself stumbled upon this wonderful new "sport" known as parkour. I say "sport" because it is not, in technicality, an competitive activity, but rather a method of movement. So being the bright and happy go lucky, devil may care lad that I was, I pulled on my track-pants and running shoes and went at it. As I'm sure you can guess, a relatively unfit and untrained person jumping and hanging off of things, or jumping off of them, is not a particularly safe nor intelligent thing to be doing. (In hindsight, at least I didn't jump off a building.)

This guy... is better than I was...

So where's the issue then you ask? Well, one day somewhere along my 11th grade I decided to hang off of some metal bars and was rebuffed by the searing pain of torn muscle in my left shoulder. Much to my luck, my injury was not especially serious to any degree, however it did serve as an effective wake up call to stop behaving like a brainless monkey hanging from metal trees (Nobody ever threw peanuts at me though...) The tear was not especially severe, although it hurt like hell, and while I still have full control of my arm in all capacities, I do have a patch of skin that is near completely dead to the touch over my shoulder blade. (oooh, Poke it!)

So what can I tell you that you should do if you would like to do Parkour. Well... I would say "Don't"... but that's crap, we both know Parkour is awesome. So what I will advise is that you don't just put on some sneakers and start climbing things. Joke's aside, it's a good way to hurt and even kill yourself as many a news report over the years has since told. (And I always say, if you're gonna kill yourself, do it with style. Splattered bodies are unsightly.)

Rather, go do some research. The internet is, I find, your friend in many a case. There are tons of resources on the internet to help you get on track towards becoming a Traceur (Or Free Runner) and taking part in this awesome activity. (Or breaking your face accidentally.)  Wikihow has tons of tutorials of varying quality on subjects such as this one on doing the Safety Roll: http://www.wikihow.com/Do-Parkour-Safety-Rolls
Please learn how to do the roll... Like... seriously. That can save your life.
Youtube also has a veritable mass of similarly themed tutorials as always for those like myself who need a bit more visual information to figure things out. 

And lastly, there are probably hundreds of Parkour and Free Running groups across the world who are more than willing to show newbies the ropes so they don't end up dead or maimed. Being a resident of South Africa, I know of the local group for my South African; ParkourSA, who maintain an active Facebook and Twitter following and regularly help would be runners in organizing to train with others. I highly recommend you check them out, either on their Facebook Page or by dropping them a Tweet on @ParkourSA. For my international readers, a quick Google will likely have you where you need to be in no time.

Anyways, hopefully you have been amused or educated by this lengthy lament about the necessity for research. Or at least become less likely to accidentally commit suicide.

Don't forget to leave a comment or suggestion and share this with anyone you think might injure themselves without this information.

Have an AWESOME day, and I bid you adieu.