Actually, I am way out of practice, but I just thought I'd ask. I think there's conversation potential here.

Yes, i used to do freerunning but since i moved to the country side i do more climbing and tracing up the mountains

I had to look that word up. I guess you could say that I used to be one, however; I'm way out of practice as well. I've just recently started jogging again, so hopefully by summertime I'll have my endurance back up to where I can do it again.

Sweet!

The way I think of exercise has changed a lot over the years. I used to think that parkour was free movement, but now I realize that my practice of it was quite confined to particular times and places. Now I realize that exercise doesn't even require brick walls (jogging). "Parkour" for me now would probably manifest as carrying heavy objects and sprinting up and stairs (or both)


I've been wanting to do more rock climbing, but I don't know how to do it alone AND safely.

You should look for an easy place to climb and just get higher and higher every time you go. Get you confidence up in yourself and the rocks. I dont use any support when I climb, for now, but I want to buy some equip for more dangerous climbs.

Parkour has been degrading for the last years, and it has been taken away from its original form. For me, and by definition, parkour means getting from point A to point B as fast as possible, without going back and keeping the flow of your body movements. It is not about doing flips and tricks.

I must say that while practicing Parkour I got the most amazing feelings of freedom. Thats why I always enjoyed doing it.

Stay safe !

I've found that it's gotten more difficult as I've gotten older. I started as a small child....not that I knew anything about it back then, but that's just how I always got from point A to point B. Like most children I was fearless, and the notion of injury never crossed my mind. I used to run up & down mountain peaks, jump from rock to rock, cross rivers, etc. Fall? HA! Now that I'm in my late twenties I realize that I'm not invincible, and that a screw-up could end in injury. Thus I've found myself treading with care...which kind of takes away from the freedom of it all. I need to relearn to let go & just let the motions flow. As far as rock climbing goes, start out at a rock gym & learn the basics. Then you can branch out and hit some cliffs.

I try to integrate the "letting go" lesson from psychs into my daily life including when tracing.

Its not about not caring about getting hurt, just try to understand the flow of motion and be awared of the environment around you. It should not be controlled by any means, it should be free and give you freedom.

Peace.

Well put. I certainly do need to relearn to let go.

I was big into Parkour when I was young, poor and in high school, and I still highly respect it, but these days I've replaced it with biking and longboarding since I'd have to travel a fair way to get anywhere suitable for real freerunning. I get the same free feeling of flow from a good ride

I have done the same. I think that the novelty of the freedom of movement found in parkour started to fade for me after several years, and I looked for and found a bigger rush in longboarding. What surprises me is that I get hurt much less longboarding than I did doing parkour back in the day, though I admit I finally learned how to practice parkour without getting banged up toward the end of the phase.

If I got back into parkour, it would be because I have recently, for the first time, noticed that my body (and thus my fitness level) is actually aging. In my mind, putting parkour on the shelf means saying goodbye to the sense of physical ability that I've always held dear in the past.


I agree. Back in the day, parkour was something we did for fun. We would get together and have fun exercising while exploring movement through urban areas in novel ways. I never set foot in a gymnastics studio, but now I find that that is where most of the parkour practices take place nowadays. Not to mention that a lot of people that used to just practice for the fun, fitness, and freedom started trying to commercialize on their skill, which ultimately degraded the attitude of the local parkour scene.