Who’s the one who doesn’t know this extreme sport? Recently the ‘Parkour fever’ already infected many of our youngsters with its adrenaline rush, sense of freedom and famousness.
Even the Hollywood film industry put some of the actions within their movie stunts. This kind of sport gained its fame in the late 90’s and started to spread globally in the beginning of 2000’s, thanks to the first Parkour group called the Yamakasi from French.
Then what is Parkour? Why is it so popular among the young one? Is it that exciting? Surely, it is not about the benefits of Jumping Jacks exercise only.
So, it will be a better thing to answer those questions now, therefore, here are five health benefits of doing parkour:
The Parkour was derived from parcours du combattant (obstacle course), the French military exercises made by Georges Hébert which specifically designed by imitating the athletic ability of Africa indigenous tribes.
The exercise consists of ten basic categorizes: quadrupedal movement, walking, climbing, throwing, lifting, balancing, self-defense, running, jumping, and swimming.
These were meant to meet the World War I and II war zone specific needs – the government effort of making a ‘super soldier’ through a ‘super exercises’.
Then, this kind of exercises was further developed into a kind of extreme sport and physical discipline by the initiative of David Belle, a French actor, choreographer and stunt coordinator, who also regarded as the ‘father’ of nowadays Parkour.
Now, it is not only benefits of Naukasana for physic and mental health, but these are the mental and physical health benefits of doing Parkour:
1. Complete body exercise.
When you walk, and by the time start to run, faster; head up, an obstacle! Jump, do the tiger sprong, rolling, quadruped walk, and run again.
Yes, that’s a sequence of Parkour. See? Almost all your limb is moving. Thus, Parkour can also be defined as a health fitness practices.
Some experts believed that it has an equal amount of training as within the fitness center or a gym.
And most of all: It is free! So, now you know not just the benefits of standing Russian Twist Exercise only, right?
2. Develop rapid well synergized mental-psychometric abilities.
The essence of Parkour is not lay only within the fast paced movement and various form of tricks, but how you may develop a right action for a right obstacles in a right timing.
In that case, you need a well-balanced responses between your cognitive (analyzing the obstacles) and psychometric (the serves reflexes).
In that case, Parkour may let you to think and do it accurately, thus, good for both physical and mental, especially your brain health – at least that’s what experts have said.
Why always thinking of health benefits of dumbbell exercises only, if you can gain some from Parkour?
3. Encourages the creativity.
It’s like what already have been said within the points above: creativity. Just think, if you a traceur (the people who do the Parkour), and in front of you lays a solid obstacle.
Will you prefer to duck? Or Jump? Maybe a little bit both of them, but, with a couple of back flip for a remedy sounds good.
For real, there is a ton of combination that can be implemented, just for a single obstacle. How come you can’t be creative for that?
4. Gives self-credit, otherwise, a confidence!
With such abilities before you, is it quite sure that you’ll be to coolest dude in the block!
Not only that you’re agile enough to ‘flirt’ the chicks, but also you’re fit enough to overcome every challenges in your life.
The Parkour abilities may give you confidence, but the more things are, the fitness of your body that doing the work.
Therefore, Parkour is good for your body, and your mental also.
5. Let you socially healthy.
With such skill and abilities, I believed that you’ll never hide it within the garage or something.
It is so sure you’ll go outside, some actions in the park, maybe for some soc-med or channel content?
In other words, you’ll have a healthy social relationship with the people amongst you.
Other bright side is, in some cases, Parkour may let its traceurs (men) and traceuses (women) be well-known! That good thing, isn’t it?
And to make sure that you’ll do and learn it in the safest way, here are some tips:
- Check your surroundings. Make sure that it’s safe ‘enough’ for you to do the tricks, and more importantly, for the others. Never let your trick becomes harm for other people among you.
- Pick your best move for showing off. If you want to show off, that’s cool. But remember, never use a trick that you don’t master yet. Pick the one that you already good at.
- If you are a beginner, star to watch the master first. You can’t just do it right away. Many of the masters take a long time to practice just for a single trick. At least watch them carefully for the first. If you have some delightful resources, taking classes even better!
- Let your stomach empty. Even if this sounds so basic, but it is quite significant. Full-stomach will slow you down. Moreover it will let you throw-up at the worst. Yep, so still believe the benefits of eating breakfast before exercise?
- Take your time to learn. Don’t rush, don’t push, and don’t put a lot of stress. Listen to your body. It also needs some breaks after all. If you push too hard, it may lead to a serious injury. And the worst case, it will go permanent.
Those are five health benefits of doing parkour which can add some insight for you.
Source:
Becic, S. (2017). ReSYNC your life: 28 days to a stronger, leaner, smarter, happier you. Thomas Nelson.