CrossFit Journal Article Reprint.

First Published in CrossFit Journal Issue 43 - March 2006

Parkour
Jesse Woody

Parkour is quite simply the art peoples he encountered. By

of navigating any environment the time his tour of duty was
quickly, confidently, and complete, he returned to France
effectively with only the with the concept of a méthode
capabilities of your body to aid naturelle, or natural method, of
you. It’s easy to see that how well exercise. Within this method,
it matches the CrossFit tenets of practitioners would run, jump,
function, intensity, and variance, climb, swim, move quadrupedally
but it may seem surprising that (on all fours), fight, defend, and
it can also be universally scalable pick up and carry heavy objects.
and beneficial. The concepts All of these individual aspects
of environmental awareness would be practiced randomly,
and adaptation are of infinite either within a parcours course
usefulness to every person. or in the natural environment.
Whether you are a senior trying By moving the body in many
to recover from a random fall or varied and functional ways, he
a soldier escaping an ambush in realized, an individual could
an urban environment, Parkour become a true specimen of health and vitality. Hébert
techniques can be applied to a variety of situations. By also realized that the moral and mental faculties would
enhancing an awareness of your surroundings and building need to be strengthened as well, and that any method
your confidence to overcome the obstacles throughout, that improved the body at the expense of the mind
you are given the key to a freedom that the untrained was doomed to failure. His personal motto “Be strong
individual might never realize. To top it off, it’s just plain to be useful” (Etre fort pour être utile) illustrates this
fun! It requires nothing more than a good pair of shoes completely. Between the two world wars Hébert’s
and an awareness of a safe and steady progression, so concepts of the natural method were established as
you will rarely be limited by lack of equipment. Instead, standard physical training for the French military. His
you will be able to apply the state of elite fitness we all concepts became the means for improving both the
strive for to any path of your choosing. physical prowess and mental and emotional character
of the soldiers in training.
The term Parkour is a spin on the French phrase “parcours
du combatants,” which is the military obstacle-course Years later David Belle was taught these ideas of
training that has been in place since the turn into the functional movement, useful physical skill, and the
twentieth century. While traveling around the world improvement of character by his father Raymond Belle,
with the French navy, Georges Hébert (1875–1957) a firefighter and officer in the French military. After
was inspired by the fitness and vitality of the indigenous being involved with various sports in his young life,

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Parkour (continued...)
David decided he would expand his skills beyond the of more complex combinations of movement, and you
walls of a gym or the lines of a field. He took the ideas can begin to overcome more complicated environments
behind the parcours training and applied them to the than you might have previously thought possible.
suburb of Lisses outside of Paris. With a few friends
The discussion of these techniques can become
he developed this art to navigate the urban landscape
simultaneously an oversimplification and an
and overcome any obstacle they encountered. After
overcomplication of parkour’s purpose. From refining
years of training, a few videos of the young practitioners
individual movements in varied and random situations,
became public and the parkour movement expanded
the traceur progresses to combinations of movements
from there. Today there is a growing worldwide scene
that become more and more complex while also
of both traceurs (parkour practitioners) and those who
becoming smoother and less defined. Ultimately, the
relate to parkour in some way.
traceur pursues a mind state in which the individual
The downside of this expansion is the apparent media bias movements lose their significance and are replaced
toward dangerous stunts and acrobatic movements that instead with constant motion through any chosen
can make even the most adventuresome individuals cringe. environment. It is much like a martial art where you
When exposed to Latvian kids performing back flips from learn forms to master the basic movements only to
25 feet and insane Frenchmen jumping deadly gaps between gradually disregard these individual elements in pursuit
roofs, many people regard parkour as an “extreme sport” of total mastery of the body and mind.
that is appropriate only for the few individuals sick enough
Along the way to this point, both the dedicated traceur
to huck their bodies from dangerous heights. Fortunately
and the recreational enthusiast will find innumerable
for us all, this isn’t the case. Parkour is established through
benefits from incorporating parkour techniques into
a manageable progression from the most basic roll to
their training. Increased confidence, agility, balance,
ground-level basics and then moving into ground-level
coordination, endurance, stamina, power, speed, and
combinations. Any sort of height is attempted only after
strength are just a few of the more obvious rewards.
mastery of the foundation techniques, and all the benefits
As these improve, more subtle changes also take place,
of parkour training can be gained without ever traveling
and before too long the athlete will be viewing his entire
above your own body height. The opportunity to expand
environment from a different perspective. Mastery of
and perfect movement in relative safety is endless, and an
both the body and the obstacles that might otherwise
entire lifetime could be dedicated to pursuing virtuosity in
hinder its movement is a profound state. By moving
the basics.
purposefully through the basics in a safe environment,
The basic movements are simply the expression of the you gain the ability to approach every situation with the
human body’s most effective methods of locomotion skills and confidence to find the most effective way over,
through varied environments. Over time, many standard around, and through anything that might stand in your
techniques have stood out as universally effective: the way.
basic landing and roll, the various vaults, the element
of balance, the hybrid of both balance and jumping/
absorptive power in the precision jump, and the element
of climbing and swinging in the underbar and cat leap.
Jesse Woody, age 26, father of two, has
For each of these there is an almost infinite amount of
about eight years experience in fitness and
variation which depends on what the environment and
nutrition. He works in various capacities for
obstacle may dictate. The same object may present an
the Woodberry Forest School in Virginia,
opportunity for both climbing and vaulting, depending on
including working with the outdoor education
the angle of approach and speed and/or experience of the
department and, currently, transitioning to
practitioner. After dedicating time to repetitive drilling
head strength and conditioning coach. He’s
of new techniques, a traceur’s options for movement
been practicing parkour for three years, though
expand. Where once you may have been comfortable
he’s acted like a monkey his entire life. He is an
with only a two-handed vault at low speeds, you may now
administrator and frequent content contributor
realize that you are capable of a more powerful monkey
for the American Parkour website.
vault. From this point you begin to expand into the realm

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© 2006 All rights reserved. Feedback to feedback@crossfit.com