Want to get in great shape while learning some gymnastics and gaining a useful everyday skill for navigating the world? Would you like to learn how to get from one place to another with speed, efficiency, grace, and skill? How about leaping through a city landscape like a modern Tarzan in an urban jungle? It may seem odd to think that someone could coin the concept of taking a shortcut on a walk through town into an extreme sport. It is likely even more bizarre that the coining would be a recent one. While people have obviously been doing it since there have been structures, leave it to modern culture to coin the everyday. Although it may sound as silly as patenting humming as a new genre of music, it has sparked some motivation for people to get really serious about everyday fitness in a health club that is publically available any time, day or night.

The most popular name of this primarily urban genre of gymnastics is currently “Parkour“. It is all about overcoming any obstacle to get from place to place as quickly as possible and all the while maintaining a primary focus on efficiency. What this all means is that basically if the shortest path between point A and point B is over a fence and if it is the fastest way to go, then you go over the fence. This is, of course, only recommended if both sides of the fence are public areas. Park benches are another such obstacle which is commonly leapt over in Parkour. There are other more extreme examples involving such situations as rooftop navigation like a superhero, but those examples are outside of this article and should only be researched at your own discretion. Anything you try is at your own risk and this website holds no responsibility for your activity.

An interesting benefit of Parkour practice, which has lead to it being considered a sort of martial art by some of its practitioners, is the ability to flee from any situation. In many martial arts, if one has a good teacher, fleeing is the number one recommendation for any actual confrontation outside of a sporting area. In this way, Parkour can be a truly effective way to maximize one’s most advisably important way of overcoming any such situation.

As the art of Parkour has such a focus on efficiency and also as possibly because another person wanted to coin their own term for getting around, a form of obstacle overcoming grace and style also arose and that is currently most popularly known as “Free Running”. It may seem that Free Running is just an English term for the same sport, since Parkour is originally a French word, but it is actually considered to be a uniquely different branch of the same sport. If moving with style regardless of speed and efficiency is more your pace, then it is likely you may enjoy the art of Free Running.

Have fun and be careful.