Friday, January 11, 2013

Big but Useful

"Be strong to be useful."

All that follows is not cited from any sources its just information from my experiences and a bunch of my opinions.

Natural movement

One of the most useful things a human can master is to move naturally, like an animal. gibbons in trees, cheetahs on the plains, goats on the mountains, fish in the sea, run, climb, jump, swim, moving in these fashions builds skills that have real world application coupled with the fight or flight response or in other words as the Parkour community and i refer to it: "Zombie Apocalypse training". 

The sad reality we live in in America is that most Americans are sedentary, work out very little, rarely enough and of those usually wrong and or with terrible form. Natural movement has an easier level of entry, and in just about all cases, it's free. reliant on body weight exercise that provides mastery over ones body weight through progressive calisthenics that are also relatively free to perform especially if ingenuity is present. Natural movement is also fun, making you feel like a kid again, playful i mean, how can you NOT smile as you climb to the top of a tree?

Look how happy she is, damn thats a happy monkey

Where Parkour comes in

I have been involved in the parkour community for nearly 2 years now and found it filled with many wonderful, supportive, encouraging as well as talented people and would reccomend anyone looking for a fun way back into fitness that is also free (relatively, gas might be required). Once you get involved in Parkour and natural movement not all the flipping in stuff, remember i said Zombie Apocalypse Training? you dont back flip to get away from zombies unless you're Milla Jovovich:

i don't care, she can back flip if she wants

So as i was saying, once you get involved and you grow to love the supportive aspect of the community it will become easier to keep coming and and soon your life starts centering around the natural movements. As you start taking an active interest in a physical discipline you will start (if you're smart) doing more conditioning and training on the side to support your passion for natural movement. Now all that i just said is a generalization, it doesn't apply to everyone just the majority that i've witnessed in and entering the Parkour community.

Big But Useful

Now to my main point, my personal goal is to maintain my skills in natural movement and continueing to progress further whilest getting stronger in my ability to lift massive ammounts of weight namely deadlifting and squats to further strengthen my ability to jump for Parkour and natural movement. but i also desire more size, not THIS:



but a larger and very cut physique so as im finding out at 6'6" and 210lbs is that im not hindered in the least in fact its actually made my movement skills better, sure i have to work harder to deal with impacts and landings because of my weight but with more leg muscle and strength, the better my ability for my leg muscles to contract and absorb the force of my impact and save my knees as well as my whole kinetic chain from injury and damage. 

Summary

In summary, you can be Big as well as functional it just depends on the style of workout you perform, calisthenics with weights for leg power? body building? power lifting? etc.




No comments:

Post a Comment