Should you lift weights for parkour ? [Biomechanics Explained]

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There is a lot of variation in movement analysis, please don't assume that everything said here applies to you.
This is not medical advice, if you're concerned about an injury get it checked by a medical professional.

[@GK_Imagimotion]

As some who is getting older (37 now) and trains pk for quite some time (15+y), with some serious injuries along the way. I would definitely recommend strength, cardio, stretching and range of motion trainings for everyone who trains. Doing only pk of course will make you better in pk but unfortunately quite often practitioners tend to limit themselves to only movements they like, this is why so many people have weak climb ups for example. Mixing parkour with other disciplines will definitely benefit you in the future when you gonna get less dynamic and heavier.

[@vagrantvienna]

Same situation here. I think it's short sighted to equate weight lifting with strength training or muscle building alone, there's a bunch of things that in my experience can really benefit the parkours practice but are hard to train just through parkours. Two examples that came to my mind are stability and mind muscle connection

[@GK_Imagimotion]

@@vagrantvienna exactly weight training doesn't allow only to lift more weight or get you 0.5 feet longer jump, as you said it improves stability and mm connection what equals gaining more control over our movements.

[@garfon]

Underrated channel af

[@billybigjumps]

Great video, well articulated. However, I have would disagree a great deal about the main theme of downplaying the useful of weight training. It seems your though process considers the pros and cons almost entirely through the lens of movement patterns, which I feel is important, but an oversimplification. Not only can weight training be a useful tool to improve movement patterns (good form, low weight at first etc.) but there a ton of other benefits in terms of muscle strength, tendon strength, nervous system adaptations, and even bone strength which will all translate well to PK. There are also lots of other exercises that might be helpful in addition to just squats and deadlifts. I agree that is its possible to get it wrong and exacerbate existing issues, but this it true with any method of cross training, or as you often point out, even day to day movement. Ultimately, I think the question of weightlifting should be considered more holistically and not just from the perspective of movement patterns alone. Thanks!

[@MostIntelligentMan]

nah bro, weight lifting(outside olympic lifts, which are more like plyometrics with weights) only makes your body slow and injured, i play pro sports and iv seen it million times, dudes who lift hardcore get their hamstrings blown from just running in game etc... robotic nature of repetitions of any exercise just make u shit

[@bricology]

@@MostIntelligentMan wrote "i play pro sports" _Suuuure_ you do. 🙄 When I started with PK, I had a typical ectomorph build; lean, without much muscle mass and, correspondingly, not much strength. I couldn't do a single pull-up, much less a muscle-up, so most wall work that required climbing, was hopeless for me. And moves like dash vaults and kongs I could barely pull-off, since I had little strength in my arms and shoulders. So I pretty intensely started working on pull-ups, then weighted pull-ups, as well as tricep push-downs, bench presses, lat pull-downs, flyes, etc. In a year I put on 8 pounds of solid muscle, mostly in my arms and shoulders. I can now nail climb-ups, do pretty decent pop-vaults, and climb pretty much any wall that I can get a grip on. NO WAY I could do such things before adding that muscle mass. And having more strength actually makes me _less_ likely to get injured, for a couple of reasons: intense exercise builds bone density, and muscles that strengthen the core make back injury less likely. So, yeah -- you don't know what you're talking about.

[@yercules]

When are you releasing the video on Josh from Storror? He has one the best flowing and creative movements, which is one of the most underrated aspects of parkour (imo). Besides being entertaining, it would also benefit young people or beginners a lot, since most don't have a high level of strength yet. Good video! Personally I benefitted a lot from weight training, since I'm fairly hypermobile, it stabilized my movement patterns greatly.

[@swagmoneymaxswagallday3639]

love your video's! So nice to have these well researched video's on how the movements in parkour actually work

[@tomi727a]

I have the strong opinion that the best way is to do weighted calisthenics, getting stronger moving things doesn't directly correlate to moving your body in a stronger way. Squats work cause they are objectively weighted calisthenics (squats are bodyweight exercises, and you are moving your body through space). But it's better to push dips weight rather than bench press cause it's more practical

[@bricology]

Yeah -- weighted push-ups and pull-ups are great for PK, as I'm sure weighted muscle-ups would be (I can't do those yet), especially calisthenics that are plyometric.

[@PateVansAnchez]

Absolutely fantastic info, Theo! Super helpful for identifying want you want overall outta parkour. I'm on squats, deads and pullups at the moment but I'll give that extension one a go.

[@ThatGuyNyan]

Ayyyyyyy finally back at it, nice

[@ward_pk]

love the content, very interesting! Would love to see you break down rotations and twists, and how different twist techniques result in different flipping rotations!

[@RumblingTube]

you sound like you’re trying to not wake someone up in the other room while making this

[@fmarks7436]

He's back!

[@benchinna832]

Squats 6:04 Deadlift 8:18 11:03 -stiff hams , back

[@edwinsnell5078]

Bro once again you have knocked it out of the park. I would like to see you contrast the atg split squat with a normal squat. I have found that the atg split squat improves ankle mobility and prevents the collapsing of the arch which typically happens in a normal squat when the person has inflexible ankles. Let me know your thoughts please.

[@victordimov8899]

Let's gooo back to back uploads 🥳🥳🥳

[@fernandomolina8108]

I love your content. Thank you!

[@nicholaslarmour5647]

Thank you so much! Love your stuff

Have you seen Anthony Denis from Parkour Miramas? They have a wonderful channel here on youtube, and he is a beast. If you're planning to make more athlete analysis videos, i would really love to hear your thoughts about him.

[@LucasDimoveo]

One thing to consider for weight training is that many places where people do parkour has winter with no parkour gyms. Hence lifting weights

[@MostIntelligentMan]

lol i did parkour at -25c no problem, ofc its a bit different from summer, but with some adjustments its fine

[@sh4wz0r]

I don't even know why I'm watching, I don't do parkour or weightlift. Maybe it's the soothing voice

[@LucasDimoveo]

What do you think of the weightlifting movements (clean and snatch) for parkour?

[@Japhir13]

Hey, i just listened to your podcast debate on Storror, very cool stuff! You mentioned trying barefoot shoes early. What are your thoughts on barefoot shoes (in relation to good walking patterns and parkour) now?

[@grahamhoney]

Just what a newbie wants to hear - want better jumps? Jump better, jump more.

[@Flips44]

It’s all about aesthetic for bodybuilders, parkour are more skilled

[@aboutparkourtraining]

Ugh, a lot information. I disagree with some and agree with others, so I'll just give my opinion on the biggest points. I think the first premise is a major oversimplification to the point where it's being misrepresented. Lifting causes a series of adaptations, besides muscle morphological adaptation there is also tendon morphological and structural adaptations, muscle architectural adaptation, adaptation to neural drive, motor recruitment, adaptations to muscle fiber types, and the list goes on... Almost none of these adaptations is limited to only 1 movement pattern. They are general adaptations made to either the tissue or the nervous system, so naturally if in this way we train the same tissue that we use for our movement (parkour), it will be beneficial to us. That being said, I really like the overall point as well as the recommendations that you made. If your parkour movement is not well-polished, replacing it with weight training makes you practice that movement less hence your overall movement might actually suffer even more. However, if you add some weight training (be it bodyweight or weights) at the end of your existing parkour sessions, and use simple exercises that everyone knows how to do (like step-ups for example or smt) I reckon you get the best of both worlds.

[@he18n97]

Am i the only one who finds this video more like podcast 😅

[@bentonbolduan1329]

Woo! Great content as always 🫶 STS is gonna have a field day with this one!