Jumping from building to building in an ancient city might seem like a dream for those who practice parkour — a sport that involves making it past obstacles — but it can cause damage to historic buildings.A London-based parkour group, Team Phat, visited the ancient Italian city of Matera, running, climbing and leaping through its streets and over its precious structures.One of the freerunners caused a segment of a historic building to fall off, sending both himself and the building part crashing to the ground.Matera, a city of stone which dates back to the Paleolithic era, is located in the Basilicata region in Southern Italy.In 1993, it was granted UNESCO World Heritage status and was the European Capital of Culture in 2019.A video of parkour stunts in the ancient city was posted by Team Phat on YouTube two months ago, along with a caption explaining that they were “in the beautiful city of Matera” where one of their members, Devon McIntosh, “had a scary fall that could have been really bad.”The video shows the freerunner jumping off a building and attempting to use a stone ledge to help him get to another building across the street. But the ledge could not withstand his force and dramatically broke off.An off-camera member of the team suggests that they “hide the evidence” and McIntosh shows his injury to his leg.The video has attracted many critical comments on social media. “This city is a UNESCO heritage site for a reason,” wrote an Instagram user named Bruno Burke. “We should enjoy our discipline as much as possible, but we should also watch where we step, not only for safety but also for respect of culture and history.”Misbehaving visitorsMany of Matera’s districts and habitable caves were renovated in the second half of the 20th century, as the city regained its charm and became a popular Instagrammable hotspot.Unsurprisingly, international cinema also pays the occasional visit. The 2021 James Bond movie, “No Time to Die” features an exciting car chase through Matera’s streets.The well curated remains of the ancient cave churches, fortified farmhouses and districts make Matera a city of universal value, according to UNESCO.CNN has reached out to Matera’s police force for comment on the parkour incident.Team Phat’s behavior has raised further questions about the conduct of travelers at sites of architectural beauty. At the start of the video, one of the Team Phat members said: “As some of you know, we’ve been banned from Venice and we can never go back.” In March 2023, a Team Phat member jumped into a canal in Venice, following which Mayor Luigi Brugnaro commented on X: “This ‘subject’ should be given a certificate of STUPIDITY…. We are trying to identify him to denounce him and his companion that made the stupid video for social media.”On April 25, entry fee tickets were introduced in Venice. Brugnaro said: “Venice is the first city in the world to start on this journey which could become an example for other fragile cities that must be preserved.”In March, a historic district in Kyoto, Japan, announced that it is banning tourists from entering, following local frustrations about visitors’ poor behavior and failure to follow Japanese customs and etiquette.
MATERA, Italy —
Jumping from building to building in an ancient city might seem like a dream for those who practice parkour — a sport that involves making it past obstacles — but it can cause damage to historic buildings.
A London-based parkour group, Team Phat, visited the ancient Italian city of Matera, running, climbing and leaping through its streets and over its precious structures.
One of the freerunners caused a segment of a historic building to fall off, sending both himself and the building part crashing to the ground.
Matera, a city of stone which dates back to the Paleolithic era, is located in the Basilicata region in Southern Italy.
In 1993, it was granted UNESCO World Heritage status and was the European Capital of Culture in 2019.
A video of parkour stunts in the ancient city was posted by Team Phat on YouTube two months ago, along with a caption explaining that they were “in the beautiful city of Matera” where one of their members, Devon McIntosh, “had a scary fall that could have been really bad.”
The video shows the freerunner jumping off a building and attempting to use a stone ledge to help him get to another building across the street. But the ledge could not withstand his force and dramatically broke off.
An off-camera member of the team suggests that they “hide the evidence” and McIntosh shows his injury to his leg.
The video has attracted many critical comments on social media. “This city is a UNESCO heritage site for a reason,” wrote an Instagram user named Bruno Burke. “We should enjoy our [parkour] discipline as much as possible, but we should also watch where we step, not only for safety but also for respect of culture and history.”
Misbehaving visitors
Many of Matera’s districts and habitable caves were renovated in the second half of the 20th century, as the city regained its charm and became a popular Instagrammable hotspot.
Unsurprisingly, international cinema also pays the occasional visit. The 2021 James Bond movie, “No Time to Die” features an exciting car chase through Matera’s streets.
The well curated remains of the ancient cave churches, fortified farmhouses and districts make Matera a city of universal value, according to UNESCO.
CNN has reached out to Matera’s police force for comment on the parkour incident.
Team Phat’s behavior has raised further questions about the conduct of travelers at sites of architectural beauty. At the start of the video, one of the Team Phat members said: “As some of you know, we’ve been banned from Venice and we can never go back.”
In March 2023, a Team Phat member jumped into a canal in Venice, following which Mayor Luigi Brugnaro commented on X: “This ‘subject’ should be given a certificate of STUPIDITY…. We are trying to identify him to denounce him and his companion that made the stupid video for social media.”
On April 25, entry fee tickets were introduced in Venice. Brugnaro said: “Venice is the first city in the world to start on this journey which could become an example for other fragile cities that must be preserved.”
In March, a historic district in Kyoto, Japan, announced that it is banning tourists from entering, following local frustrations about visitors’ poor behavior and failure to follow Japanese customs and etiquette.
Today we’re going to take you step-by-step (and jump-by-jump) through beginner parkour training.
We’ll teach you everything you need to know (yep, even that).
A ninja costume is optional, but having fun is mandatory!
(That’s one of the cheesiest things I’ve ever typed. Sorry!)
While parkour can seem very advanced, we actually use it as a tool in our Online Coaching Program when we program workouts. Yes, you can start exercising with some basic parkour movements if being glued on a treadmill seems like death.
Here’s what we’ll cover today:
After you’re done with today’s lesson, all you’ll need is a killer soundtrack and somebody following you around with a camera to create your own epic parkour montage.
Just please don’t be like Michael, Dwight, and Andy:
Parkour is natural, effective movement. That’s it.
Which is why we love it here at Nerd Fitness. After all, we encourage the following:
Train naturally: Parkour is a stellar poster child for natural movement training. We encourage bodyweight training here at NF, and that’s what parkour is built around!
Train with conviction and intelligence: Parkour’s emphasis on awareness of your environment and circumstances, as well as performance under pressure, requires as much of these qualities as you can muster, then challenges you to dig deep down and find even more.
Train for fun: the playful and spontaneous nature of parkour encourages creativity in a way that I can only liken to improvisational jazz and dancing.
In French, the term passement is used for overcoming any obstacle. You pass or traverse a barrier in whatever way suits you and the moment; there’s no one prescribed method for anything.
Parkour is a lens of efficiency applied to every aspect of your movement through life. At its broadest definition, it implies a low-impact and considerate attitude towards bosses, co-workers, family, friends, driving, consumer purchases, and the environment (natural or manmade).
What is the least amount of effort and stuff you need in order to live the most meaningful and happy life you can make for yourself?
As with the Nerd Fitness Rebellion, it is an exuberant and responsible celebration of life.
You’ll often hear the terms “parkour” and “freerunning” used interchangeably.
However, there are some differences worth highlighting.
Parkour is about efficient movement through your environment, using jumps, swings, and vaults.
Freerunning is much more about the theatrics, and you’ll find more cool-looking acrobatic movements.
It’s not that flips, tricks, aerial acrobatics, etc, are banned from parkour. These movements can be used to traverse certain obstacles more rapidly or aggressively, but their use in parkour is ultimately dictated by need.
Will your zombie pursuers be deterred by a double front tuck flip as you clear a 14′ gap?
Or do you just need to leap and roll the gap?
Or again, maybe a quadrupedal crawl across that fallen log bridge might be best.
Success is a must, and looking cool comes from success.
People who have never done parkour (or any other high-risk physical activity) tend to see only the sensational end results on YouTube, and not the obsessive levels of meticulous and conservative training that underpin the visible final product.
Safety is huge, but ultimately a part of “effective.” The speed and airborne moves you may have seen can be a part of parkour, but are far from necessary.
Anyone can figure out a way to traverse an obstacle.
Case in point, Emily, one of our coaching clients, started her fitness journey by training with parkour.
Emily recounts pitching the idea to her coach:
“It felt silly at first. I’m still overweight.
How could I even think about running and jumping and all that?
I braced for laughter and some gentle turn down, but Coach Matt being Coach Matt…he just got EXCITED!”
Coach Matt was thrilled Emily wanted to do some Parkour training (since he practices it himself), so he started by programing the fundamentals (more on this below).
That’s all it took to begin Emily’s Parkour obsession.
Today, Emily heads to her local park at night (like a true ninja) and practices her runs, climbs, and jumps:
So badass.
Parkour is just a mindset to find your own best way through each particular situation and moment.
From one week to the next, you could be looking at the same obstacle. But by developing a traceur’s eye (a traceur is somebody who practices parkour, by the way), you’ll begin to see different ways over or around it, depending on conditions.
Plus, as a beginner, you won’t begin by doing anything sketchy.
Emily shares, “Nobody starts by jumping scary gaps between buildings. Plenty of people in the PK community NEVER do anything even remotely dangerous.”
Even if you don’t level up to anything that’ll go viral, parkour is still a practice worth undertaking.
How Parkour Can Help You Improve Your Life
Anything we do in life can be as easy or hard as we care to make it.
Parkour just makes us realize it upfront:
Taking five or ten seconds to set and prepare for a standing jump can be easy.
Carefully climbing over a four-foot wall can be easy.
But when preparation time is taken away, the pressure to perform makes the same task much harder. Any traverse or passement rapidly becomes challenging when you have to do it at a dead sprint.
The hardest and most beautiful thing about parkour and other challenging activities is that they unequivocally call shenanigans on us when no one else will.
When you stand on top of a 6-foot wall and look down at the concrete or grass below, you can say whatever you like:
“It’s easy!”
“Man, that looks scary!”
But that knot in the pit of your stomach will tell you what you really feel. Your mind will know whether you trained a hundred jumps and landings this past week, or whether you slacked off and played Xbox for three hours daily.
If you trained up on your shorter jumps and landings, the knot will be smaller or not there at all.
If you didn’t, the knot will be so large it’ll threaten to choke you with fear.
Good parkour is fairly easy.
Impressive, fast, and aggressive parkour is hard.
If you want to perform YouTube or District B13 (pictured below) movie-quality parkour, your typical time per passement goes from five seconds to half a second, which is a tenfold increase in difficulty.
Your methods, movements, and relative safety considerations must all adapt when your time changes.
Got it? Good!
Let’s move onto some basic training on how to get started.
Do not take my advice here as a requirement set in stone. Instead, learn your body, and you will be able to learn parkour.
Activities like yoga, lacrosse, boxing, swimming, and running (and so on) will keep your body in peak physical condition and ready for anything. I like to think of it as becoming antifragile.
Let’s start with some moves to help you build up some strength.
Do two sets of this list, every other day. If some or all of this list is too hard, reduce your reps per set for the hard exercise(s) until you can do two sets.
It’s also OK to start with knee push-ups or assisted bodyweight squats – you can find easier versions of all these moves at The 42 Best Bodyweight Exercises.
The important thing is to do more next week than you can this week.
Here’s how to progress:
Each week, add 1-2 reps to each exercise (2×12, 2×14, 2×15, etc.)
After doubling the reps for each exercise (2×20), add another full set to your workout (3×20; you may have to temporarily reduce reps on that final set back down to 10 or less).
When you can do 4×20, perform each rep a little faster, more explosively, to get in a more plyometric and aerobic workout.
“Plyometric” are exercises where muscles exert maximum force, in short intervals of time. Think “explosive” here, which is critical for parkour.
To make these moves more “plyometric,” you can swap regular push-ups for the explosive kind:
Your squats can become jump squats:
That will help you develop the power you need to overcome obstacles.
Bodyweight exercises may seem really easy, but they provide a base level of strength for more advanced parkout maneuvers.
Want some more help starting with bodyweight training?
Download our free worksheet for the Beginner Bodyweight Workout, for training that can be done in the comfort of your home or a park today! Get it free when you sign up in the box below:
Grab Your Beginner Bodyweight Routine Worksheet. No Gym Required!
Complete this workout at home, no equipment required
Avoid the common mistakes everybody makes when doing bodyweight exercises
Then, we’ll want you to train jumping upward, with box jumps:
After you become comfortable with basic jumps, it’s time to leap over some obstacles.
We’ll start with stairs.
Find some stairs or outdoor steps, and practice jumping with your whole body. Jump from the ground up to one step, then two, then three, etc.
You should be relaxed, well-balanced with a relatively upright posture, and land softly on your toes 10 times in a row before you add another step to your jumps the next session or week:
1-2 steps are fairly easy
3-4 is a moderate challenge
5-6 is difficult
7 steps or more probably isn’t happening.
Here’s a great video highlighting some beginner parkour stair exercises:
Stairs aren’t the only obstacle you’re going to need to overcome with parkour.
Any beginner traceur will be comfortable doing four moves to navigate their environment:
Landing
Two-Handed Vault
The Muscle-Up
A Precision Jump
Let’s go over each of these beginner parkour moves now.
Here’s a great video showcasing solid parkour skills without being too flashy:
Brilliant. This is what parkour should look like.
No flips, no huge gap-clearing launches into empty space, just a lot of little things that add up to efficient zombie-fleeing movement…after all, you never know when that zombie apocalypse may strike 🙂
You should be able to do our 4 beginner moves (Landing, Two-Handed Vault, Muscle-Up, and Precision Jump) over and over again.
Hundreds of reps of full-body exercises will help strengthen all your minor stabilizers and oblique muscles that you don’t think about.
All it takes is one weak muscle getting pulled to ruin your day. For you to stay safe and minimize the damage and injury from stumbles and falls, you need to be as fit as you can afford to be (in terms of time and willingness).
You will be the best judge of doing only what is within your ability.
If you want to flip and vault off monkey bars, be prepared to spend many hours at a gymnastics gym.
Want to Kong Vault over a picnic table or other object?
Then be prepared for thousands of clapping push-ups. This trains not only the strength but the reflexes to use those muscle motions in the 0.1 second when you trip on a wall or rail in mid-air and come tumbling down.
Reports of bone breaks, sprains, and concussions are not uncommon with parkour. However, they are almost always because someone got a little overconfident and pushed beyond their current training and ability. Respected traceurs may not be flashy, could they can also report not breaking any bones in their years of training.
I’ll take that win every single day.
Before we bring up some advanced techniques, you should be able to regularly perform these exercises with ease:
Jump up at least 24” and grab an overhead rail or ledge for a casual pull-up.
Jump and tuck your knees to land gently on a bench or a picnic table.
Broad jump 4-6’ with good balance on landing.
A set of plyometric push-ups.
Did you get that down no problem? Awesome…now let’s do some fun stuff.
Shoulder rolls are your absolute top face-saver and pain-preventer. Choosing to do them well isn’t important. Falling and rolling when completely surprised and off-balance is what’s important.
Tuck your head and hands in, relax your body, arc your arms and one shoulder forward in a hula hoop shape around your head, and roll your butt over your head.
To do the parkour roll:
Here’s the rest of the APK parkour tutorial channel, with videos covering these foundation parkour movements (listed in approximate order of increasing difficulty and greatest to least utility):
Try everything once slowly. Skip anything that’s too challenging, and come back to it in a week or so.
Parkour is a highly personal form of self-expression and choice, and it demands a fine sense of body awareness. Your body can only be as strong as its weakest muscle when it comes to parkour, so make sure you are well balanced.
Ready to get started? Good, now watch a few more videos for motivation and inspiration:
After that, head outside, start practicing your movements and look for other traceurs in your area. A simple google search for “parkour” or “free-running” plus your town name will generally turn up a group that practices in your area.
That should help you get started.
If you want to continue your journey with Nerd Fitness, I’ve got three options for you:
Option #1) If you’re reading this because you know you need to exercise, but don’t want to get bored in a gym, I hear ya. My own personal torture is being stuck on a treadmill! If you’re trying to lose weight and want somebody to guide you through the entire journey, who will ALSO never make you do any exercises you hate, consider checking out our popular 1-on-1 Coaching Program.
2) If you want a daily prompt for doing workouts at the gym (or at home), check out NF Journey. Our fun habit-building app helps you exercise more frequently, eat healthier, and level up your life (literally).
Try your free trial right here:
Option #3) Become part of the Rebellion! We need good people like you in our community, the Nerd Fitness Rebellion.
As I pointed out earlier- if you’re just getting started with parkour, I would make sure you begin with bodyweight training! If you sign up for our newsletter, I’ll send you a worksheet for our Beginner Bodyweight Workout that you can follow at home:
Grab Your Beginner Bodyweight Routine Worksheet. No Gym Required!
Complete this workout at home, no equipment required
Avoid the common mistakes everybody makes when doing bodyweight exercises
And a very happy Black History Month to you, Sista Balinska. Image: Square Enix / Kotaku / Mike Marsland (Getty Images)
Square Enix’s new fantasy parkour game Forspoken has had a bit of a rocky launch in terms of public perception among gamers, who found its Joss Whedon-esque dialogue in advertisements cringe-inducing. However, Forspoken’s lead actress says she isn’t bothered by all the discourse the game’s dialogue has caused online, and honestly more power to her.
Forspoken, which was released on January 24, follows a down-and-out New Yorker named Frey who must save the denizens of the fantasy world she gets isekaied into with the help of a talking cuff named Cuff. In a recent interview with The Verge, Ella Balinska, who plays Forspoken lead Frey, said she’s proud of her performance in the game because she knows that she got to take on a role that her eight-year-old self would have been psyched to be a part of.
“I always reference my eight-year-old self whenever I talk about something I’m really proud of doing, I’m just speechless right now,” Balinska told The Verge. I just never would have thought me playing games downstairs with my mom’s hairdresser’s son while she was getting her hair done. Now, to think that he can pick up this game and play as me, it’s just unbelievable. And I hope it inspires other people to realize that if you commit to the bit hard enough, something really crazy can happen.”
When asked what she thought about the online memes folks were making about the game’s dialogue, Balinska simply said that, “there are things that we all do that might be eyebrow-raising to other people,” and that
“I think people always have a positive or negative response to something they’re not used to seeing, and that’s completely okay because that’s the way we incite change,” Ballinska told The Verge. “This is such an extraordinary game that has come out with this amazing protagonist who’s so bold, so unapologetic, so reluctant in the best way possible. I think audiences might not be so used to seeing that.”
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It’s a camera. For your car. The Ring Car Cam’s dual-facing HD cameras capture activity in and around your car in HD detail.
In our Forspoken review, we said Square Enix’s parkour isekai deserved better than what shipped on its release date because the strength of its story and protagonist outpace its performance issues and oft-admonished dialogue.
MOUNT KISCO, N.Y., January 13, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– Roam Further Athletics (ROAM), a one-of-a-kind training center and coffee bar opens inside Grand Prix New York Racing & Entertainment located at 333 North Bedford Road, Mount Kisco, NY. ROAM offers a movement-oriented approach to health and fitness in an exclusive, athlete-curated facility.
Offerings include Parkour, Ninja Warrior, and obstacle-based fitness training for children and adults in a scheduled class format coached by professional athletes. ROAM classes begin with fundamentals achievable by all, adapting and advancing them to fit age groups, individual interests, and developing skill levels.
“ROAM’s founders have been practitioners of movement and exploration for well over a decade,” stated Joe Cannato, Creator of Roam Further Athletics. “We believe movement is the fundamental way in which we interact with the world. We’re excited to introduce ROAM to the broader community.”
ROAM Active Youth classes focus on reinforcing and refining children’s natural curiosity for movement and desire for achievement through the foundations of Parkour. The structured programs will teach them new skills, methods of movement, and ways to express themselves. Classes are based on age and are organized as follows:
Little Roamers: 18mo – 3 years (Little Roamer & Me); 3-4 years; 4.5-5.5 years
Roamers: 5-7 years; 7-10 years
Roamans: 10-14 years; 14+
In addition to classes, Roam will offer youth camps during holiday vacation and summers. The camp structure emphasizes experiential learning, team-building activities, and unique skill development.
ROAM FIT Adult classes are workouts that don’t feel like work. The coach-led class structure emphasizes skill-focused fitness in obstacle-oriented stations. ROAM Free sessions are another offering for adult athletes seeking a self-guided option to refine their movement, while One on One sessions are available for a more individual-specialized training program.
The ROAM FURTHER COFFEE bar is a place to relax and connect with the community. Guests and visitors can enjoy hot beverages from the Roam in-house baristas, made with mindfully sourced ingredients.
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ABOUT ROAM FURTHER ATHLETICS
Roam Further Athletics (ROAM) is a fitness and lifestyle business that provides athletic classes and instruction to people of all ages in the practices of parkour, ninja warrior, and obstacle-based training. In addition to daily athletic programs, ROAM hosts various events including ninja warrior and parkour competitions, birthday parties, corporate and team building events.
ROAM’s facilities include a wide variety of obstacles and training equipment to be utilized by guests of all ages and experience levels that enable the casual athlete as well as the lifestyle-focused athlete to develop and advance their skill set. ROAM’s leadership, coaches and guest athletes are deeply immersed in the life and practice of parkour and ninja warrior and deliver authentic coaching and training in an atmosphere that is engaging and motivating.
Additionally, ROAM’s Coffee Bar offers beverages made by in-house baristas as well as branded retail apparel. Roam Further Athletics is focused on building the leading brand in this exciting and developing space of mindful athletics. To learn more about Roam Further Athletics, visit https://roamfurther.com.
