The next in our series of blog posts introducing our coaches is Bri:
What would you like to tell us about yourself?
Training has been a big part of my life for the last 10 years. That training has ranged from parkour, pole dancing, soccer, martial arts and a good old weights. I’m lucky enough to be able to work in areas where I can incorporate these movements. Teaching has been a big part of that. I love to share knowledge and help people realise what they can achieve or overcome.
How did you discover parkour and when did you begin training? I remember seeing videos on the internet when I was a teen but it wasn’t until I years later when I finally met someone who introduced me to the community. Once I started I didn’t want to stop. I loved the people and the challenge of the sport.
Parkour can involve a range of different types of activities, do you have any training goals? What are your personal training goals?
The amount of goals I have is endless: the more goals I reach, the more I find. Coming from a background in personal training I find I repeat one skill a lot. Right now I’m focusing on joining movements together and creating more lines.
Fear is a big obstacle at times so I like to try and face it, and work out ways to get past my mental blocks.
How do you approach physical training and conditioning?
I love conditioning, picking up heavy things and putting them back down again. No matter how I feel that day, its always a constant for me, a safe place. I enjoy finding new and different ways to train smarter not harder. With everything I do I tend to overdo it, so balancing skill work with conditioning is a bit of a seesaw.
I like routine and seeing my weekly progress so I write everything down. I have notebooks full of different exercises and programs.
Is weight training suitable for parkour? 100% but it is often overlooked. For a sport that is so high impact the joints really need to be maintained well. If you are landing from height you’re going to have to absorb a lot more than your body weight through your joints, thanks to physics. Body weight training is ace, but adding some heavy squats and deadlifts to your training will help your jumps and landings a lot, and a lot faster.
Any sport will encourage imbalances so cross training is very important to avoid injuries and keep a healthy body. How do you stay motivated to train through difficult times? Training and moving is honestly what makes me the happiest, I’m no good at sitting down for very long. It can be meditative or an excellent stress release depending on what I’m training or how I train. If I am struggling to get out and train I take things back to basics, ill either just focus on moving or start by doing prehab work. Chances are once I get started I wont want to stop.
Other times I'll try and catch a class, as learning from someone else is always very inspiring.
What is hard is when I’m injured or need to rest my body. I’m a big believer in being proactive about injuries or niggles. My physio is a big part of my training life. He keeps me in a condition where I can constantly push myself.
What is your favourite aspect of parkour?
There are so many different facets to the sport, that’s what I love about it.
I love that you work in and out of your comfort zone, that every part of your body and mind needs to work together to find new and different ways of doing things. I love that everyone can do this sport, because there is honestly so many different ways of traversing the same obstacle. There is something different for everyone.
I love the philosophy behind it, teaching young kids that its not just about being cool but about the potential to help someone. Its honestly made me so much more aware of what I could do to actually help someone in an emergency situation.
I love that I can train anywhere and that the world has turned in a playground no matter where I am.