Parkour in the woods?

[Silas Randwulf]

Hello fellow rebels!

 

I'm still a super n00b at this whole fitness thing, but I'm interested in parkour for future challenges. Specifically parkour in the woods/ on trails/ on mountain bike trails.

 

I've seen tons of parkour videos of people in cities, but the only videos I see of woods parkour seem to be urban runners doing a one-off interesting video in the woods (or an Assassin's Creed 3 cosplay in the woods).

 

I mean I'm, 6'3", 270 lbs, and I can't really run, but like I said, this is for the next challenge (or later) once I condition myself a bit. I'm not looking to do flips and the acrobatic stuff (which I hear isn't "real" parkour anyway), I just want to run through the woods like a direwolf at some point, and go wherever the hell I want.

 

So parkour folk (assassins?)! Is this a thing any of you do? Do you know anyone who does this? If yes to either, got any tips?

 

[stevembk]

Isn't that called "Trail running?" 

[Frost of the Gloaming]

That reminds me of two races in my area, the Escarpment Trail run and the ARE Adventure Race both are on my to do list and both look wicked fun; you know if bloody knees and bruises are your type of fun lol

 

 

Also their is a game called hashing; where a person (hare) takes off running and leaves a flour mark behind him every so often so the other group of runners (the hounds) can find him; it's the hares job to try and not get caught by the hounds, so there is lots of false trails placed and normally through rough terrain. I've never seen an instance where the hare actually gets caught, normally everyone follows the trail until the pre-determined point and beer/water is consumed

 

I once lead people up a short steep cliff that had prickers at the top of it, which I didn't know about until I was on top of it, that was awful lmao

[Silas Randwulf]

Isn't that called "Trail running?" 

Ok, walked into that haha. But I guess just in the raw woods is what I'm most interested in. Where maybe a moose lead would be the closest thing to a trail I'd use. Are vaults and stuff a normal part of trail running? I picture trail running as just running on a more maintained trail...maybe that's a finer point of distinction that doesn't actually matter?

 

DJ TNP: Hashing sounds awesome! Now to find myself a wolf pack and beers haha. Also, bloody knees and bruises is totally my kind of fun. Just about anything in the woods is my kind of fun!

[Ba'sini'on]

 

Thought this might interest you with Parkour in the woods.

[Silas Randwulf]

Yeah I saw this one! It's pretty cool (table at the end always gets me haha) and definitely a bit of inspiration! This is an example of what I meant by a one-off interesting video too actually. From his shirt he's representing an urban parkour group and saying "but this could totally be a thing too". I was hoping to find woods parkour to be a solid subculture within parkour but I guess it's not...YET!

[Yee]

I used to do it form time to time, is really, really fun, and I've got some tips that might help you. (More concrete questions might help you more though)

 

• Don't be afraid of calluses. 
• Always be aware of your environment, Parkour is all about being safe, so don't try anything risky before you're absolutely sure there is no danger.
• Know your limits: This is probably the most important thing to remember, never try something you know you won't be able to do, but at the same time, always push yourself. It will take some time before you know your limits, because of your constant evolution, so this will be somewhat hard to dominate and understand.
• Have a lot of fun (Too cheesy?)

 

Here's a video of someone I really admire, is not in the woods, but his fluidity and precision are just amazing, and it's also "true parkour" (No flips and things like that).

 

[Georges]

Parkour and MovNat need to hook up and have some kind of offspring...

I'm a wee bit sad that it is not a thing yet.

[jfreaksho]

Look into MovNat, as I think that is what you are trying to go for.

 

To be honest, though, the movements seems pretty much the same- running and crawling and vaulting and climbing- just the environment is different.  Training for one will help the other.

[Silas Randwulf]

Yeah that's what I figured really. Just hoped to find people doing mainly woods parkour who could maybe give me some tips on the differences, if there were any woods-specific moves etc. 

 

Also, thanks to the two of you who mentioned MovNat! That seems to be exactly what I'm talking about so I'll have to look into that for sure.

[ankitakumar]

Nice challenge! I enjoy doing such challenges but rarely. i like to do simpler challenges like climbing the stairs everyday. Its tough walking away from the lift! But I can already see results. I track the results of my challenges through motivade.com

[OtakuBosatsu]

Yeah that's what I figured really. Just hoped to find people doing mainly woods parkour who could maybe give me some tips on the differences, if there were any woods-specific moves etc. 

 

Also, thanks to the two of you who mentioned MovNat! That seems to be exactly what I'm talking about so I'll have to look into that for sure.

I haven't done it yet, but may I suggest for anyone wanting to do parkour in nature you need to be aware of nature's nasties: snakes, bees, wasps, poison ivy, etc.  I also want to do parkour someday (probably next year if everything goes according to my plan).

[Silas Randwulf]

I haven't done it yet, but may I suggest for anyone wanting to do parkour in nature you need to be aware of nature's nasties: snakes, bees, wasps, poison ivy, etc.  I also want to do parkour someday (probably next year if everything goes according to my plan).

Good point. I have a small med kit with some things that would help minor scratches, bug bites, etc. We don't have snakes here, but we do have bees and wasps. Don't know about the poison ivy. What we do have are coyotes that are cross-bred with wolves. Regardless, this is definitely something to keep in mind in the woods.