So before we go any further, we all are thinking but what is parkour?

So parkour is the practice of traversing obstacles in a man-made or natural environment through the use of running, vaulting, jumping, climbing, rolling, and other movements in order to travel from one point to another in the quickest and most efficient way possible without the use of equipment. The discipline, developed in France beginning in the late 1980s, was popularized through Internet videos, television commercials, and documentary and feature films, including the James Bond movie Casino Royale (2006).

Does the name David Belle ring any bells? No pun intended.

Now who is this funny named person? Well click the highlighted name to be taken to a wiki including who he is and all the fascinating facts about him.

Now that we have established what parkour is so why should we start it?

1. Parkour is a great source of fitness and exercise

When most people think of working out they think of going to the gym grabbing some weights and going hard.

But with parkour you still build up the same muscle groups.

Some training involves running, climbing, jumping, vaulting, pulling up, hanging and all these exercises will get your whole body buffed not to mention a lot of these moves will enhance and develop your core muscles too.

2. Parkour can make you really fit, developing stamina and lung capacity

Yes just like we mentioned in number one parkour can make you fit, as a lot of parkour moves involves running and we all know running is everyone's number one choice for improving stamina and loosing fat.

Tired of going to the gym day in and day out trying to work them stubborn calves? parkour can help you develop and shred your calves as a lot of the moves use explosive jumps and balancing techniques that will force you to utilise you calf muscles.

3. Parkour can increase your awareness and quick thinking

Yes this is correct! as we train parkour out in public you will have to be aware of your surroundings making sure you're not going to hurt anyone or hurt yourself.

This also will make you aware of how many strides will you need before you can leap, or perhaps you was about to vault onto a ledge only to find a bird has just pooped on that spot, so how will you get to that object now?

Imagine this scenario - you are about to do a Kong pre but as you just pass the Kong vault your shoelace is undone and it trips you so you bail out into a safety roll. Now that could of been worse if you did not adapt to that change quick you might have gone face first into the floor and a grazed face is not a nice experience.

Now you might be thinking what is a Kong pre? is it something to do with donkey Kong? Click on this KONG word to be taken to a page that will teach you everything about the Kong vault.

4. Parkour will teach you things about yourself

People often say that by getting into a fight you will learn so much about yourself and that is the same principle as parkour.

Now what do I mean? well say when you're out training and you fall and hurt yourself do you call it quits and go home crying? or do you try it again until you land?

Parkour for me helps me stay disciplined when I started training I didn't like getting hurt but there was something I hated more then getting hurt and that was letting myself down.

When you tell yourself I am going to get the Kong Vault or even a backflip down and then you do to train and you fail something in your mind tells you nope! were doing this. Like because you have told yourself you are doing it so then your mind body and soul has no choice but to commit to that.

Let me tell you when you get back home and your whole body aches and you may have a few scratches but you are so filled with joy as you have just conquered a challenge.

a pat on the back :)

I know there will be days where you will go to train a certain move and you may not have much time or you get pulled from your training by a phone call of whatever then you tell yourself ok enough for today I'm coming back out tomorrow or in two days time to try again.

5. Parkour can help you escape potential threats or dangers

Now lets start with a simple scenario and lets say you have been training regularly and you have got your vaults down to a T.

You're on your way back from a friends house and its dark you notice a big group of people shouting at you and you feel like they re about to attack you so you run.

Remember all of your days training will have paid off now as not one of them will have the endurance or stamina that you have.

Still chasing you so you vault fences and keep running even if they do manage to stay on your tail then just keep running, vaulting soon enough they will run out of steam and you can safely get back home knowing that none of them followed you.

You might be the type of person to say no ill just stand there and fight and my response would be - When you have a group of people after you that screams bad situation! so run and live to tell the tale.

So a question for you is Would you --

A - stand and fight, knock a few of them out and be battered like a cod, potentially have a few broken bones or be hospitalised with stab wounds?

Or

B - Run and put all of your training into practice and make it back to warn others about the people and the area?

No Brainer right

6. Parkour can lead to more exciting job opportunities

So you have harnessed your parkour skills so how can this help you in career paths?

Well the first one is you will seem more credible to other people and potential employers as you will tell them what you know, how long it took you and where you are now compared to where you was when you first started.

They will see you are not only a high achiever but they will also see you as disciplined not to mention driven and this is no secret that employers love people who are self driven as they know having on their team would be a wise thing.

Next one is you could do parkour tournaments and some parkour tournaments will give you a big pay-out if you win first place.

However if you do not win you have gained more experience, learned new skills, made new friends or potential business associates.

You could start teaching parkour to kids or even adults and this is really good especially if you taught yourself as you know all the mental barriers and how to get past them.

You could start a YouTube | Tik Tok channel to showcase your skills and gain fans.

You could go for movies as an extra or as a stuntman.

And there are many more!

7. Parkour is fun

Yes the final one is also my favourite one and that is parkour is fun!

We all remember when we was all children we had so much fun climing, running and jumping.

To us that was normal everyday life and we always thought life would not be the same without it.

Yes as time goes on we start working, we are filled with stress and we are all like GO! GO! GO! and we have forgotten what it is like to be in that fun state.

Parkour gets more fun and more challenging when you are older as there's always new moves you really want to nail down or new ways of moving you want to try.

So there you have it 7 Reasons Why You Should Start Parkour

I hope this has inspired someone out there enough to start taking action.