Parkour is French for "ow"
Yesterday I went to my first parkour...I'm not sure what to call it. It's not a formal paid class or even a club, it's just a guy who's really good at parkour who gets a bunch of people together to teach and practice. So I went to that. It was awesome! The teacher is great, he's really good at giving you the advice you're ready for and encouraging you without pushing you too hard. It's a very welcoming group - even though I was one of only 3 girls (vs about 20 guys) and a newbie, people were cool to me and were happy to volunteer advice. There was one girl in particular who adopted me and taught me a few tricks. With her advice I managed to get over the wall! I had gotten up onto my elbows on my own, but was stuck. Turns out that if you stick your ass out and scramble your feet up a little higher, it tips your gravity forward so that you can lift up onto your hands and from there get onto the wall. It was probably the least graceful wall mount ever, but I still got lots of cheers and it felt fantastic. :) Lefty and I had played at that park earlier in the week and I'd utterly failed to get more than a cat grab, so obviously the group was very helpful.
I suck at vaults though. :D Apparently it's easier for me to fling myself at a concrete wall than to fling myself at a wooden park bench. Must practice. Anyone know of a good place to practice other than Manhattan Sq. Park (or as Lefty calls it, the nest for baby Nightwings)? My main thing is needing a wall that's about 7-8' tall, it's easy enough to find things to vault.
Heh, after I did a cat grab a kid, maybe ~11 yrs old, came up and said "That must not be very hard". I wasn't sure whether to laugh or be offended*, but the teacher was just like "Wanna try it?" and helped the kid out for a couple minutes. The group got a lot of stares from passerbys and a few people coming up to ask what we were doing - I suppose people running at immobile objects does look a little odd. They're totally open to anyone joining, if you're interested.
I got some booboos but they're all minor, and I'm actually kinda proud of my scrapes. I'm super excited about going back next week!
Side concern - I've had a nasty twinge in my left back/shoulder for around a week now. Sometimes it hurts when I breathe or lay down, along with random motions. It's kinda in between my shoulder blade and my spine. I might have pulled something during archery, but there was no sharp pain at the time, pulling a bow just now didn't hit it, and it seems like it should be healed by now anyways. Ideas?
*That reminds me of a really stupid thing that a guy at our gay store said. I was asking him how much a pair of bracers cost and he goes, "How did you know they were called bracers?"
Me: "Um, I don't know. I don't particularly remember learning it."
Lefty (after we shared a perplexed look): "That's just what they're called."
Guy: "Yeah, but you're a girl."
Me: *did not punch him in the face*
Well whatever. I can climb over a wall and I bet he couldn't. So there.
Parkour injury tally (for my own records) - first my butt hurt from vaulting, then I fell off the wall onto my ass, and scraped up my forearms+hands+lower legs from the wall (none required a bandage). Left elbow and wrist twinging, to the point that picking things up hurt and I couldn't lean on my forearms without mild pain. Upon waking elbow was improved, wrist still sore down the center, may have pulled something. Today in descending order of soreness - butt, hips, quads (esp rt), triceps, back, lats/pits, forearms, everything else. Knees are a little tender but surprisingly painless. Tai chi and Bollywood were difficult but became easier, sitting increases stiffness (pain is all good muscle pain, no strains). DOMS probably worse because I didn't eat enough yesterday, tried to make up for it today.
I suck at vaults though. :D Apparently it's easier for me to fling myself at a concrete wall than to fling myself at a wooden park bench. Must practice. Anyone know of a good place to practice other than Manhattan Sq. Park (or as Lefty calls it, the nest for baby Nightwings)? My main thing is needing a wall that's about 7-8' tall, it's easy enough to find things to vault.
Heh, after I did a cat grab a kid, maybe ~11 yrs old, came up and said "That must not be very hard". I wasn't sure whether to laugh or be offended*, but the teacher was just like "Wanna try it?" and helped the kid out for a couple minutes. The group got a lot of stares from passerbys and a few people coming up to ask what we were doing - I suppose people running at immobile objects does look a little odd. They're totally open to anyone joining, if you're interested.
I got some booboos but they're all minor, and I'm actually kinda proud of my scrapes. I'm super excited about going back next week!
Side concern - I've had a nasty twinge in my left back/shoulder for around a week now. Sometimes it hurts when I breathe or lay down, along with random motions. It's kinda in between my shoulder blade and my spine. I might have pulled something during archery, but there was no sharp pain at the time, pulling a bow just now didn't hit it, and it seems like it should be healed by now anyways. Ideas?
*That reminds me of a really stupid thing that a guy at our gay store said. I was asking him how much a pair of bracers cost and he goes, "How did you know they were called bracers?"
Me: "Um, I don't know. I don't particularly remember learning it."
Lefty (after we shared a perplexed look): "That's just what they're called."
Guy: "Yeah, but you're a girl."
Me: *did not punch him in the face*
Well whatever. I can climb over a wall and I bet he couldn't. So there.
Parkour injury tally (for my own records) - first my butt hurt from vaulting, then I fell off the wall onto my ass, and scraped up my forearms+hands+lower legs from the wall (none required a bandage). Left elbow and wrist twinging, to the point that picking things up hurt and I couldn't lean on my forearms without mild pain. Upon waking elbow was improved, wrist still sore down the center, may have pulled something. Today in descending order of soreness - butt, hips, quads (esp rt), triceps, back, lats/pits, forearms, everything else. Knees are a little tender but surprisingly painless. Tai chi and Bollywood were difficult but became easier, sitting increases stiffness (pain is all good muscle pain, no strains). DOMS probably worse because I didn't eat enough yesterday, tried to make up for it today.