When you think of Parkour, you can’t be blamed for thinking of daredevil athleticism and jumping between buildings. But this fitness craze born on the street is slowly but surely making its way to the mainstream – and it is Dubai’s turn to get more acquainted with it.
But first, what IS parkour? Well, it isn’t just flips, tricks and aerial acrobatics. Parkour is a method of training your body and mind to overcome obstacles with speed and efficiency and, at times, creativity and strategy.
Sure, it involves some seriously cool-looking stunts. But although the basic idea behind parkour is to move as efficiently as possible from point A to point B regardless of physical barriers, the practice can also be a challenging, functional strength and balance workout.
In the UAE, Parkour is getting a breath of fresh air with the recent arrival of Movement Parkour, co-founded by Parkour pros Stephane Vigroux and Chris Sotirou, who have just started running parkour fitness classes. Parkour already has a small but growing scene in the UAE, but Chris and Stephane not only bring a fresh approach to parkour; they bring a pedigree.
#ThrowbackThursday: Legend Stephane Vigroux in the Parkour Generations AUDIO 2 DJ video from 2009! #parkour #pioneer http://t.co/5vqdWnCqyr
— Parkour Generations (@PKGenerations) February 26, 2015
Stephane has parkour roots as far as they can go; he was one of the early pioneers of the movement as it started to rise in France in the 90s, under the guidance of David Belle, who is widely considered as the creator of Parkour. Together they practiced their passion daily until the practice eventually formed a method, process and name. After catching the attention of the media and a documentary film titled Jump London, Parkour blew up in the UK and paved the way for Parkour’s foray into a legit sport and the creation of Parkour Generations, which Stephane co-founded, and running of fitness classes. In the UK today, it is firmly established as a fitness practice and, as of next year, will even be a part of the school curriculum.
Chris, with had worked in the fitness industry as a trainer for many years, started training parkour a few years ago whilst in Thailand, where both him and Stephane spent a number of years living and teaching.
To have someone of their caliber is pretty exciting for the Parkour scene in the UAE. And they’re here to tell you that there’s more to parkour than meets the eye. Rather than just people recklessly jumping between buildings and obstacles, it’s a fitness practice which has a methodology and immense physical and mental benefits.
“Parkour is a much more in depth discipline than unlocking a trick and uploading it on YouTube. It is defined by a mentality and a mindset. It’s about getting stronger physically and mentally through a culture of endless personal challenge. Obstacles are material for growth and it forces one to train with intelligence”, says Stephane.
Chris describes Parkour as “true functional training”; a poster child for natural movement training which is extremely beneficial for mobility, balance and coordination., for one, can vouch for this. Having done a couple of sessions with Movement Parkour at Umm Sequim Park, we could immediately feel the benefits of movement that felt so natural when we were kids, and slightly foreign as we grow into adulthood. Fitness benefits aside, parkour made us feel like it was ok to go back to the proverbial playground as an adult and find joy in climbing, jumping and exploring again.
Coordination, agility, flexibility, mobility; the class tests it all as we crawled, jumped and maneuvered our way over massive obstacles. Okay fine, it was a park bench. But let’s not get it twisted: you don’t start trying to jump from one railing to another separated by a massive gap. You start with simple moves, like jumping in one place or over small distances or over a small obstacle. And you do it over and over until you’re comfortable enough to jump a little higher, push a little further.
For this reason, the classes are appropriate for various fitness levels as we discovered that the essence of parkour lies in its approach. It was not a challenge against other class participants, but a challenge against the course itself and a challenge to face one’s fears; a refreshing feeling, given the competition promoted in many popular fitness classes!
In recent years, parkour has slowly made its move to the mainstream across the globe as the pavement has been traded for purpose-built parkour gyms. Here in Dubai, Chris and Stephane have recently started running group parkour classes using both public spaces as their playground and, soon, at gyms around Dubai (group classes are going to soon be kicking off at Evolve).
In taking parkour from “street workout” to fitness movement they have also developed MOV’ – a fitness program based around the functional strength, fitness and mobility elements of Parkour which clubs and trainers can introduce to their members and clients.
Currently, Movement Parkour classes run on Sundays from 7 – 8pm @ Umm Suqeim Park, Wednesdays 7 – 8pm @ Zabeel Park, and Saturdays 9 – 10am @ Umm Suqeim Park.
