Parkour practicality

When your workout includes balancing on railings, somersaulting across ramps and vaulting over stairs, one thing you’ll never be is bored.

I recently participated in one of the twice-weekly parkour classes at Phase Gym at 615 28th St. S. 

Well, to be more accurate, I tried.

In reality, I barely got through the warm-up — a combination of jumping, crawling, balancing and more — before I gave up my free-running aspirations and settled for taking photos instead.

Parkour, or free-running, involves getting from one point to another as quickly and efficiently as possible. Most frequently, it requires climbing, crawling, jumping or balancing to navigate obstacles that the average person would walk around instead.

Josh Morris, who has taught the parkour class at Phase Gym for about a year, said he likes parkour because it’s all about “natural movement” of the human body. He first became interested in parkour about four years ago and felt that it changed his life so much that he wanted to share the sport with others. In addition to his Tuesday and Thursday classes, Morris sometimes leads weekend workouts or parkour meet-ups at Railroad Park.

Some parkour enthusiasts take it further and incorporate flips, handstands and other acrobatics that may not be as efficient, but certainly do look cool.

“You watch free-running videos, [and] it’s hard not to be a little inspired,” Morris said while setting up for the class I attended.

But at Phase Gym, parkour is still supposed to be a workout. Morris keeps the class to only a handful of people, and they intersperse running, pull-ups and other more traditional workouts in between the parkour challenges. 

“I’m all about what’s practical,” he said. “We’re just moving like a human animal is meant to move.”

When we practiced our balance by walking backward and forward on elevated boards, Morris doled out “punishment push-ups” to anyone who lost their balance. There was also a Mario-themed jumping exercise that, even if it left me gasping for air, was entertaining because of that iconic theme song.

For the parkour portions of the workout, Morris and his class made use of Phase’s Lakeview surroundings. Trees on the sidewalk and stairs at a neighboring warehouse were equally fair game. As I watched, I could tell that even the beginner students looked at their surroundings in a whole different way than I did.

What drove that realization home was a moment after the class, when Morris, student Andy Smith and I were headed back toward the gym. Smith pointed out a building that he thought Morris could climb. I laughed, thinking it was a joke. Morris sized up the wall and said he could do it.

The students had different reasons for joining the class. Jill Friery started three years ago after repeated injuries in her crossfit workout class. She said parkour helped her in “learning my body better,” improving her posture, movement and workout form. Plus, she said she simply enjoys it more than a regular exercise routine.

“It’s definitely fun. It’s hard work,” Friery said.

Smith agreed that parkour “breaks up the monotony” of a workout, and he continues parkour outside of his classes. He no longer walks around a puddle when he can jump over it instead.

“It awakens in you the urge you might have had as a kid to climb a tree or jump over a river,” Smith said.

Morris said his oldest student is in his 70s and works on simpler, but no less practical, movements. Even though parkour is mostly about the fun, Morris said there’s always the chance that what he teaches could have a real-world use.

“If you’re in a burning building and there are obstacles in the way, are you able to make it out alive?” he said.

Though I didn’t climb trees or jump over stairs myself in the class, I had a small taste of how parkour can change the way you see things. 

As I was walking back to my car after the class, I met a curve in the sidewalk. Rather than following it, I left the sidewalk, jumping off a ramp and vaulting a low brick wall instead. 

When I returned to the paved path, I was just a tiny bit satisfied with the chance to take those obstacles in stride.

Know about something in Birmingham you consider bizarre, eclectic or utterly original? Let us know! Email information to sydney@starnespublishing.com.