Training at home :
With the rains lashing the city and friends from other cities complaining about low temperatures, I started thinking about training indoors. Looking at the place I live in I was surprised at the number of opportunities that were available for me to train. Starting from simple vaults to a series of movements and beginning from a simple workout regimen to an advanced system of workout.
The following are a few essentials that I found absolutely necessary
A sturdy chair with proper balance and good strong armrests. If you have access to only plastic chairs then two or three placed on top of the other to fit snugly will be structurally strong.
- A towel of sufficient thickness or a bed sheet of a thick variety
One of the problems I faced while training was the lack of space for running and moving freely. After some irritating moments of banging into walls, doors and cup boards I realized that the whole restricted space was the challenge in itself.
Movement 1: A tuck jump over a chair and a roll along a narrow corridor
Movement 2: Hang onto a window grill and jump up and landing over a chair placed a comfortable distance from the window – kind of like a 180 cat, except you land on the ground and roll
Movement 3: A bed on the other side of a chair and a dive roll.
Movement 4: A tuck jump on to the arm rest of the chair and holding the landing pose like a precision. Place the chair against a wall. I slipped and fell when the chair moved back.
Movement 5: If there is a window near a corner of the room – then a tic tac onto the window frame.
Movement 6 : Loop the towel or sheet over the top most part of the window grill and make a precision landing on the window and hold the towel instead of the grill.
Movement 7: Roll in front of the chair and in single movement go over the chair in a dive roll…
Is there is enough space and chairs around, then it will be easy to create a sequence of moves that will leave you out of breath. A word of warning – before doing something in a restricted space, do those moves again and again within imaginary boundaries or lines. Don’t end up with feet on the wall and butt in the corner.
The rest is up to your imagination and creativity… As for the workouts though … there are too many workouts to count … starting from basic sit ups, handstand pushups to walking upside down along the wall, pull ups with the towel hanging on the window frame, holding the towel and extending your body as far away as possible from the window to strengthen the core..
In all these basic movements just increase the range and extensions to feel the burn.
Remember – indoor, outdoor or no door Parkour is not out there in the obstacles. It is within you. It is the “I” that is the first obstacle that needs to be cleared.
