Do you wish you could make it easily over twelve foot walls? How about jump across buildings with ease? Or just run for long periods of time? I say you can, and so does everyone else that have came across and practiced Parkour.

Parkour, also known as Free Running, is a new sports sensation. Originating in France, Parkour is the art of going over, under, and around objects and obstacles in order to get from point A to point B as fast and efficient as possible. That sometimes means leaping from rail to rail, climbing buildings, bounding over fences, and much more.

Some who view Parkour might say that it is dangerous, only for those who are extremely athletic, or to hard. Even though Parkour looks dangerous, practitioners practice repetitively taking each step before progressing to another, checking each landing point for safety and practicing each movement until it is as common as walking. Even though practitioners of Parkour do tend to appear to be athletic, that is because they have been Free Running for some time. Anyone can do it, everyone progresses at a different rate and at different levels. That also means that it becomes easier and much more fun.

A lot of practitioners will also incorporate gymnastics to the sport. Adding flips and flashy moves to their art. All of which raises the difficulty of any move and makes any obstacle even more interesting. In Parkour, a bench becomes an obstacle to jump over, a rail becomes something to balance on, the world becomes your playground.

One might ask if running around jumping off of things, over things, and the like could get you in trouble? One of the basics of Parkour is that the world is our playground, keep it nice. If someone sees you and asks what you are doing, it is easy to explain that you are practicing an art of exercise and that it is in your interest to keep everything in good condition.

There are also many ways to view, read, and talk about Parkour. YouTube.com, features many videos of practitioners. Also American Parkour, or APK features many articles on Americanparkour.com, as well as tips, gear, and videos. A simple search on the internet will bring up many different resources on Parkour.

In the past few years Parkour has grown exponentially. Raising the level of fitness and athleticism in many people across the world. Many people have heard of it, MTV even had a competition aired. Many practitioners entered G4’s Ninja Warrior. So whether or not you are taking a run and decide to take the straight route over and under obstacles or are doing flips over park benches and running on building tops please execute safety and proper technique, and mostly have fun doing it.