6 Animal Movements for Parkour
By the end of my first Parkour class in 2014, I was exhausted and confused. I hadn’t worked these muscles since I was a kid running around on the playground!
Parkour engages a lot of muscle groups and movement patterns that adults rarely get the opportunity to use in their day to day lives. This can be challenging for folks just starting out. Beginners may lack the strength or body awareness to execute basic parkour movements.
Animal movements increase your strength and mobility for more advanced moves and can challenge even the most advanced athletes. Most importantly, they’re fun! Below are five of my favorite reasons to integrate animal movements into your training.
Improve Strength and Mobility
Moving across the ground on all fours, squatting, supporting your full body weight, and the active stretching naturally present in animal movements all help to improve strength and mobility. It can also help you get comfortable in positions that are essential for proper parkour technique and safety.
Two great examples of this are donkey kicks and bear crawls, which help you practice having your hips higher than your shoulders to execute a proper Kong vault.
Exercise Your Brain
Animal motions are wonderful examples of “cross crawl” activities that use both sides of your body in opposition. These types of movements help improve communication between the two sides of your brain, improving memory, coordination, and body awareness. Nearly any animal movement will use both sides of your body, but a basic crab crawl is a great place to start.
Get Where You’re Going
Parkour can get you where you need to go quickly and efficiently. Animal movements, like crawling and squatting, are a great way to get under obstacles or move across the ground. Try a side monkey the next time you need to move up some stairs or under an overhanging obstacle.
Train Anywhere
All you need to practice animal moves is your body. You can train animal movement in the park, in your house, even at the airport if you’re feeling adventurous. Any of the movements included in the article can be done with just a little practice and space. One of my favorites that uses almost no space is a bear-crab roll.
Have Fun
Animal movements are fun and challenging. Even if you’re in love with your standard exercise program, pretending you’re a scorpion or a lizard is a great way to mix it up and keep it interesting, with the added benefit of targeting your whole body.
Kids also love animal movements. They’re a fantastic way to make fitness into a game that can include everybody. My favorite movement to do with kids is duck walks. This silly walk will help improve your lower body strength and mobility. And most importantly, you’ll look and feel like a silly goose doing it.
Animal movements are one of my favorite parts of my parkour practice, and I hope you’ll enjoy them too. For more in-depth instruction on ground movement, take our Fundamental Ground Flow video, available as part of our Parkour Fundamentals series.
The next time you train, try integrating some animal movements. Show us what you’re working on by tagging @parkour.visions on Instagram!
About the Author
Harmony loves to move her body and to share the joy of movement with others. She loves working with students to grow, face their fears, and meet their goals (whatever they may be). In addition to training parkour, Harmony also competes in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and practices Contact Improvisation Dance and Muay Thai.