Charles’ Parkour Training Blog

Yes, that’s right. Career’s are nonsensical in that they are 20th century inventions based on an outdated system of control. In fact, I think the entire concept of a career, or at least the mental connotations connected with the word, set everyone up for stress, hardship, or even failure. The idea is based on a linear system not unlike the linear system we have regarding material production: Resources are harvested, refined, molded, shipped, bought, used, and then thrown away. It’s a very unnatural system because as anyone can see, the world never works this way, but rather in elegant cycles that continuously flow. In this same way, a career is a modern invention that turns a human being into a product that can be used and thrown away.

On paper this sounds horrible. No one enjoys being used, however, the system is perpetuated on a made up societal idea of what “success” or what “happiness” is. Many people believe it’s money; others believe it’s material possessions (which is essentially another form of money); some conceptualize it as power. But the fact of the matter is, in the words of Alan Watts, “Life is a musical thing, and we are supposed to sing and dance while the music is being played.”

Too many people get wrapped up in this false idea of success and the problem is compounded by the societal belief that a career is the only vessel to get you there. Because of this, I don’t believe in retirement either. Retirement seems to me to be a concept very similar to heaven. If heaven is what keeps your heart beating every morning, then good for you. Everyone needs something. But when that concept takes over your feelings and emotions in the now, it becomes a virus or an infection. It festers and ruins your entire perception of the beauty that surrounds you at each passing second.

The system is set up under the premise of logic, but fails to prove true. The idea that there is some end to structured learning is evidence enough for me that the system is broken. I see this more and more especially being in the environment that I am in, that being a technical/job-oriented institute. I see software engineers, computer scientists, pre-med students, all going down the same exact path: debt. The reality of debt is a powerful tool. You owe something to someone else, and you must work hard to make ends meet. Today, millions of students in the United States are entering college by way of massive student loans which will help them land that job which will pay off the loans (and hopefully then some). You get far enough in quicksand, and there’s no hope of getting out unless you fully commit, sink, and find the bottom. Still then, few manage to survive. The kind of debt that haunts a vast majority of college graduates is astronomical in size and forces hand of the student to find a job and work it off. You -must- work. How wonderful a concept?

In this same way, back in the boom of capitalism, job seekers would often put out wanted ads proclaiming: Wanted! Married men. Usually they would exclaim that a married man is more capable of handling responsibility than one who is not. But with marriage comes figurative ties of debt. A married man has people counting on him. During that era, he would have a housewife, potentially with children who relied on him having a well paying job that would keep their lives easy. A man in this predicament isn’t very likely to quit a job, not show up on time, do a lousy job, etc because people are counting on him.

And yet this world is not set in stone and, in fact, is constantly changing. It’s how the world functions. Humans don’t like this, or rather we’ve evolved in some way not to like this, and modern society is a blatant disregard of nature’s law which states that everything changes. We may not like it, but people change. Tendencies change, ideas change, perceptions and hobbies change. So if you grow to change, and no longer appreciate the kind of work you do, what can you do?

At this point in the game, nothing.

There are no tools given to you by the system to help you. Go back to school? Who will give you a loan? You have a spouse and kids you need to support. A mortgage to pay off. You can’t afford to pause time. Again I say, debt is an extremely powerful tool. Do you think you will be happy when this happens?

For many, the problems that arise from a shitty job are buffered by the idea of retirement. Retirement calendars, which track the -years- you have left until you can quit and finally enjoy life, prove that this is a real problem. A person in retirement is essentially an ultimate consumer. It is socially accepted that “you did your time and now you are free to do whatever your heart desires!” Go travel! See the world! Do nothing for the rest of your life. But is that really what people want? I don’t agree. I see too many people who are so ready and willing to give up 20+ years of their to something they don’t particularly enjoy, simply so they can enjoy life more later on. There is a wonderful group of people who study for years to become doctors because they absolutely adore the job. They deal with the stressful environment not because of the paycheck, but because the smile that comes from their patients when they are told that they are going to recover rips at their heart strings. Still, too many see the paycheck and the easy way of life by way of an early retirement.

You can’t spend a quarter of your life doing something you dislike day-in and day-out and expect there to be no repercussions later in life. A quarter of your life is gone. Missing. Time will not rewind to recover those precious moments. The failures and the hardships; the experiences you should have had; the wonderful emotions happy or sad; You are a fool for having tried to sleep for 20 years straight in the hopes of never having to sleep again. And yet, you are not a fool. You did nothing wrong. You were told by society that this was the way. You were tricked. Everyone was tricked; Suckered into this marvelous scheme that no one can take credit for because even the “mastermind” has become drunk on the punch. It is now a self-sustaining cancer in our minds. How tragic…

Music is the ultimate analogy for life. It has a specific start and end and it even has rhythm – a designated pattern that all beats must follow. But the start and the end are no more important than the middle. The middle is no more important that the beginning and the end. All the notes are constantly changing, tumbling and twisting up and down along this scale. They change, but every solitary note is in harmony with the notes around it. How many musicians do you see recognized for composing a symphony with a disorganized, chaotic middle, but the most beautiful end this world has ever heard? Is that piece successful?

Take it upon yourself to re-evaluate your life and address why you are doing what you are doing. Why do you move in this way? Learn this particular subject? Believe in this particular thing? Live the way you do? If the answer involves no value, responsibility or immediate satisfaction then perhaps you are part of this epidemic of unhappiness (or will be soon). Do not fall for the trap that happiness can somehow arise from perpetual unhappiness.

This post is a continuation from Part I.

Fear is a huge player in the discipline of parkour; There are dangers and risks, and everyone has the natural tendency to avoid physical harm. In the last section, I announced that I have always felt afraid doing the things I do and I outlined several strategies I use to mitigate the effect of that fear. Part II is not an outline of a problem, nor is it a guide as to how never to feel afraid. Instead, I want to pose a few questions and point out a couple factors that occur in American society that I feel have a great deal of influence in the psyche of our generation.

The biggest question I’m going to ask is, Why? I can no longer sit back and be content with the way society decides to manage itself or behave. Specifically for this topic, why is physical harm so intensely demonized at a young age?

The root of the problem is difficult to understand for some, mainly because there is no right or wrong answer; just choices and the effect of those choices. To develop this further, I give myself as an example:

I am by no means a scarless child. I’ve had my bumps and bruises, tears, rips, cuts, and scrapes. I’ve never broken a bone to this day. The most definitive thing I remember about my escapades as a child was, “don’t do that because ________.” With every caution, came a consequence. Time after time, year after year, I have become conditioned to address what consequences derive from my actions. I am not a psychologist, and I do not demonize my parents for raising me this way. I am who I am. But one thing I cannot get my head across is what life would be like if I never stressed about that next moment. What if, instead of constantly analyzing the future, I simply adapted and responded to events that occur in the present? What kind of psychological changes occur in a child who is raised with an approach of, “Try it. Explore! See what happens for yourself.”

Humans are wonderful creatures and we most certainly have advanced brains that allow us to do some very amazing things. However, to my knowledge, humans still do not possess the capability to peer into the future and know what outcomes will arise. The illusion is definitely there. I can take in all the senses around me and say with a feeling of certainty that in an hour I will no longer be in this coffee shop, because I have another appointment. But just because this is the most probable solution, does not discount other probable outcomes. What if my client cancels? What if the person next to me drops dead?

Throughout all my childhood, whenever a potentially physically threatening situation presented itself, I was told by an authority NOT to do something because this specific thing will happen to me. But who is to judge what will happen in the future? “Don’t touch that hot stove! It will burn your hand!” Anyone can agree with this statement. The stove is obviously hot and touching it will obviously burn the child’s hand. What I want to ask is: what happens if you instead say, “Try it. See what happens.” You’ve done something very remarkable there. You’ve changed that child’s pattern of thinking and exploring. They will surely burn their hand, but in the grand scheme of things, a burn is a burn. There is no authority dictating probable outcomes to that child, rather, they learn for themselves the power of certain physical and natural laws; the only true authority.

It is necessary to prove to a child that they are the masters of their own decisions for them to act that way later in life. Heinlein once wrote (through the words of Lazarus Long), “I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.” Morally and physically, I am responsible for my own actions. But with my background and the mental conditioning I have, how can I possibly be expected to attack the future with a free mind? Am I truly a free thinker/mover? Or am I only as free as my calculations allow me to be?

If my shoes have a high coefficient of friction with the rail, the distance is within my abilities, and the rail is sturdy and strong, I can safely assume that I will make the precision successfully. But what is the difference between an assumption and a prediction? In my opinion, too many people believe that the world is predictable until it proves unpredictable. But after the world proves itself unpredictable, no one comes to the conclusion that perhaps, maybe, the world is simply inherently unpredictable. Everyone continues to believe that they can predict outcomes based on limited data.

I have come to the realization that I have spent way too much of my life worrying about situations and outcomes that I can’t possibly know the answers to, especially when it comes to parkour. My past mentality has surely helped me progress as effectively and safely as possible. It has also helped me take on and accomplish new tasks slowly, something I strive to promote in all beginners. But the time needs to come where I mature and finally accept that I have certain abilities, gifts, talents, and limitations and that these do not mean I need to worry constantly about what will happen in the future. I have all the tools I need to properly adapt to whatever physical situation presents itself, whether predicted or not. That is true self-confidence. The ability to say nothing is set in stone and I know that I cannot predict what is going to happen next, but instead of waiting, pondering, and worrying about how I will respond to a potentially bad situation, I will simply continue doing what I do best: adapt.

I want to end by saying that recently I’ve become extremely intrigued in watching experienced practitioners bail. I feel that in these few precious moments, true pakour is demonstrated. There is no time for calculation. No time for worry or anxiety. There is simply reaction in its pure form. Imagine what it would feel like to be in that state of mind every minute; to have complete acceptance of the natural/physical laws that guide us, and although we don’t know what’s going to happen next, confide in our training and our personal abilities to guide us and keep us safe.

This past gymnastics session, I decided to meditate on all the worries, fears, and anxieties I have with tumbling, manipulate them into a ball, and cast them away. I am aware of my limitations, my strengths and weaknesses, and through this knowledge I can act accordingly. Last Sunday I did my first roundoff backhandspring, roundoff back tuck, four backhandsprings in a row, and a side sumi. I had never attempted any of them before simply because I was always afraid of what might happen.

I’m not calculating anymore. I’m done being a slave to my own imagination.

©Koehl Ehlers 2009

As per the realm of a traceur, I am frequently approached by random street folk who are intrigued as to what the hell I’m doing. Usually they just want to ask what or why and move on their way. However, most will stick around, watch a little more, and inevitably ask the follow up question: “How do you not get scared?!”

Here’s my secret:

I have always felt fear when practicing parkour.

I’m coming up on three years in the discipline, and I have always felt or experienced fear doing the things that I do. For me, this feeling is something that can only be countered by endless hours of repetition; solidifying more and more my confidence in the technique. However, sometimes repetition doesn’t work. Rail precisions, no matter what distance, have always instilled hair-raising fear. Same with anything done on metal or on uneven ground. Recently I’ve been wondering more as to why this is, and some interesting things came to my head.

Here are three things I’ve come to realize that are beneficial in tackling the mental demons that keep us from achieving our true potential. They are not in any particular order, just the order that I decided to write them.

First, knowledge is empowering. With knowledge comes confidence. A backtuck used to be the thing I feared most. In my early years, whenever I would attempt to work myself up to a backtuck, I would focus on the technique a little, but mostly on the high potential to land on my head. Think about what you are doing and what needs to happen. A backtuck is second nature to me at this point in the game because the knowledge of how a backtuck works mitigates any feeling of fear. The physics of the technique is perfectly logical and sound and worrying is no longer a rational option. Learn the technique, but also learn why the technique works.

Along the same lines, with strength comes confidence. Knowing you can control your own body instills a certain peace of mind that even if something goes wrong, you will be alright. Strength allows a cushion for beginners to mess up a technique but still keep their joints and their body safe.

Second, don’t waste your beginner years. The beginning years of parkour are vital to further success and safety. The more time you spend with the mind set that you are a beginner, the more potential you have for success later in the game. Solving a quadratic equation once does not mean that you are prepared to handle calculus. You need to practice new problems and be presented with new quadratics consistently to completely understand how to go about a solution. In parkour, performing a kong once on one obstacle does not mean you are ready to progress to bigger and better things. Being able to perform a kong was never the goal. The goal was adaptability and application: being able to apply a kong to any number of variable obstacles. The lack of this basic understanding is what contributes to injuries later on.

Lastly, learn from your bails. Failure is by far one of the best tools we can use to achieve success. Failure in a technique provides you with intimate information as to what factors of success you still lack. Because of this, failure should be something that is accepted and respected. In this same way, the more you encounter failure, the more you become comfortable with it. In a sense, you become a better failure; you can mentally prepare for failure when a new technique goes wrong, plan escape routes on the fly, or become more adept at controlling the panic reaction that a bail might induce.

For me, fear is a constant occurrence but something I’m becoming better at understanding and utilizing in my training. In these past few months, I believe I have come to identify the stem of this problem, which I will address in Part II of this article.

Several years ago I ran into this wonderful lecture given by one of my favorite modern philosophers, Alan Watts. Alan explains:

This past weekend I ran into several younger traceurs who, while being incredibly devoted to progressing in the art, were progressing for the wrong reasons. This post is to serve as a gentle reminder that your journey through parkour, and life in general, is a beautiful musical composition and no one part of it is more significant than the others.

While we all, to varying degrees, strive to become something better, oftentimes that drive is influenced by the wants and wishes of others. No one expects anything of you. And while everyone wants to act and train the same way the more experienced traceurs train, don’t forget to sit back and enjoy your time as a beginner. Without frustration and failure, success is nothing and means nothing.

I don’t consider myself nostalgic in the least, but I do find a certain usefulness in tracing your origins from the past. Many times, this exercise can help you experience certain intricacies about you, your personality, or the way you think. Recently, it’s come to my attention that my own personal thought structure, especially when discussing mental connectors or associations, is the product of a long string of influences and actions that have shaped my brain to interpret sensual triggers in a way that I feel has contributed greatly to my personal “success.”

At a young age I convinced my mother to allow me to train in the martial arts; an act I consider one of the greatest influences on my life. The influence, however, wasn’t from Tae Kwon Do itself, but came from my first instructor (A man I consider so dear that I’m plugging him here). Master Colling was an amazingly charismatic teacher. His skill was certainly above and beyond, but it was his approach to teaching that affected me so much. I had originally started going because I wanted to know how to fight and be a tough guy. What I got was a complete 180 degree shift and instead received the tools needed to face and deal with the situations life throws at us. He didn’t teach me how to fight; he taught me how to see.

Our brains are incredibly powerful machines capable of developing vocal communication, inventing the wheel, sculpting David, or deciphering the means by which to get humanity into space. And while a fist to the face is an incredibly powerful action, true power lies in the ability to convince another person why they do not wish to fight you; Even greater power lies in the ability to then convince your would-be attacker to follow you and train the way you do, thus creating a beneficial friendship out of a potential enemy.

The point is, if our brains are so powerful and influential, why then do most of us forget their effect? The idea is simple once it is painted clearly. While all of us (this is a general statement and neglects certain populations who are born defected) have eyes, ears, a nose, a mouth, and the means by which to touch physical objects, we must all go through a translation period where those signals picked up by our senses must be converted into specific thoughts or feelings by the brain. The issue is, not everyone perceives the same emotions from the same stimuli. This is clearly demonstrated when you place a piece of artwork in front of a group of people and ask them to describe how they feel or how they interpret what the artist was conveying. The mental power I want to focus on here is mental associations.

Mental associations are the physical or emotional connections we make with certain senses. They control how we look at the world and how we initially address situations that come our way. Simply put, mental associations can be the reason why when it rains, you feel sad or depressed. There are reasons behind this: perhaps you associate rain with tears of sadness or you once had a traumatic event that occurred in the rain. The problem is, inevitably, it will rain again and you will once again have those overwhelming sensations of depression and sadness.

In the same way, this is how our view on such things like fear or the concept of a challenge is controlled. The idea of being placed or stuck in a very high place is extremely panic inducing to many people. Sometimes even the idea or thinking about being in that kind of situation is enough to make their pulse skyrocket and their breath shorten. Does this mean we should never place ourselves in that kind of situation? The problem is that we have the ability to “guess” the future and then worry about it. Ironically, we are almost always wrong. Yet we continue to worry and allow the emotions that derive to control how we act in the present.

The good news is that all of us have the ability to rewire our brains the way we feel necessary. It is this rewiring that sets many of us apart and allows us to be truly free. This is the gift I was given by my master all those years ago. He would constantly ask us to name our fears, physical, spiritual, or mental, and then challenge us to face them one way or another. It was this head on approach towards personal challenges that helped define me.

It’s the concept that and obstacle or a fear is not a limitation, but an opportunity. It’s the concept that rain is not to be associted with tears of sadness, but tears of joy. It’s the concept that if something is hard, or the journey is long, the feeling of overcoming that difficulty or experiencing that journey is attractive; it is not something to be afraid of.

This is an actual science that the current Dalai Lama sponsored to see if meditation has any effect on the brain itself. The article can be found here and the results are mind boggling. They clearly demonstrate the capabilities our minds hold.

These positive connections I make to the senses I experience I believe to be a big contributor to my overall feeling of health, consciousness, success, happiness, and state of mental relaxation. This outlook towards that which is difficult or hard is something I feel is very integral to personal development, yet is something so lacking in today’s society.

Face your fears and deal with them head on. Stop allowing your own thoughts and your own imagination to control your emotions and your feelings. Break free and realize that you have ultimate control. Suffering is not a requirement, but a choice too many of us decide to make because it is easy. It is easy to give up or succomb to a fear or a challenge and wallow in your short comings; Easier still to then turn away and place responsibility or blame on some outside source and complain about the unfairness and injustice.

“Be strong to be useful,” not just physically, but mentally as well. We all have the means by which to be free of limitations. Changing for the better isn’t as hard as one may think, and in the grand scheme of things, that is half the battle right there.

Charles

Ever since I started this blog and since people have actually been reading it, I’ve been getting asked here and there what the quote that graces my banner is and why it’s there. Sadly, this is something that takes a while to explain and cannot totally be comprehended in a short five minute description. Although this topic may have no real connection to parkour, it does have an influence on my life and the way I train.

I first picked up Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card, eight years ago when I had just turned thirteen. I was reluctantly part of a school “reading club” that I only signed up for because it got me out of an unneeded class. Most of the books I didn’t care about and most I didn’t actually read. Upon receiving Ender’s Game from Mrs. McLeod, she brought me aside and with a smile mentioned that I, in particular, would appreciate this book. I was stupid and young and tossed her words away thinking initially that this book was just another like the others. (I’m sorry where ever you are)

The club ended and I went on to endure the troubles that life gave me in middle school until a year later I picked up the book on my own and read. To my immature mind the book was stimulating. Ender was a kid full of mass potential and super-hero like qualities. The story itself made me enjoy it. Ender became my first role model. He was silent but inquisitive, small but powerful, and, most importantly, deadly but ever so compassionate.

I’ve read the book probably somewhere along the lines of seventeen times since that year and each time my interpretation of the book grew stronger and more mature. It wasn’t until my latest read last year that I believe I interpreted the book to it’s full meaning. After reading so many times, it has become clear to me that Ender’s Game revolves around one solitary quote, “The enemy’s gate is down.”

In context, this sentence is just an interesting battle tactic that Ender employed. Simply put, this was the only battle tactic Ender ever used during his entire stay at the battle school that stayed constant. He didn’t force his squad into formations because a formation is a tactic used to limit the thinking that was done by it’s respective squad members. But this is where the genius takes off. Ender didn’t see any quality in having drones. He wanted living, breathing soldiers and to do this all he had to do was give them something as simple as perspective.

The battle room was a square-ish room with “gates” on either side that the companies would enter through and compete. Ender wasn’t a genius because he could employ the right formations at one particular time or because his soldiers were any more technically advanced than the others. Ender won because he refused to believe that the battle room was side to side. This is an inherent reflex that we all develop shortly after birth. We see the world as a horizontal landscape with restrictions placed on the sky and the earth. By instilling the concept of the battle room being up and down, he forced his soldiers to think and cope to a four dimensional plane. By having the enemy’s gate down, they superseded the hierarchy developed after birth that was sideways thinking. They always approached their conflicts from the top down. Ender didn’t win his battles because of skill. He won because he understood perspective.

Perspective is an interesting concept that can either limit or expand the way we view our world. Perspective limits our vision when we use our immediate surroundings to define the direction our life is taking. The best perspective is to have none (although in technicality this may also be a form of perspective). For instance, taking a look back on the passing week and becoming depressed that you missed yet another test, your grades are failing, your mom is going through hard times, and maybe you had a fight with your significant other is bad perspective. Is it wrong to be depressed? Not necessarily. But becoming depressed because “my life is falling into pieces!” is. And this is what depression is: a limit.

My little brother, Michael, like Ender, is another one of my greatest influences. My brother was born deformed with a syndrome labeled Goldenhar. He was born with no left ear and significant deformities. I often describe Michael to people who ask and most often am responded to with, “Oh my gosh that’s so terrible!” Is this really terrible? My brother is easily one of the happiest and loving people I have ever come across in my twenty years. He doesn’t realize the super human qualities that usually determine his day to day life and in that there is solitude and humility. He’s inspiring. Diseases and death don’t always have to be as tragic as we often make them out to be. I will never again get to see my Grandpa Treat’s face again, but his smiling face represents one of my earliest memories.

On a different note, stairs are a physical form of limiting perspective. It is through this view in how I structure my training. Do I need to walk up these stairs? What if I crawled; on my hands, face down, or upside down, or sideways, or on the railing? Or, do I even need to take these stairs at all? This is one of my reasons in becoming a traceur.

These reasons are why Ender’s words grace my banner. Ender’s Game is symbolic in the same fashion The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was. We all are the soldiers and the officers are life. Each one of us has the potential to break through the chains that limit our vision and our creativity. All we need is the right perspective.

-Charles Moreland

Recently I’ve been confronted more and more with the ideals of modernism. I have no problems with these confrontations as I made it a driving point in my late teens to become a more understanding person. However some days I just can’t help but wonder where we as a society are going. Modernism itself was not a horrible step for us as a people. In many ways our lives have become better because of it and people ‘can’ live healthier and longer than ever before in history. What makes me worry is the negativism that has found it’s way, ever increasingly, into our culture. The most prominent of which being that which affects our ego as a whole.

This change has been easy to trace through time. More people than ever are denouncing faith views in exchange for that which is solely human. This is not to suggest that faith in any religion is the end all be all, but to simply provide as an example. Most, if not all, faiths believe in something greater than that which we are. They serve to ground us and keep us “human.”

This growth in ego is something I have become more frustrated with every day. Every day it is a new human developed solution to solve problems caused by humanity. The invention of the automobile was a great step in the right direction for us. This invention is one which helped make our world just the slightest bit smaller and allowed us more forms of freedom. But what has this done? The train and the car has only spurred on the comings of more revolutionary ideas. We don’t have to walk from New York to Virginia…so why should we tax ourselves with walking up stairs? Why should we tax ourselves walking anywhere? And with these questions came solutions to further the comfort of our lives: escalators, elevators, and moving pathways.

Comfort drives innovation, but what has comfort done for us? The American people are now the most obese society. We spend and eat the most and also spend the most on diet related products. Why is this? It saddens me to think that most of our society has become so entrenched in the comforts of modernism that they have forgotten about our roots.

So what has comfort made life for these people? Comfort has defined how we view every day situations. We see physical activity as a chore of the past and anything not in the spirit of comfort something that must be despised. Every day life has now become loathsome! People ever more are no longer seeing solutions, but instead see an onslaught of problems.br /I am asked on a daily frequency why it is I practice parkour. Why do I feel the need to be different? I present you with this story:

“There was once a beloved king whose castle was on a high hill, overlooking his shire. He was so popular that the nearby townspeople sent him gifts daily, and his birthday celebration was enjoyed throughout the kingdom. The people loved him for his renowned wisdom and fair judgments.

One day, tragedy struck the town. The water supply was polluted, and every man, woman, and child went insane. Only the king, who had a private spring, was spared.

Soon after the tragedy, the mad townspeople began speaking of how the king was acting “strangely” and how his judgments were poor and his wisdom a sham. Many even went so far as to say the king had gone crazy. His popularity soon vanished. No longer did the people bring him gifts or celebrate his birthday.

The lonely king, high on the hill, had no company at all. One day he decided to leave the hill and pay a visit to the town. It was a warm day, and so he drank from the village fountain.

That night there was a great celebration. The people rejoiced, for their beloved king had ‘regained his sanity.’”

What happens when populations become polluted? Today I was confronted with an ad that at first glance seemed like a very beneficial publicity spot for parkour. The ad was for an upcoming “fitness” website that needed someone to advertise. This seemed like a great local way to get our sport some publicity. However this thought immediately vanished when I decided to check out his “fitness” website. The website itself was a website based on every lie, cheat, and fabrication the “fitness” industry had comprised to keep the population in their never ending cycle of illusion. Every problem had a pill solution and every fact was backed on faulty “scientific” research. I understand now why I am brought aside so often and asked to explain my theories. Our society has come to see our primal roots as crazy and insane and the benefits of physical activity have been meticulously chained up and hid all for the pursuit of the almighty dollar.

The problems caused by human innovations which only keep us sitting longer and exercising less have all been “solved” by more human solutions. Here is a pill for that, a product for this, use this machine for that, machine for this, machine, machine, machine! It is no longer socially accepted to workout outside a gym. “Why are you running outside?” I get asked. “There are treadmills with TV’s to watch inside.” Why do I move my body the way I do? Why don’t I just go inside the gym and use a workout machine? Many people fought hard a couple hundred years ago to disassociate the word human with machine. Charles Dickens would be displeased.

There was recently a discussion about the philosophies that usually accompany parkour. While some may only see this as another thrill seeking sport for youths trying to rebel against the ways of their previous generation, many of us see this different. Parkour is a feeling of nostalgia. We strive to find our roots and attempt to recognize that which makes us human. We see the joys and perks in taking the long and hard way. We see activity as a joy that was once there before our water was polluted.

This is why I run outside. I was made to run outside. Have things changed in the last couple thousand years? Sure. I’m not running to catch my prey and I’m not running for fear of danger. However just like any cultural tradition, we cannot forget who we are or where we came from. The profiteering fitness industry may want you to think different, but hopefully with a little time and some effort, our water can once again become kingly.

-Charles Moreland