Charles’ Parkour Training Blog

Since creating this blog back in 07, my life has taken an intriguing and rather exciting turn. The site is a place for me to concentrate my thoughts as well as track my personal progress. I never intended this site to reach many people. To be ranked on the first page in a google keyword search “parkour training” was one of the biggest accidental accomplishments of this blog.

In this last week, my blog has accomplished yet another goal: 100+ visitors in a day. Thanks to the wonder that is stumble upon, I have surpassed this goal six times over and yesterday, Monday September 21st, www.charlesmoreland.com received 607 visitors.

As I’m constantly looking to improve the site, I’d like to encourage all you viewers from stumble upon to leave a short comment on what exactly you were stumbling for when landing on this page. Feedback is always appreciated!

For now, enjoy my thoughts, my words and ideas, my videos, and my pictures!

Charles Moreland

Welcome Rochestarians!

Today Zac Cohn and I were invited by RNews’ Virginia Butler to do an interview regarding parkour. The piece was a great success and I want to thank Virginia for her welcoming and supportive attitude to our passion.

Sadly, most of the people I know don’t have a DVR nor do they watch TV so I had to settle for my D90. Apologies for the horrible quality!

RNews Interview – compress 2 from Charles Moreland on Vimeo.

For those that do not know:

Beginner’s Parkour Workshop in Rochester, NY – March 28th

Rochester Parkour is planning our second Beginner’s Parkour workshop. This is a free introduction, designed to inform and educate anyone interested in practicing Parkour. It’s targeted towards beginners, but we encourage more experienced members of the community to come as well.

We will be covering the basics of Parkour, including an introduction to proper conditioning, landings and precision jumps, quadrupedal movement, and basic vaulting. Rochester Parkour also emphasizes an importance on safety and slow, progressive training methodologies in all of our events and training sessions.

We encourage anyone interested in Parkour to attend. Whether it’s your first time out, or you’re already an experienced traceur, you’re sure to learn something – or at least have a good time!

Who can come: Anyone! Males or females of any age. Parents feel free to bring your kids. Kids, feel free to bring your parents!

Who is hosting: The event is being run by Zachary Cohn, one of the most experienced traceurs in the state. He is a member of the APK Alliance, a national group sponsored by American Parkour. He will be assisted by Charles Moreland and Jeff Whalley, two experienced and dedicated traceurs.

What: Workshop designed to teach beginners the fundamentals of Parkour training, while emphasizing safety and progression.

Where: The big field above the Ice Rink at Manhattan Square Park: 353 Court St. Rochester, New York, 14607.

When: March 28th, 2:30-4:00pm

Why: To learn about Parkour and to have a great time!

How much: This event is absolutely free! We will be selling Rochester Parkour T-shirts for $10 – all T-shirt sale proceeds will go toward building equipment (vaulting boxes, precision trainers) and our Spring trip to New York City (to be announced).

What you should bring: Bring comfortable clothing and layers. We can’t control the weather, and we will be outside! Bring comfortable but athletic shoes (sneakers, running shoes, skater shoes, etc). If you haven’t already filled out and turned in a waiver, please print out and fill out this waiver and bring it with you.

Most importantly, bring a positive attitude and the expectation of having a great time!!

For more information, email info@rochesterparkour.com.

Charles

“You’re pretty thin for a weight lifter..” exclaimed the border patrol agent. I smiled and calmly replied, “I guess I’m deceiving, officer.” He gave me an interesting look, paused, and turned back, a smirk coming to his thin lips. “Show me your hands.” I chuckled to myself and did as I was directed…

 

 

“Yeah…you weight lift…” was his reply. “Go on through. I hope your friend is okay.”

 

Alright, so it wasn’t really a lie I gave to the fine young gentleman that protects our nation’s borders. I was, in fact, in Canada for the weekend to “exercise” and a parkour jam could, technically, be referred to as a “seminar.” I understood how strange it would be to not only have to explain parkour to an already suspicious-by-nature federal agent, but to also be driving a vehicle not registered in mine or any immediate relative’s name. But these are the twists I must deal with in my life and I never imagined the injuries my left hand sustained this weekend would make my explanation easier when crossing the border. Sometimes things just work out…

 

This past weekend’s turmoil took place at none other than The Monkey Vault, a unique parkour gym owned by Daniel Iaboni in Toronto, Ontario. Toronto is an easy three and a half hour drive across the border from Rochester and we figured it was time to take some of the RocPK kids for an adventure. We packed our bags and set out late Friday afternoon.

 

After dealing with the border patrol grilling us to find out more about what parkour was and why we were traveling to Canada for it, as well as several wrong turns, we finally arrived at our destination. The gym was nothing at all what I expected.

 

Danno’s gym is everything you could possibly dream about when you think of a hole in the wall “gymnasium” that does it right. Upon entering, you will be hit with the sight of gymnastics, bouldering, and parkour all coming together to make a wonderful training friendly environment. Much of the bottom floor is covered in expensive gymnastics style spring flooring accompanied by a medium sized foam pit (conveniently located under the second floor balcony!). In the back is a small bouldering area that wraps its way around much of the right wall. The rest is rather undeveloped still.

 

Upstairs you’ll find a quaint, but entirely functional barbell lifting area equipped with a squat rack, pull up/dip/leg raise machine, bench station, and a GHR (as well as assorted dumbells, kettlebells, and medicine balls). Also upstairs is a full bathroom with a shower that spews nothing but Canada’s finest freezing water. I forgot to get a shot of the upstairs, so here’s Zac sleeping!

 

When I arrived, the others were already waiting patiently in a circle, eager to start moving around. We started with a dynamic core workout which looked something like this:

 

3 Rounds 10-20-30 of:

 

Reclined explosive knee raises (I’ll explain this in a later article)

V-Ups

Toe touches

Candlestick raises (explain later as well)

 

V-Ups killed me and this is the first time I have experienced abdominal DOMS in a very long time. We moved onto the lower body and began doing box jump circuits which tranistioned into tic-tac rebound training where we had to tic-tac from one wall and double leg bound to the opposite wall in as little leaps as possible. After this, Danno placed a vaulting box in our path and instructed us to tic-tac and box jump onto the box utilizing only one jump.

 

It was late and we were all tired. One by one we fell asleep inside the gym.

 

Saturday came and we woke up to the disturbing sight of parking tickets. Jesse and I grabbed a shovel and hammer respectively and began smashing away at the wall of ice that was blocking the way to safe parking. Once the situation was handled we headed off into Toronto for some quick breakfast before bouldering.

 

We spent about two hours at the rock gym and I managed, as I usually do with bouldering, to give it my all until I physically cannot grab a hold. I have an issue with obessing over bouldering problems until I have them complete and this one was particularly frustrating. I was too short to make the reach presented below and each time was required to lose my footing and jump to the next hold with my left hand. I accomplished this several times. My final attempt at completing the problem seemed promising but my strength was gone. I fell to find that the final attempt had demolished my left hand and left several, large open wounds.

 

We were met back at the gym with some younger PKTO traceurs who were already practicing and training. I joined in with the others after tending to my wounds. This part of the session was very loose and open and involved much creativity. Instead of explaining I will simply post a series of photos taken during the session.

 

 

The session was fun and exciting, but not without consequence as one of our own, Sam Owen, would come to sustain a devasting broken ankle. I hold Sam in high regard and have nothing bad to say of him as I’m sure he has learned his lesson, however, I do feel a need to reach out and express to my readers that while flips, tumbling, and tricking are fun and exciting…they are dangerous and taxing to the body and need to be assessed as such. Your body requires a lot of time to adapt to the strain you place on it and as a beginning traceur you should always take the time to step back and make sure you are not progressing faster than your body can handle.

 

 

 

“That’s a bitch of a circuit,” the mastermind of that night’s upper body pain mumbled upon completing his final round. Saturday carried on that day’s emphasis on upper body annhialation with a circuit around the gymnastics floor. This next video is Danno’s final round. Don’t judge him; This round was completed after four previous rounds and was his first try at RTO (Rings turned out) Dips.

 

 

Danno’s Monster Arm-Annhialating Circuit from Charles Moreland on Vimeo.

 

 

Jesse and I ran off into the chill Toronto air to find a feast as others slowly passed into slumber. When we returned, Graham, our wonderful EMT-trained friend, informed us that Sam’s ankle was not getting better and was probably broken. Sam needed to get to a hospital. Graham took Sam back across the border that night and left the keys in my hands. “This should be interesting…” I sighed.

 

Sunday was a rather lazy day and the rest of RocPK, minus Zac, Jesse, and myself, took off early. Not before Adam, the new recruit to the crew, beat the gym’s current pull up record, completing a not-too-shabby 23 pull ups before falling. After the crew departed, Danno jumped in our (Sam’s) car and took us to Cloud Gardens to give us a horrible teaser as to what to expect from the big Toronto jam at the end of July. I felt like a kid in a toy store…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the ride there, Danno showed us the major spots that Toronto housed, and by major spots, I mean entire blocks and entire streets of hot spots. Toronto is a traceur’s dream come true with hotspots in literally every direction you turn. It is no longer a wonder in my mind as to why this city has such a massive and thriving community.

 

 

 

With that, we said out goodbye’s and were on our way back to the parkour desert that is Rochester, NY. Toronto is simply a dream for me and the friendships made there during our short visit will surely be taken to heart. Danno’s attitude toward training is greatly inspiring and I cannot wait for July to roll around.

 

I want to extend my deepest gratitude to Danno and the PKTO traceurs we met along the way that made our adventure so exciting and beneficial. You have my greatest appreciation.

 

Charles

 

 

To be honest I cannot believe I’m making a post such as this. However, I try to keep good track of the keywords that lead people to this blog every day and recently I’ve seen an influx in searches looking for Starting Strength results and body composition changes. In response, I decided at a recent photo shoot to ask for a couple shots of me to demonstrate where I am currently as a result of my previous training. 

 

I start off by bringing you back to when I was a Freshman in college. I hope every last one of you realizes how embarrassing this truly is for me to post this:

 

I was such a different person back then. Finding this photo brought back interesting memories of my past. The next photo is one of very poor quality, however it is the latest picture I have with my shirt off prior to my Starting Strength program:

 

Better, but even then I knew I was weaker than I thought I was. About a month later I began not only Starting Strength, but also ventured down my path to become a gymnast. I was on Starting Strength for a little over two months before ending my linear progression. I gained about 18lbs of lean muscle mass and saw massive strength to bodyweight ratio spikes. This is me currently:

 

 

 

 

 

I want to stress the point at this time that aethetics were never a goal in my training. One day a couple weeks ago, I happened to look in the mirror coming out of the shower and realized that I had attained something I figured I’d never attain (nor had I cared about). The broadness of my shoulders and chest have filled out tremendously which for me, having spent a majority of my life with my torso appearing flat, up and down, is an extreme bonus. 

For those of you looking at this still debating whether or not to go on SS, do it. But do it for the right reasons. Follow the program and go as long as you can until you see the performance goals you are looking for. 18lbs of lean muscle is not exemplary in the least for results from this program, however, I had reached a point where I felt comfortable with myself and my functionality. 

Train for life. Train for functionality. Eat properly. One day you’ll look in the mirror and realize your abs just appeared out of nowhere, and more than that, you won’t care…

Peace,

Charles Moreland

Today was the first trial of the Rochester Parkour class at Zenith Gymnastics. We had about eight kids show up varying in age from 8 to 14, but all had a great experience and definitely had a lot of fun.

Classes are taught by our own Zac Cohn who has been training locally and abroad for over three years. He is also a member of a national alliance of traceurs, sponsored by American Parkour, to continue the growth of Parkour nationally. At the moment I am a volunteer assistant and you can find my information in my “about me” page here atb – two worlds cd1 download .

Zenith Gymnastics is located in Winton Place just off the East end of Brighton Henrietta rd. If you are interested in signing up your child, or yourself, give Amy a call at 585.292.5370.

If you are interested in Parkour but want more exposure, give Amy a call and ask about my ages 5-8 boys class or my 8+ Gymnastics class.

-Charles