Parkour Method and Classes

Come in and learn the basics of parkour or work on new moves to dazzle your friends in a warm, dry, and soft environment. The class offered at Hart's Gymnastic Center is directed by Chris Pascaul (theonlymegumegu@gmail.com). Chris has been instrumental in bringing the Parkour Revolution to Seattle and Washington State over the last four years.

What is Parkour?

Parkour has been very popular in Europe and Asia for years and is quickly becoming the newest craze in the United States as well! The art of parkour is about getting from place to place in the most efficient way possible. In theory, parkour is about learning to quickly navigate obstacles in an emergency situation. At Hart's Gymnastic Center we offer a controlled environment to practice your parkour training.

Parkour is a method of training the mind and body. A parkour practitioner uses their surroundings to improve their ability to move in space. By interacting with obstacles, the practitioner becomes more comfortable controlling his body and navigating any terrain. The meat of parkour is the discipline of daily training, physical and technical, to heighten the body's natural movement elements such as strength, speed, balance, coordination, precision, power, and endurance. The application of parkour is efficient traversal when circumstance necessitates it, such as being chased, or needing to reach a destination. While this is the practical application of the training, one could do parkour their entire lives and not ever have to use it in this way, similar to a martial artist never getting into a fight. The benefits of parkour are far reaching. Being that parkour is made up of a lot of movements that are natural to the human animal, the body is strengthened evenly and synergistically, meaning all the parts of the body learn to work together. This helps to balance the body and improve all movement in general. Aside from the physical benefits, many people find training parkour develops mental clarity, confidence, self-discipline, the ability to deal with fear, and many other mental gains.

Parkour training is fun for all ages - at Hart's Gymnastic Center we have participants from age 10 through 60! No special uniform is required; just wear comfortable clothing (usually sweats or shorts and a t-shirt) that does not restrict your movement. Tennis shoes may be used at the beginning of class for warm-up activities. Check our monthly schedule or call to participate in our next class - don't miss out on this newest sensation.

For further information on parkour you may want to investigate this Wikipedia page.

This sport began to be popularized in the 1990s, when several films were made about parkour. For examples of parkour explore these movies and/or videos.