22 Parkour Tips for Beginners

A lot of this I’ve learned the hard way. This isn’t a “list of rules” but just some tips gleaned from experience that I want to share with new traceurs and traceuses (the term for people who do parkour).

1. Always check your surfaces. It might be slicker than you’re expecting.

2. Don’t show off with movements you’ve never done before. I’ve done that and slammed my arm into a wall and been temporarily paralyzed (like for a few minutes).

3. Start by taking classes. You’ll learn the essential movements, and a $20 class can save you $1,000 in medical bills if you mess things up while figuring things out.

4. Don’t eat a big meal before your parkour workout. I once at a giant plate of brisket and then went to train…nearly threw up. Stay away from beer and whiskey before training too.

5. Train at your own pace/Listen to your body. When I listen to my instructor, sometimes I’ll run out of breath or do a move I’m not ready for and injure myself.

6. Push yourself. This is easiest done with groups. Watching other traceurs pull off a movement that you’ve never tried gives you confidence to try it.

7. Jams are awesome. Jams are basically giant meetup groups for traceurs. People from all over your city (and maybe even from out of town) come to train. It’s a great place to meet people and there is a lot of camaraderie.

8. Gyms are great. If you have a parkour gym near you, use it! It’s a great way to learn movement you’d be too intimidated to try by yourself on concrete.

9. Choose your shoes well. New Balance shoes are great as are Innovates. Essentially you want a good running shoe that is light, has a lot of grip, and not too much padding.

10. Wear the right clothes. Ideally you’re wearing lightweight sweatpants that aren’t too long and a lightweight long sleeve t-shirt. That protects your knees and elbows better than the shorter variants.

11. Groundwork, groundwork, groundwork. You don’t have to start off doing precision jumps 6 feet in the air. Practice jumping from line to line on sidewalks. Get good at it and only then move up higher.

12. Learn the essential movements. QMs, rolls, safety vaults, precisions. This is an entirely separate post, but start by understanding the core set of movements and then build from that foundation.

13. Warm up, then stretch. Warming up helps you stay injury free. So does stretching. That order seems to work best for me and others I know.

14. Stretch again after your workout. I sometimes forget this and I usually regret it. It’s important to combat soreness and to increase your flexibility.

15. Respect your limits. Don’t keep pushing yourself at the end of your training session, that’s when you’re more prone to moves that create injuries.

16. Learn the re-grip. When you’re swinging on a bar and you swing backwards, you let go slightly and then re-grip. This is important to keep your hands from getting ripped up when doing bar work.

17. Someone is always better than you. So even if you’re the best person in your class, you need to stay humble.

18. Someone is always worse than you. Again, no reason to show off because you’re better than someone.

19. Keep at it. Parkour isn’t learned in a single session—I’ve been actively training for months (and casually for years) and I’m still learning to do movements I have never done before.

20. Don’t go up higher than you’re willing to fall from. It’s just a bad idea.

21. Advil is your friend. I take two normal Advil before bed when I train at night and that helps me to fall asleep faster.

22. D.O.M.S. Delayed onset muscle soreness sucks. Look it up and know there is nothing you can do about it, but it goes away after the first couple of weeks of training.

There’s more, but that’s a good list to start with.

Safe training!

Zeeko