Beginner's Conditioning Classes @ Cal - Wednesdays 6:30PM

[Meatlad]

DISCONTINUED for now. (As of 7/1/10)

... at least till we find someone who wants to take 'em over.

The reason being that we're starting for-money conditioning sessions in Oakland at this day and time. We're trying to raise money for projects like the bulb park, custom obstacles and a space and are trying to raise money doing the things that we do best.






Where:
"The Terrace", Bechtel Courtyard, UC Berkeley campus:
On this map (http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=103797138136974712066.0000011384f291c130efb&ll=37.874261,-122.25763&spn=0.002528,0.004823&t=h&z=18).

When:
Every Wednesday (unless otherwise specified) at 6:30PM - 8:00PM

What:
Conditioning through movement! We start with an obstacle course-type route that uses very basic parkour skills (jumping, walking on all fours, traversing and getting over low walls). It's a lot more cardio-oriented than it used to be, and though we still depend on body weight for a lot of the exercises, we've moved toward more movement-oriented conditioning rather than straight lifting of yourself in various positions. Don't worry, you will get strong too.

In this class we will use very basic parkour skills to get around, and in doing so get a workout. Don't worry, you won't be expected to do anything crazy or scary! By "basic parkour skills" I mean short jumps from one object to another, crawling ("quadrapedal movement"), climbing onto stuff, jumping from the ground to a hang on to low walls, and using a variety of rudimentary vaults to get over low objects. We do various courses that emphasize different muscle groups and basic skills.

The intent is not just to get your heart rate up and to build muscle, but also to teach the functional basics of movement that parkour relies on: coordination, balance, control, precision, spacial awareness, endurance and problem-solving. Most of what we do is scalable, so if you don't feel immediately comfortable or able doing a particular exercise, no problem. There's an accessible, intermediary step to every exercise.

I try and keep these sessions fresh and interesting, so if you have an idea or suggestion, I'd love to hear it!

Who:
You! No matter who you are, the nature of these exercises is scalable up or down to your current fitness/skill level. It is a lot less intense and shorter than the Monday sessions. Hopefully you will find it fun as well as hard, as my personal belief is that if exercise isn't fun, you won't stick with it.

Feel free to private message or email me with any questions.

[Meatlad]

In case anyone's interested and wondering if this is still on considering the weather - it is!

[Austin]

Have fun out there. Not raining currently, but it looks like it might be a little chilly out.

[Meatlad]

Woot. good times. Weather was actually totally on our side - everything was dry and it was warm and we had sun even. Thanks Peter and Andrew for comin' out! And Mark and Akil, sorry we didn't get to hang with you too much.

Was talking with my friends and we might do this every Wednesday, but push it back to about 6:30 or so. I'll post if we do as it was fun, great for me as someone already in pretty good shape because it keeps the muscles workin' without feeling like I'm going to be sore the next day, and a great workout for the noobs. (and don't tell them but we snuck in some actual parkour too and they did great.)

[Meatlad]

Alright, this is on again this Wednesday! It's going to be a regular thing it's looking like. So check back here for updates.

[Meatlad]

In case you're wondering what you're in for, here's what we did yesterday. The roster of activities varies a bit, but this will give you a decent idea:

1.5 - 2 hrs:

Upper Area at Doe:
- Warm-up jog
- Light stretching and joint rotations
- Quadrapedal Movement (QM) forward and backward
- QM side-to-side, including on a 1.5-foot ledge to keep you paying attention to balance and technique.
- QM side-to-side with twists
- Crab walking forward and backward
- Keeping body rigid and starting from a push-up position, slowly "roll" on your palms and feet (don't let your butt touch).
- In push-up position, keep your hands planted and hop on one foot up to as close to your hands as possible keeping your knees straight. Drop back down into a push up, absorbing the drop with your arms. Do a push-up. Continue.
- Monkeywalk
- Hop down stairs on one foot. Two steps down, one step back.

Doe Plaza:
- Bunny hop over bricks forward and backward. Bunny hop with knees bent 90 degrees forward and backward.
- Step up vaults: with hand on low wall, hop up with outside leg, then pull your inside leg through, extending it as far in front of you as you can (abs and obliques), balancing on your outside hand and outside foot. Then back down the way you came. Then another set with leg lifts while you're up on the wall.
- Half-kong: on a low wall push yourself up, tuck your legs in, try to pause in air, let yourself back down. Do last set landing on the obstacle. Works - upper body including abs, coordination and balance.
- Jump onto then off of a low obstacle two-footed. Goal is to be silent on landings to strengthen joints and legs.
- Cat leap onto a low wall, walk up to ledge then do a 10 chin-ups. (Adv: chin up to muscle-up)

East Asian Studies Library:
- Push youself up onto a wall, holding yourself up with your arms straight while your legs dangle. "Walk" sideways on your hands.
- On a wheelchair ramp with walls on each side, put your feet on one wall and hands on the other, making a bridge over the sidewalk. "Walk" to one side.
- Wallrun to muscle-up, then 10 dips.
- Dive bombers! From downward dog, drop your elbows to the ground. Pull yourself through to a bottom-push up position, then arch your back, straighten your arms and look up (like you're stretching your abs). Reverse out of it the way you came in.
- Bicycles & other general ab stuff.

Wheelchair ramp with rails (optional, takes you past 1.5 hours probably):
- Cat walk up
- Walk on rails up
- Step-up vault leg lifts on rail
- Regular vault up and down the length

That takes about an hour and a half, and is pretty even upper and lower body. We change the order around to make sure we switch off upper and lower body moves to give muscles a couple minutes to rest.

[Aikidoka880]

i wanna go... but I don't get off of pratice till like 5:30 and i have stuff to do... stupid track :P..

[Corndogg]

im in tonight!

[Meatlad]

Good! Claire is out due to hay fever, to be replaced by Corndogg!

Our schedules actually make it easier to start a little early today though, so today we start at 5:45 at the steps of Doe, with warmup in the field!

Call me if you can't find us: SF area code, 83 00770. (trying to confuse the bots, but they're probably smarter than that).

[lethalbeef]

Great! What an awesome idea. I hope having this session doesn't make any of the beginners feel like it's okay to sit out the regular conditioning session though (or, god forbid, the Thursday session) :P Actually I hope this session can give beginners an idea of substitutes for especially difficult Monday conditioning workouts, etc.

[Meatlad]

Yeah, and I'm especially hoping it's a bridge for some older-than-most-of-us folks.

Though Mondays are beneficial for anybody, and there's a lot of different fitness levels there already!

[Corndogg]

whew! good times. was 3 then i came then another came but one left, so about 4. i did about 1/2 of meatlads session and then we messed around for a while, then meatlad left and i went with akhil (sp?) and mark around campus checking out spots and teaching them a few things and just jamming around. started at 6:20 and went til 9! gonna be sore tomorrow, but ill be coming out there the next 4 wednesdays. sweet!

[lethalbeef]

Isn't it great that the conditioning sessions can get you pumped up enough that you keep going for 3 hours? I love it.

[Meatlad]

Definitely a good way to warm up.

Good times yesterday! Was a bit shorter than usual, but all good. Means we were able to run into Mark and Akil (sp?) and have a bigger group though.

Next week it's back to 6:30 - 8:00.

[Corndogg]

See you tonight!

[Corndogg]

another great workout lead by Meatie, nice one. 5 of us out today. 30 years or older or beginner or intermediate or whatever, definitely a solid parkour-related conditioning session. come on out and join us! :biggthumpup:

loosely from memory, it was:
- Warmup jog
- Joint rotations
- QM forward
- QM backward
- QM sideways, rotating frequently
- Crabwalk
- Monkey hops
- Small progressive precisions, w/soft landings
- Jog
- Jump up on wall and down, w/soft landings
- Safety vault and stick leg out and balance
- Safety vault and stick leg out and do leg raises
- Brace yourself between/on 2 low walls (both hands on one, both feet on other) and QM sideways
- Support yourself on top of wall, legs hanging down, and move yourself across the wall
- Half monkey vault to top of wall then stand up, then crouch and drop down, w/soft landings
- Jog
- Catleap to moving up/across, then 2 catleap pullups or 1 muscle up, followed by
- One foot hop down 2 stairs, back up 1 stair, all the way down
- One foot bench raises with a hop whatever you call it
- Divebombers
- Joint rotations, light stretching, cooldown

:bowdown:

[Beretta]

Meatie!!!

[Meatlad]

Damn Corn! Good memory! Yeah, we're still working out the details so there's a bit of variation, but you can count on something similar to all that.

Hey, thanks for coming out the last couple times (and next several) Corn!

[Meatlad]

woot bump woot. See you all today!

[Meatlad]

On tonight, as usual! I'm feeling a bit woozy today, not sure what that means, but it's definitely on!

[Meatlad]

...And it's on again!

[Meatlad]

Me and the regulars (Rick and Claire), and possibly others will be here again tomorrow. Slightly more often than not we get another person or two as well.

[Oracle510]

this on for this wendsday?

[Meatlad]

yep.

[BENNY]

humm..is there a thread for resistance training?

[Beretta]

That's kind of a broad term, Benny. As wikipedia notes:

Resistance training has two different, sometimes confused meanings - a more broad meaning that refers to any training that uses a resistance to the force of muscular contraction (better termed strength training), and elastic or hydraulic resistance, which refers to a specific type of strength training that uses elastic or hydraulic tension to provide this resistance. This article discusses the more limited definition, of elastic/hydraulic resistance training.

Do you mean strength training, weight training or elastic band-type training? In any case, if there isn't a thread on the topic you're interested in, start one!

[Meatlad]

All your base are belong to us. See you tomorrow.

[Meatlad]

Had a blast last night! Thanks for coming everybody. Had a lot more people than usual, 12 or 13. Come again next week, and Thursday (today) too for an unstructured fun jam!

[Meatlad]

This will start at 7 PM today, July 15. Taking my cat to the vet beforehand.

[Meatlad]

I'm outta the vet (in the office now)!

That means I'll be there at 6:30 after all. We'll start then with whoever's there, then "restart" at 7.

[Oracle510]

i might make it. its been a while since ive been out there.

[Oracle510]

are dogs allowed at ucb?

[Meatlad]

Dogs are in fact allowed, yes. Lots of people walking their dogs right around Doe. It'd be awesome to have yours with us!

Despite the time flip flopping we had over 10 people again this week. Thanks for coming! Glad to see so many people.

Any advice (helpful criticism) or requests for moves, body areas to work out more/less or endurance vs. strength exercise adjustments, let me know!

Also i'm trying to figure out how to best infuse technique into every exercise without making it a technique practice, so let me know if you have any ideas! The goal is for all these moves to directly help your parkour.

[Oracle510]

awsome :) ill bring the parkour dog :)

[midnyte]

There's gonna be one this wednesday? I'm there +1

[Meatlad]

Awesome, see you guys (and dogs) then!

[Andrew So]

Just to double-check, this is back to the normal time of 6:30pm outside of Doe library at UCBerkeley?

[midnyte]

I might get lost heading over there. First time really going around Berkeley, and is it at 630?

Text me please.. i hardly answer to calls... if you call... leave a message... let me know you're from SFPK and who you are... I won't have computer access tomorrow... i'm going to be out the whole day... but I would really like to join in on this...

Seven-Oh-Seven-Three-Eight-Six-8-two-One-2 -- my name's Jason

[midnyte]

Hey! It was good workout today... I definitely found some things I need to incorporate on my regular workout routines.... thanks I'll see you guys around again next time

[Meatlad]

Oops, glad you guys both made it, sorry for not responding sooner! It's been a crazy week, after being out for a long weekend and then a packed week at work, plus another non-parkour extracurricular project. I've got no excuse really, but anyway I was glad to have this session to burn off some stress. Thanks for coming out everybody! It was a great workout, and lots of fun for me at least.

[Meatlad]

See everyone later tonight: 6:30 at Doe!

[Meatlad]

Ping to get this on people's radar again. Weather's looking like it's going to be mighty nice.

[Meatlad]

I'm out this week. Lookin' for somebody to cover, will report back by Wednesday.

[lethalbeef]

I'll be there, but I'm not sure if i'm up to lead.

[Meatlad]

Sorry I wasn't able to update. I think Andrew led. Angelique had a bunch of new ideas for creative, improv-style conditioning exercises I'm really curious to try. Did you guys do any of that? Hope it went well and see you guys Wednesday!

[Meatlad]

Bumpity bump bump. c u 2nite

[Meatlad]

Haven't posted in awhile I see. Still on. A fair number of people do show up for these, but none are active online.

[lethalbeef]

Truth. We had something like 8 people last week. Seems like the attendance coefficient is very high, which is nice.

[Meatlad]

It's all about the attendance coefficient.

[lethalbeef]

See you guys in an hour!

[Meatlad]

Tried to incorporate the newly-opened trees by Campanile yesterday. Fun to play around in but not quite hard enough for conditioning.

[Meatlad]

It's a little damp out still, but definitely no rain! I'll be at Doe at 6:30 as usual, but will be training a bit by myself for an hour or more beforehand up in or around that plaza at Evans where we start on Thursdays. If anyone wants to join me, come find me!

[lethalbeef]

For anyone who just checks the Berkeley jam threads for info, if you're interested in coming with us to the monthly jam, check out this thread: http://www.sfparkour.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3290&page=2 !!

The monthlies are a great place to interact other traceurs in the area, become a part of the wider community, and apply all the things you've learned at smaller sessions. This one will be in Sacramento this weekend; it's a bit of a trek, but there are several people leaving from the area who may be able to give a ride, and if you have a car yourself, you might be able to find company (that can split gas costs!). We'd love to see you there!

[Mace]

Hey Lethal what time are you guys planning on heading up to SAC?

[lethalbeef]

Gonna skip today, banged my hip on a fall during basketball yesterday. I'll be hanging out tomorrow.

[Meatlad]

Starting next week we will meet at the plaza up the stairs from Evans.

This is the same place where we're now starting on Thursdays. There's a great little obstacle course route up there.

Note:
I just updated the first post to describe what these sessions have evolved into. Nowadays we're doing less strength and lifting exercises and more endurance stuff. That doesn't mean we're running around like mad, in fact we still do the routes fairly slowly. It means we're taking very rudimentary movement skills that parkour is based on and practicing those by applying them to various routes. So you will learn some basic moves like how to jump, land, vault (nothing you can't do!) and roll, while using them to get around. Hopefully you'll find it more fun than what we were doing, while learning a bit of parkour too.

Though we utilize rolls and vaults, this isn't a technique class. We're focusing on the basics of what we need to get around. Coordination, balance and strength is a byproduct of that.

[lethalbeef]

Problems:
1. it's going to be super dark up there in a week.
2. we gotta make sure everyone knows.

[Meatlad]

I got the word out to those who were there last Wednesday. Between that and updating the first and last pages of this thread, it will hopefully be enough.

The darkness up there doesn't really hamper you too much if you're just conditioning. It does for precisions, but there's only two slightly distant ones in that little course and most people don't do those anyway.

I like the course up there because it's hard, there's a lot of variety, there's no one else up there and it's close to the other things. That said, I wouldn't mind finding more of a course in the front of Doe. If you have any ideas, lethal, maybe we can run through them before a session.

[lethalbeef]

Let's work on developing more courses that we can alternate, both for variety and in case there are circumstances which get in our way (ie large groups of other people). We should run the course backwards. Switching to Bechtel is fine.

[Meatlad]

I can't make it this Wednesday. So, unless Albert you'll be there, this Wednesday 11/11 will be canceled.

[lethalbeef]

Okay, I will go.

[Meatlad]

Cool, thanks!

Had a really small turnout last week, just so you know. We've been starting up at The Terrace, but feel free to try some new stuff elsewhere if you feel like it.

[lethalbeef]

We'll be starting at the terrace. I'm going to play coach mostly and not do stuff, and try to lead it like a beginner class to see how it is. Depending on who shows up.

[lethalbeef]

Huh, when did we move this thread? Anyway, for all you shampoos and conditioners, if you're interested in getting your hands on a Cal Parkour t-shirt, we're getting a batch ordered up in a couple weeks, so if you'd like one, send me or Jeff a message. The shirts will be 15 dollars, black, two sided. We'll post a picture soon.

If you think you want one, please place a pre-order; it helps us know how many we need to order, and if you don't, then we'll just order all the excess ones in XL and it won't fit you (just kidding).

[Meatlad]

They're pretty sweet. Hey Albert, the designs we have aren't final?

But yeah, if you want one, feel free to ping me or Albert (lethalbeef).

[Meatlad]

Bump for today. It's cold, it's dark, it's finals season, but it's still on!

And we've been starting a little late the last few weeks, but from now on we'll be starting at 6:30 sharp.

[Meatlad]

It's been a smaller group of only 3-5 of us the last few weeks due to the frosty weather and people going back home for the holidays, but Wednesdays continue!

As we slowly start to phase back into better weather and people start coming back into town we'll be burning off all those calories (fuel! energy!) we gained over the last month or so. Join us!

[Meatlad]

Due to the rain and a prior obligation, this Wednesday will be canceled. Eat a lot of butter and fudge so you have lots of calories to burn next week.

[Meatlad]

What's this? A break in the rain? Quick! Come to Wednesday conditioning!

[sofa]

Hi there! I'm new to parkour, and I wanted to know when and where to meet for beginner's class. Thanks!

[Meatlad]

Well, this is a conditioning class mainly. We incorporate "parkour" movements for the overall goal of getting better shape. If you're looking to start learning parkour movements themselves without the added push-ups, I'd say show up to our standing Berkeley Thursday jam. There's plenty of people there who will show you some moves to start with, including me. That thread is here:

http://www.sfparkour.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3145

These sessions are a good workout though, and you will pick up some skills here too. It's just not geared towards teaching skills is all.

P.S. For this class, all the information you need is on the first page of this thread, first post. 6:30PM Wednesdays at Bechtel building terraces.

[SanjoseFTW]

is this still going for feb? me and my friend are interested but this will be our first time ever even trying to do parkour so would it be ok if we went?

[Meatlad]

is this still going for feb? me and my friend are interested but this will be our first time ever even trying to do parkour so would it be ok if we went?

Hell yeah it's OK if you come! And yes, it's still going. We've been getting 7-9 people lately, and they're of all fitness levels.

If you've never done parkour before, that's fine. The techniques we use are very basic movements - real fundamental stuff.

Hope to see you on Wednesday!

[SanjoseFTW]

I unfortuneatly can not go for the next 2 weeks T_T it makes me sad because of bball and a classs trip to DC but hopefully next week i will be able to catch a bus or get my parents to drive!

[Meatlad]

That's alright, sounds like you're staying active, and that's what's important.

[Meatlad]

Less than two weeks before the clocks change and we actually do this mostly in the daylight again!

By the way, for those of you not here last week, we now have the Berkeley Parkour Collective T-shirts in. They're $15, and if you want one you can give money to either me or Albert (lethalbeef).

Picture of the front attached. I don't have a picture of the back in the right font, but it says in Herculanum font "Berkeley Parkour Collective". It's awesome.

Mediums are going fast.

[Phones]

Will there still be conditioning tomorrow if it rains?

[Meatlad]

Will there still be conditioning tomorrow if it rains?

Well, normally I would say it depends on the amount of rain. But considering it's 6:10 and I'm still at work, I'd say it's raining too much today.:wink:

[marisa]

this will be happening this week, yes?

[Meatlad]

Yes!

[nathan]

I'm new to the group and would like to join tonight at 630. The weather looks pretty crappy... anyone going?

nathan

[Meatlad]

Yeah, we're going to be there. I will anyway. It looks like it probably won't rain anyhow, or if it does very very lightly. It's got to rain pretty hard to keep some of these guys away anyhow.

[nathan]

Cool thanks. See you there.

[Meatlad]

Hey everyone - just a reminder this is still very much on during the summer! In fact, because the campus is empty and it stays light late, it's the best time to come.

We've added flow training near the Bechtel Terrace where we start (at 6:30PM). 30-second drills of constant movement over, under and through a dense rail and planter spot. It works out endurance and creative thinking skills.

Also, starting next Wednesday, we'll be doing some stuff focusing on ninja-like silence and escaping zombies. The ninja-like silence stuff was shown to me last night by Mace who brought the technique back from the Manor Urbanos classes in Mexico City. The zombie techniques are inspired by ZombieFit (http://zombiefit.org/), a St. Charles, Illinois based group.

[ice111]

can i join this session??? i am trully a newbie know nothing but zero on parkour skills ! LOL , i am very eager to learn as i always have deep interest in it i am a visiting student in UCB from Malaysia

[Meatlad]

Of course! Check out the first post in the thread for directions to the spot.

[lethalbeef]

Wait, what was the ninja silence thing? By the way: Monos Urbanos.

[Mace]

Oh ya I just made the Ninja Silence exercises up myself and not from the Monos Urbanos crew. You should still definitely do them though they are great for building concentration and quiet movement.

[Meatlad]

Oh ya I just made the Ninja Silence exercises up myself and not from the Monos Urbanos crew. You should still definitely do them though they are great for building concentration and quiet movement.

Oh really? I thought you got them from MU. OK, cool, whatever, it's a great idea. Also we've got to think of things in the context of zombies. Maybe have "slow tag" or something, where it's everyone trying to tag one person in a fairly small area, but they go half-speed so it's zombie-like and turns don't end too fast.

[ice111]

hey hey
i cant find u all today...i was in the Bechtel Courtyard and i waited there from 620pm to 640pm++ before i move out, i cant see anyone there? LOL...where are u guys???

[Meatlad]

Bummer! We were definitely there though, the whole time you were. You were probably at some other courtyard. This is also called "Trefethen Terrace". We may have been off by the planters, but it still would've been hard to miss us.

I'd say zoom in on the location in the google map in the first post in this thread. It's right outside of the Bechtel engineering building. From the Campanile (the huge clock tower at the center of campus), the next building north is Evans Hall, then the next building north of that is Bechtel. The terrace is up all the stairs. There's a Bank of America ATM up there.

Too bad we missed ya today - we had a pretty good group. 7 people and lots of fun. We were actually there pretty early, from 6:15, till the last confirmed person showed up at 6:45, then we jogged around the building and did more stuff right there. It's pretty hard to miss us, we're the ones crawling around and doing lots of vaults. Or just generally doing what looks like exercise or stretches together. We do that sort of thing too.

We may be somewhere around that building, at least till 7PM, so if you can't find us or come late, just jog around the building till you see us.

[ice111]

hahahaha, damm i must have missed this exciting session...ookokok i will make sure i will be there on next week, i think i might saw u guys but i not sure u all are parkour LOL!

[lethalbeef]

If you have a hunch that we're parkour, ask! It's probably us; Wednesdays the only groups that are out are the parkour guys and the jugglers.

[lethalbeef]

Whoa, this is in the classes section? I didn't even realize. Should it be?

[Meatlad]

Yup. It's structured and instructor-led. Jams, as the word implies, are more open-ended and improvisational without anyone leading anything beyond maybe a warm-up session.

[Beer Thirty]

I'm back from camping and ready to jump over shit. I'll see you all at 6:30.

[Meatlad]

Sweet! Just so people know, we'll be finishing up early this time, about 7:20 to go to hear the author Michael Parenti speak about the dark side of religion at Moe's on Telegraph at 7:30. I think he's talking about the dark side of religion in general, not just the dark religions you may find at Moe's.

So be there at 6:30 sharp so we can get in as much time as possilbe!

[Meatlad]

DISCONTINUED... at least till we find someone who wants to take 'em over.

The reason being that we're starting for-money conditioning sessions in Oakland at this day and time. We're trying to raise money for projects like the bulb park, custom obstacles and a space and are trying to raise money doing the things that we do best.

[ice111]

No wonder no one was there today...
hahaahha