This parkour tutorial for beginners aims to teach you the parkour fundamentals.

It includes a basic parkour moves list with pictures, top parkour tips, and some parkour facts.

A standard parkour definition is:

"An activity where you move from one point to another as fast as possible."

While doing this you can use parkour techniques to negotiate obstacles including running, jumping, climbing, and more.

You can learn how to practice parkour at home, in the park, in a parkour training gym, etc.

In fact, you can go parkouring anywhere there are structures to practice your parkour skills on. Oh, and as long as the authorities allow it.

Before you can learn parkour tricks for beginners at home you need to develop your parkour muscles.

Conditioning will get you closer to the ideal parkour body type.

The Survival Fitness Plan conditioning exercises are a good start. Do super burpees and pull-ups every day. Pull ups are also one of the best upper body parkour workout exercises. Learn about those exercises here.

Yoga also compliments parkour well. The Survival Fitness Plan yoga stretch is a good parkour yoga routine as it works the whole body. You can find it here.

The best workout routine for parkour depends on what you need to develop in. The hardest parkour moves to do are those which you don’t have the strength. Focus on developing those muscles.

Here are some additional basic parkour core workouts that only use bodyweight so you can do your parkour conditioning at home.

Catwalking is a form of quadrupedal movement. Quadrupedal movement is the act of moving on all-fours.

Other types of quadrupedal movement include side sapiens and ground kongs. They all have their practical use and also make great conditioning exercises.

The catwalk is useful when having to traverse across thin surfaces such as ledges and rails. They are also useful to get through or under small areas. It gives you more balance and control on the obstacle and also lowers your profile. This makes it great for escape and evasion.

Start by getting down on your hands (flat palms) and feet. Put your right hand in front of your left hand, and your left foot in front of your right foot.

Your hands and feet form a line and as you move forward, you want to maintain this line as close as possible.

When first starting it will help to follow an actual line on the ground. When you are on a ledge or rail you will have little choice.

To move forward first move your rear hand to the front, then your rear foot to the front. Repeat this. Start with small steps. Transfer your weight between your arm and legs — front and back, left and right.

Side Sapiens (a.k.a. side monkeys) are good to displace momentum when landing from a drop or to continue flow into your next movement. They are also a good progression step when learning the reverse vault.

Start in a low squat position.

Reach your arms out across your body to your left and plant them firm on the ground. Your right-hand lands first closely followed by your left.

Ground Kongs are another type of quadrupedal movement. They are a progression to the kong vault but are also practical in their own right. Use the ground kong to displace momentum from a drop and/or to continue flow into your next movement.

Start in a low squat position.

Reach forward and plant both your hands on the ground.

The parkour safety roll is one of the best parkour moves to learn for safety. It is also useful in self-defense.

Use the safety roll to prevent injury from a technique gone wrong, a big drop, a general fall, or if someone pushes you. It is also a good technique for transitioning between movements.

Your aim should be to make your safety roll instinctive. This is because the times you will need it most are those when you are not ready.

How high can a parkour roll save you?

Landing with a well-executed parkour roll will allow you to jump from higher than without, but how high depends on your training.

As a beginner, start small and work your way up. If you start with something half your height, you can work your way up to 2x your height within a few months.

This tutorial will teach you how to do a parkour roll without hurting yourself.

You can do the parkour safety roll forwards, sideways, or backward. You will use the forward roll most often but practice them all.

When first learning how to do a safety roll, do so on soft ground such as on grass, mats, or sand. Take it slow and start low. Once you have the technique you can progress by increasing height and/or momentum.

Gymnastic mats work well for this kind of thing. You can compare the best safety mats for training here.

When you are confident, you can learn how to do a parkour roll on concrete. If you are get parkour roll shoulder pain, take a rest from the concrete for a few days.

Choose which side you are most comfortable rolling over, right or left. You want to learn to roll on both sides, but for now, start on one.

If rolling over your right shoulder, kneel with your right foot forward.

Place your hands on the ground in front of you so that your thumbs and index fingers form a kind of diamond shape. Put them at a 45º angle in the direction you want to roll in.

Note: You can roll straight over your shoulder if you have something in your hands. When you have your hands available, it is preferable to use them to help control your motion. They also absorb some impact.

Side rolls are good for preventing injury when falling in a weird direction.

This parkour technique is like a forward roll except that you will roll at a more horizontal angle across your back. The exact rolling path also depends on the angle you are falling at.

As you fall use your hands to help control your movement. Ensure you clear your arm/shoulder and land somewhere on your back.

When first learning backward safety rolls it helps to do the forward roll first. Do the forward roll and stop before getting to your feet, then roll back using the same line as you rolled forward on.

Roll forward and back a few times to get the feeling.

When ready you can back roll and come up to stand. At the end of your back roll continue to go over your shoulder.

I consider dive rolls an advanced parkour technique but they are a good skill to know for safety.

Use the dive roll in parkour or self-defense to prevent injury when coming down on your head. In most cases, dive rolls are intentional. Such as when diving over an obstacle. You can also use it in accidental falls where you are low to the ground and don’t have the room to land feet first.

Note: If possible, landing feet first and doing a safety roll is your best option.

Ensure you are proficient at the safety roll before continuing with this dive roll tutorial.

Avoid doing the parkour dive roll on hard ground, even when proficient.

The technique for doing the dive roll is like the forward roll but there is a lot more impact and momentum. Also, you are coming doing toward your head as opposed to landing on your feet first.

Start by practicing the forward roll from a handstand. You don’t need to be great at handstands, you only have to get at the right angle for a moment so you can go into the roll.

Lower yourself with your arms then lean forward a little to tuck your head as you go into the roll.

Precision jumping is a fundamental parkour skill in which you jump from one point to another. It allows you to land on small spaces like ledges and handrails.

You want to land right on your intended landing spot. There is no extra movement such as stumbling forward or backward.

Begin with your feet together and bend your knees a little so you are in a semi-crouch position.

Move your arms behind you as you shift your weight to the balls of your feet.

Lean forward. The greater the distance you need to jump, the more you need to lean.

As you jump throw your arms forwards and upwards.

Your energy travels up the legs, through the torso, and into the hands.

Aim to arc up and then come down on to the landing area, landing on the balls of your feet as quiet as you can. Land on both feet simultaneously.

When precision jumping over very large gaps you can use the running precision jump. The running precision jump is what it sounds like, i.e., a precision jump with a run-up.

The running precision jump uses a one-foot take-off. You still land in the same way as a standing precision jump, i.e., a precise double foot landing.

Since you are jumping with much more momentum “sticking” the landing is more difficult. Many people find they jump too far and/or stumble forward when landing.

Parkour striding (or bounding) is useful for running across elevated obstacles. It is like precision jumping but instead of a stationary landing, you leap from one foot to another.

Approach the stride like a running precision. Run up and take off from one foot. Instead of trying to land with two feet, elongate and stretch your legs out front and back.

As your lead leg lands, you want your center of gravity to be over your foot so you can push off into the next stride. If you are too far forward or back it will mess up your momentum.

It will help to get your arms and leg in sync. It is the same as walking, i.e., whichever foot is in front the opposite arm is also in front.

You can use the safety vault to pass a low and short obstacle in front of you such as a waist-height wall. The safety vault is the first vault to learn. This is because it is the easiest to learn and the safest to do.

An easy way to learn the safety vault is by numbering your hands and feet. It will help you remember the order of placement.

The lazy vault is useful when approaching a small to medium sized obstacle at an angle. You can approach at any speed.

You can also use it when coming in and out at a similar angle and when you want to exit at a different angle.

Assuming you are approaching the obstacle from the right, your limbs will go over the wall in this order:

The kong vault is useful for vaulting longer or higher obstacles. It is more difficult than other vaults but is worth the practice.

Other names for the kong vault include the cat pass, monkey vault, kong leap, and others.

Start on something like a picnic table, i.e., wide enough to land on but not too high, and small enough to vault over.

This first progression exercise is helpful to get over the fear of hitting your toes on the obstacle.

Stand at one end of the obstacle and place your palms flat on it a little more than shoulder-width apart. Have your fingers facing forwards.

Use your arms to support you as you jump up onto the obstacle, landing with your feet between your hands. Move your hands away as needed.

Here you will learn two types of wall runs.

The first is how to run up a wall. This will also include the parkour climb up.

The second is how to wall run sideways.

If you want to know how to climb a high wall, parkour has you covered.

To practice the vertical wall run you can use any obstacle that is tall enough. You don’t have to reach the top of the wall to practice. If you can reach the top of the wall, it means you can also practice your wall climb (or other techniques) at the same time.

To begin with, you need to get the right spacing with your steps when approaching the obstacle. After a while this becomes intuitive.

Find a spot where you are comfortable with your leg resting on the obstacle at about hip height. Not too close where you’re pushing in and not too far away from where you are stretching to reach.

Now you can get comfortable stepping a foot onto the obstacle and jumping off it. Don’t worry about gaining height yet.

Use your strong leg against the obstacle first as that is the one that will have the most impact. Afterwards, you can practice on both sides.

You can use the parkour wall climb up to pull yourself from a hanging position up onto a wall in a quick and efficient manner.

When first learning it will help to use the momentum from a cat leap or wall run to help get up the wall. Your aim should be to do it from a static hang.

Start on a wall you can wall run up so you can get the most out of momentum.

As soon as you have a grip on the obstacle use your feet to push your hips back as you pull up and in with your arms. Push your feet into the obstacle, not down. Try to straighten your highest leg.

Your leg push and arm pull is one smooth motion. The aim is to get your chest above the top of the obstacle.

As your chest comes over, you need to transition from your hands hanging to your hands on top. For most people, this is the hardest part of the climb-up.

Now you can use parkour for running up a wall. Next you will learn how to wall run horizontally.

A tic-tac is when you push your foot off an obstacle in an angled direction. It is a simple parkour technique which you can use for a few things. It can help you clear gaps, leap over obstacles, gain height, or for a quick redirection of your momentum.

A horizontal wall run is a progression of the tic-tac. It is when you take several steps along the wall as opposed to only one.

To begin with, get used to how the obstacle feels under your foot. Walk up to the obstacle and place your foot on it. Now push off in a slight upward manner so you arc back onto the ground. Whichever foot your push off with land on your opposite foot first and then continue to walk away.

I hope this parkour article is enough to get you started. Once you master these basic techniques you can move onto more advanced parkour moves.

If you need more visual guidance, I recommend watching parkour videos on YouTube. Ronnie Street Stunts tutorials are where I started off, but there are many to choose from.

It is also a good idea to join a parkour group in your home town. Training with other parkour enthusiasts will push you to improve, give you hands on guidance, and is safer than training alone. Not to mention all the friends you will make.

After a while you may also want to get into freerunning. This is the more "showy" version which uses parkour flips and other techniques. Perhaps you can post your best parkour tricks on YouTube yourself one day.

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