Parkour - My Injury, My Healing

Intro

About a month ago I took a train to Stamford CT to meet up with some fellow traceurs (parkour practitioners) native to Stamford who I'd be meeting for the first time. It was my first true training session of the season, turned out to be a great day for parkour. After a few hours of training we saw a potential running precision jump. For those who cannot picture exactly what that is, it's basically someone running followed by a jump over a gap and landing on a precise location (picture something similar to a curb for this situation, I'll explain why later). The gap I jumped over was very attemptable, no risky heights to worry about, but it was far enough to wonder if I could pull it off.

The story behind the injury

I took off running, reaching for the edge of the ground I jump hard off my right foot, my eyes now locked onto the landing. My feet stretch out forward at a 45 degree angle looking for the edge of the landing ready to take impact. Now this is where the curb comes to mind, picture a nicely pointed edged curb. Naturally a traceur aims to land on the balls of their feet for the use of those ankles which act as your first shock absorber, followed by your knees.

Ultimately you're looking to land down onto your precise point (not directly into), but I had to run hard and sometimes you end up having much more forward momentum than anything. Was it bad luck, was I tired from training or was I just not focused enough? There's always many factors to consider, but overall my foot placement failed. My left foot slid on top of the Landing while my right heel took all of the impact right on the edge of my landing (yep that's where the curb example comes into play).

It didn't hurt so much in the beginning but I knew it all went bad, so I kept my weight off of it, sat down and checked it out. No visible difference, just some pain, but since I wasn't in the best situation to ice it or rest it I knew was I was done training for the day. I did my best to walk on the ball of my foot to avoid irritating it even more until I got back home.

Over the next couple of days I continued to do my best and not walk on my heal. The pain wasn't there unless I used it (i.e. caused pressure), it was pretty sensitive. There was no visible bruising, just inflammation (I had a fat heel). To me it didn't seem serious enough to have it checked out, I figured it would heal on it's own and a doctor could only do so much. After about a week I was coming down some stairs in my house and banged my heel on the edge of a step. That pain was like nothing I had ever felt in a long time and I'll admit it, I was on the ground, on my back, holding my foot. Doing my best to hold back words that would make a priest throw a cross at my foot making it worse. Anyway, from that point on I figured something might be up and it was time to get this checked out.

A course for cure

I had to wait several more days, but eventually I went to see a doctor who specialized in orthopedics. I explained my situation, he checked my foot, felt confident that there wasn't a fracture but would take an x-ray to be sure. Luckily he was right, the x-ray showed him that my heel was definitely inflamed, just not fracture. He said their really isn't much that I could do (like I had thought), basically give it "tender love and care," stating it should take about 4-6 weeks to heal. What a disappointment, well...alright the no fracture part was good news, but finally warmer weather is here, and after my first day of training I'm out for at least a month.

Just a note, your heel is protected by fatty tissue, there is no muscle below it. This is exactly what was damaged and needed time to heel.

Well after weeks of walking on my tip toe, had shoes filled with half silicone insoles (just for my heels), some surrounding massage (not deep or direct, that would make it worse) my heel is doing much better. I can walk on it without a problem. As a matter of fact I just got back from doing Parkour at Longbrook Park in Stratford and it feels good. Though it's sensitivity lingers, so I'm still careful. Naturally you're not suppose to land directly on your heal during a landing anyway, but walking, jogging and etc, you need your heel. Even upon landing your heel usually at least takes some impact depending on the situation.

Thanks for reading, and traceurs...take care of those heals ;]

Train hard and train safe! (yes it's possible)

- Joe Cannato

Parkour - My Injury, My Healing

When Is the Best Time of Day to Exercise?

Recently The New York Times wrote an article on the common claim that the morning is the best time to exercise. Is this fact or fiction, what do you think?

Whether you're a student, worker or both, your regular day most likely starts early, too early to exercise in the morning. So is it true? Is the morning really the best time to jump on that treadmill or climb a tree? (yep, I did say that, branches make for good pull-up bars you know) Nope, the morning isn't exactly the best time of the day to work out and oh, don't get me wrong, the morning isn't bad at all (for those who like their mornings), just not optimal (according to recent studies).

The NYT's reported that between 4 and 7 p.m. is the time to be exercising for reasons such as: your muscles are more flexible partly from your body's temperature (muscles are warmed up from regular daily use). Hormones play a role as well, specifically the ratio between testosterone and cortisol which was found to be optimal during these hours. They're important because of their role in muscle-building.

But here it comes, the other side of the story, not everything is always set in stone you know. Other studies have shown people's bodies adapt to their training routine (i.e. the time of day you train). From these study they found (not surprisingly) that you perform better during the time of your normal training. So if you're competing in a particular sport whether it's football, basketball or running a marathon, train during the time of day you plan on competing for optimal performance.

NYT's notes that with all this research, the ideal time to exercise is yes, late afternoon, but the advantages are minuscule. Personally I think it's best to train at all different times of the day. It seems practical to train your body to perform best no matter the time. Routines are sometimes nice, but mix things up, "trick" your body when you train, don't bore it. You'll improve more that way, so train hard and enjoy it!

- Joe Cannato

When Is the Best Time of Day to Exercise?

Mmm Coffee, to sip or smell...

Those poor mice, always being used to test new theories. This time scientists made them sleep deprived. Well, lucky for the group of mice who were allowed the aroma of hot brewed coffee just happened to be the happier rodents during the study.

The Japanese scientists who ran the study found that some genes important for brain function returned to normal levels or even higher when mice were acquainted with the scent of java. This pretty much showed that the sleep deprived mice sniffing coffee didn't feel so tired compared to the mice waking up to nothing but fresh air. Very interesting I must say, I don't know about you but when I was young I hated coffee, but oh did I love the smell. May there really be a connection between the smell of coffee and how it affects our nerves? Does it really protect our nerve cells from stress related damage? Well it may be true for mice but I'm sorry to say more studies need to be done before we truly know the real affect among humans.

I'm curious to see what comes of all this, but I don't plan to stop sipping cups of joe if the affects are similar from just the smell as I do enjoy the taste of coffee now and then. Coffee isn't a necessity for me each morning as it can be for some. There are many other topics, pros and cons of coffee to be discussed but I'll leave that for another day.

One more thing, looks like scientists may already have an idea on how they'll test the affects on humans: "They suggest pumping them into factories to help revive tired workers who can't sip coffee while operating machinery" (http://tinyurl.com/6dblpg). Sounds a bit odd but I'm sure there are plenty willing to give that a try, hopeful of a positive outcome for their factories.

All this talk about coffee has me looking forward to a cup in the morning, buona notte!

-Joe

Mmm Coffee, to sip or smell...

My new blog, well...sort of

As you can see this blog isn't completely new. The idea started years ago...literally. My first post proves this screw up of mine, well not so much a screw up as it was a time and commitment factor. I hope the end of this year will be different, though I am busy with school, maybe I'll be able to prevent this from failing hah! Just had a great idea, keep up to date on my blog and you'll find out how it all goes, that is if I fail or not ;)

I know health and fitness isn't everyone's preferred reading, but I think I'll be able to present some interesting STUFF for everyone. Food is a part of everyone's life and there are many things people don't know about what they eat or drink. I must say I come across a lot of bad information about the things we consume and yes I'll probably cover a lot of that in my blog. BUT there are a lot of benefits to the foods we have in our life that are being discovered every day, much that is already known, but yet to be shared. Foods that you may be eating at this very moment! or...a moment ago...or soon after. Anyway, just maybe I'll be able to keep you interested enough for you to learn more on what food does (or doesn't) do for you!

And oh, yeah..I may throw in some fitness talk, usually concerning Parkour/Free Running, can't forget that. Since that is what interests me the most when it comes to sports/being active, I'll cover some of that as well. There are a lot of Parkour related exercises that are beneficial for just about anyone who's looking to have better control of their body, raw strength and of course a more athletic shape. Hopefully I'll actually get a chance to make a new Parkour/Free Run complication of myself and others before the winter comes.

Thanks for reading, there's more to come soon, so be sure to check back...and please yell, scream or somehow painlessly punch me in the face if I don't post enough. I think the pressure (or pain if the punch doesn't go so well) might help. Of course don't forget to comment ;j

- Joe

My new blog, well...sort of

Parkour + Stamford

Yesterday I drove to downtown Stamford to finally check for parkour capabilities. Downtown definitely has plenty of hotspots, I'm sure there are more that I haven't seen yet, but it seems like a great training area.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with parkour, the term for a parkour practitioner is a traceur. Another term which isn't used as much but was mainly an English translation is a free runner.

For more detailed info on parkour, it's philosophy and mainly other aspects of this art of movement, you can check out the two links on the sidebar of my main page. Urban Freeflow is out of the UK and is a huge movement and they have progressed quite quickly for they are sponsored by Adidas Nokia and are working on several projects including advertisements which we'll hopefully see soon on American TV. Parkour.net surrounds more of David Belle the Founder of parkour. It includes some videos for download as well as information and forums.

Wikipedia - Parkour has some good info and some references, it'll mainly get the real idea behind parkour across pretty well and has some pics.

But the good stuff, videos can easily be found on video.google.com - here are a couple keywords to search: David Belle, Parkour, Yamakasi. David has a bunch of good videos on there and that's the best way to see the top level parkour to understand where new traceurs are reaching for. Some othertime I'll link some more specific vids that I like but for now just browse around and let me know what you think.

-Joe

Parkour + Stamford