Our new fitness obsession

Photograph from Flickr, by cyrusmekon, shot in Melbourne

Last Saturday was our third foray into our new hobby - Parkour. Ton has been wanting to try it for a while now, and by chance one of our fellow karateka had given it a go and put us onto the local parkour group. They are part of the Australian Parkour Association who put on classes and workshops throughout Australia. In the First Timers class participants are taught general parkour philosophy, basic rolls and jumps and quadrapedals (this is fairly easy for the first 5 meters, then it's hell!).
The 2 basics classes we have attended so far couldn't have been more different, with the first one focusing more on games and the second dominated by drills. At this point I should note that most of the participants are about half Ton's age and a good 10 years younger than me, so it's pretty hard to keep up with these youngsters. It's also proved to be a bit of a sausage fest, so I would like to encourage all the girls out there to give this a go!
Although I seem to have turned into a grumpy old woman in the last few years and have grown to dislike teenagers more and more, parkour has actually made me re-asses my feelings towards teenagers - all these kids are pretty alright.
Parkour is also putting some other things into perspective for me:
1. I need to get way fitter. I am so sore today that I have tried to avoid laughing because my abs hurt so much. Sneezing has also proven extremely painful.
2. I have gotten so cautious in my old age. As a teen I used to go rollerblading down some crazy hills; ski black slopes without a care; and generally seemed to have no fear. It's quite confronting to see how much my mind can get in the way of me doing a physical feat that I probably could accomplish, but don't because of a mental bloc. Must work on this, too.

I can't wait to get back to our next session this Saturday. I couldn't recommend Parkour and the lovely and very skilled instructors at Brisbane Parkour more. Go forth and try this!