Learning to be the (wo)Man Without Fear?

April 23, 2015 11:35 PM

In the Netflix Daredevil series, he periodically does flips, showy kicks, parkour, and that kind of thing. If you were in your early thirties, and in decent shape, how and what would you do to train for a bit of that?

I'm reasonably fit (run a mile in 8:15, can do pullups, do an hour of heavy bag work 4x/week, etc.) but not the most coordinated person ever (pretty terrible at jumprope.) With that in mind, a) what would be the easiest things to learn without a huge risk of injury and b) what would be the best exercises to intersperse into a gym routine to enable me to pull them off?

(For the record, I just want to look awesome for Halloween and motivate myself in the gym; I suspect actually kicking opponents in the face that way is best left to stunt guys and Anthony Pettis.)

posted by tautological to Health & Fitness (11 answers total)

Find your closest indoor rock climbing facility. That will help you get comfortable with climbing and falling.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 11:45 PM on April 23, 2015

Also watch some parkour stuff on youtube. There are some crazy good videos there.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 11:46 PM on April 23, 2015

There are actual parkour gyms that specifically teach this stuff with the appropriate safety equipment (crash mats, and the like). It might be useful to seek one out in your area and do a few classes to get the basics down.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:51 PM on April 23, 2015

Adult tumbling or adult gymnastics classes will also help if you can't find a parkour class in your area.
posted by Attackpanda at 5:18 AM on April 24, 2015

If there's a local community theater, you can ask about stage combat training, as well. You learn how to fall. And fall. And fall. Mostly without hurting yourself.
posted by xingcat at 6:18 AM on April 24, 2015

Well based on the location in your profile? You want Tempest Freerunning Academy, my friend. KidBlahLaLa trains there, but when the kids classes are finished it's all adults. This is arguably the top parkour facility in the U.S., perhaps the world. Team Tempest is world famous. But they're super friendly there and totally welcoming to beginners, kid and adult.
posted by BlahLaLa at 6:40 AM on April 24, 2015

Circus arts might be another angle to try.
posted by matildaben at 9:32 AM on April 24, 2015

Seconding looking for a gym that offers parkour; I know a couple people who take parkour classes and loooove it. Also maybe capoeira, depending what's easier to find in your area?
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:55 AM on April 24, 2015

It makes me laugh that you posted this question because I just finished Daredevil and am also a woman who wants to do all that. I already run and box. Watching this thread - thanks for saving me an AskMefi question!
posted by stefnet at 1:38 PM on April 24, 2015

Ha, stefnet, in that case I'll follow up: it looks like most of it benefits from handstand practice, so I'm going to start working on that again (although my wrists probably won't let me do it daily), and I'll try starting with kip-ups, since those look like a fun exercise that's basically half a flip with a bonus minimum likelihood of cracking my head open.

Tempest is probably too long of a commute to be practical from my side of town, but I'm going to try and recruit a traceur or two to teach me some baby steps.
posted by tautological at 12:34 AM on April 25, 2015

Ever thought about learning capoeira? The Brazilian dance/martial art?
posted by kschang at 11:27 PM on April 25, 2015