In a previous post I transcribed a lecture by Dr. Lustig where he warns about the dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).  For a while now it has been known that consuming HFCS in the long run can lead to obesity, diabetes type II, and fatty liver  (Hell, it shares a lot of the long term health problems caused by alcohol consumption). But not until recently had there been any research linking it to mental problems.

In a recent studied, carried out by UCLA and published in the May 15 issue of Journal of Physiology, showed how a diet steadily high in HFCS hampered learning and memory, and how omega-3 can counteract the disruption.

If you have ever wondered why your children are having trouble in school, despite constant counselling and tutoring, then maybe you should check your fridge.  High Fructose Corn Syrup is found everywhere,

1. Cookies
2. Ketchup
3. Sodas
4. Condiments
5. Applesauce
6. Baby Food

… etc.

It is everywhere and if you don’t read labels, there is a pretty good chance you and your family are eating quite a lot of it.

The studied included to groups of rats that consumed a fructose solution for six weeks.  The second group also consumed omega 3 fatty acids from flaxseed oil and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).  Omega 3 has been linked to protecting neuron synapsis which is what enables us to learn and memorize things.

Before the experiment the rats where placed in a maze with only one exit and various visual cues, so that they could learn and memorize the way out.  Six weeks later the rats were put in the maze and the results were amazing.  The rats that had the omega 3 ran through the maze a lot faster than the other group.  The DHA deprived group ran the maze a lot slower and showed declines in synaptic activity.  They also showed resistance to insulin, the hormone responsible of regulating sugar in the blood stream and synaptic activity in the brain.

When someone is resistant to insulin the pancreas must secrete a whole lot more of it in order for it to make effect.  Apparently insulin can easily penetrate the blood-brain barrier and cause chemical reactions that affect your brains capacity to learn and memorize.

My advice to you would be to stay away from refined sugars and artificial sweeteners, because they can lead to insulin resistance long term.  If you like desserts and most definitely must eat something sweet, go ahead and eat some berries with natural yogurt (you can use Stevia to sweeten it a bit), or just have some fruit.  If you definitely can stay away from brownies and cookies, then start eating foods rich in omega 3 like flaxseeds, salmon, almonds, and walnuts.  Dark Chocolate (80% or more) is also good, and is one of my favorite desserts.

Training is and achieving results is much harder than what some people might think.  Training is not about having to spill your guts everytime you go to the gym.

I have a couple of CrossFitters friends in Facebook and they brag everyday on how hard their WOD was, and how they all most puked or how one of their friends did.  I admire their motivation and enthusiasm, but training that hard won’t get you anywhere but the hospital.

Today I wanted to share with you something my mentor Scott Sonnon wrote on his facebook page, which I hope you all learn from.  It explain why training to HRmax is not good for you and your results.  Enjoy the post.

Tim Noakes, MD (Lore of Running, 1991, p39-40): “For reasons that are not absolutely clear, it is not possible to run at 100% VO2 maximum for more than a few minutes. This concept has been most clearly researched by C.T.M. Davies and Thompson (1979), two eminent British physiologists who found that trained athletes could maintain an average of 94% (range: 89 to 100%) of the VO2 max values for a 5-km race, 82% range… for the standard marathon, and 67% range… for the 85-km London-to-Brighton race.”

How long is it safe to attempt to exercise at HRmax? Some assure that you cannot injure a heart that is normally functioning through through one intense bout of exertion. However, a heart which is impaired with blockage can suffer ischemia; possibly sufficient enough to cause heart tissue death (heart attack). A heart rate that stays elevated for 10 minutes post exercise can mean several things. It can be a sign of low fitness levels and low stroke volume (CO=HrxSV), it can almost mean poor parasympathetic tone and lack of the nervous systems ability to down regulate hear rate. If your HR stays elevated for long durations post exercise, see your physician about getting a nuclear stress test done. Bradycardia with rapid tachicardic response – meaning your HR goes down so far the electrical system in your heart gets shorted and starts to make extra beats. Tachycardia is a deadly arrhythmia. This will not be noticed unless you are resting, not while you are exercising or immediately after (often called “athletic cardiomyopathy.”) According to the ACSM, in 1995 there were 100 cardiac related deaths among high school and college athletes during or shortly after a workout; each related to either congenital defect or infection of the heart muscle (with no incidence of cardiomyopathy).

It is the issue of parasympathetic regulation (or the “relaxation response”) which is the issue with heart rate maximum (HRmax) events. When you rapidly approach, maintain and exceed HRmax, the sympathetic nervous system begins to move from a slow drip (at moderate intensity) to a fast dump (at high intensity) of a biochemical cocktail, including but not limited to “adrenaline” (epinephrine). When this supercharged fuel enters your bloodstream, you are able to tap into heights of human performance. But, when you rapidly approach, maintain and exceed HRmax, the sympathetic nervous system assumes a lethal threat (as it cannot differentiate between an emotional / symbolic threat – such as the will to succeed – and a true physical pernicious predator chasing you down meaning you grave bodily harm.)

Unfortunately, you cannot adapt to anything exceeding HRmax, as it is purely a “chemical burn.” Therefore, above HRmax, it’s all garbage repetition. As an athlete, you need to walk the line the more elite your competitive aspirations. Often you cross it. But it isn’t how fast, often or far you cross the line, but how fast, often and far you can RECOVER back from it. Why? Because only as you return to approximately 60-80%HRmax (moderate intensity) do you regain access to your fine and complex motor skills, as well as full cognitive function.

Fighters, Survivors, Combatants and First Responders who face sudden mortal threats experience what they refer to as “Adrenal Dump” which causes a host of psychotropic phenomena: tunnel vision, auditory exclusion, short term memory loss, tachipsychia (time distortion), fumbling, trembling, chattering, etc. These are all due to the sympathetic nervous system’s “fight or flight” reflex over-reacting from the Dump rather than the Drip. Recovering FROM that requires reactivating the parasympathetic nervous system’s “relaxation and recuperation response” through vibration drills, mental imagery, performance mantras, psychological suggestions, breathing techniques, etc. If the parasympathetic response is impaired, then the sympathetic nervous system runs amok, and eventually cannibalizes the host through stress-related diseases (which is why the #1 killer of soldiers, firefighters and police is stress related heart disease at on average age of 54.)

Who recovers fastest wins, and lives the longest. So instead of focusing on how long one can stay in HRmax, concentrate on how fast you can recover back to moderate from high intensity exercise during the rest period breaks.

Lastly, HRmax is NOT 220-age. That was an outdated guestimate from a flawed study. It’s an easy go-to quick-math, but even more accurate formulae such as 205.8-(0.69 x age) are inaccurate because your HRmax changes dramatically from day to day, based upon your level of recovery from prior stress, load of current (emotional, mental, and physical) stress, nutrition, hydration, altitude, barometric pressure, chemical exposure, electromagnetic disturbance, etc. The only way to truly know your HRmax is through expensive machines such as the “OmegaWave.” But regardless of HRmax, it is not the time “at” it, but the speed of recovery from it which determine one’s true “fitness” in light of the above definition of sympathetic vs parasympathetic balance.

When I first learned about Crossfit I loved it. The people, the adrenaline, testosterone, intensity, everything about the atmosphere is awesome. My friend probably defined it best, “It’s a place where people get their asses kicked, and love it.”  I love the fact women are not afraid to do pullups, to lift weights, and to measure up against guys. Hell, some of these women have more testosterone than some men I know.  There are however a couple of things that I didn’t like:

1. Technique is usually horrendous. I know the competitiveness in a CrossFit gym is high, and that finishing first or doing the most rounds is the objective of most WODs, but people remember that the reason why you are training is to improve your health and strength.  Poor technique does neither for you.  All it does is keep you away from the gym.  the “NO pain, no gain” philosophy is a thing of the past.

2. Training until you puke.  Now I used to be proud of myself when I managed to train until my guts came out.  I thought it would make me tougher, but it turns out it doesn’t.  I learned this in my TACFIT and CST instructor seminar.  Training past your HR max won’t make you better. Here is coach Sonnon’s explanation,

“As heart rate approaches maximum (HRmax), the endocrine system slow-releases a “chemical cocktail” which elicits a host of psychotropic phenomena which can be described as “the Zone” of optimal performance. However, as one exceeds HRmax, the endocrine system moves from a slow release drip into a rapid release “dump” which distorts the phenomena into what is described as the “Vortex” (visual exclusion or tunnel vision, auditory exclusion or hearing loss, cognitive dysfunction, short term memory loss, tachipsychia or time warp, fumbling, stammering, stuttering, apraxia, etc.)

So, from a biochemical perspective, if a challenge is PERCEIVED to be less than a high difficulty, then it cannot elicit the higher levels of flow, but if it is perceived as extremely difficulty (improbably accomplished), then over arousal cannibalizes the process.”

3. Some students or beginners are asked to do things which are completely out of their skill level.  In today’s world there are a lot of people that are not conditioned for high intensity training, teaching them how to do snatches or continental cleans will definitely lead to injury.

4.  Most WODs are very high intensity and are done too often.  The body does not grow when it exercises, it grows and adapts while it rests.  That is why who ever recovers fastest gains the most, and usually wins.

I know you love CrossFit and nothing I’ll say can possibly make you quit it in favor of something else, but you do have to admit that it has its flaws.

I just wanted to introduce you to a new type of training which is growing in popularity among fire fighters, police officers, and Special Ops forces. It’s called TACFIT (short for Tactical Fitness).  TACFIT takes care of all the flaws I mentioned above, plus it has a whole mess of new exercise that will kick your butt and mind in ways you are going to love.

Here are some of the physiological effects TACFIT can have on your body.

TACFIT has a cool system of keep score (uses reps and heart beats per minute), so not only must you win by doing more, you also got to make it look easy.  Remember that technique is very important, that is why the program has an INTUITIVE TRAINING protocol that keeps you grounded and keeps those stress hormones from giving you tunnel vision. Each exercise has 3 different levels which vary in sophistication (this means your brain gets trained to).

If you want a sample workout I recommend the Israeli Challenge you can get if for free by clicking the image below.

Are YOU up for the CHALLENGE!!! I DARE YOU TO TRY IT NOW!!!

I came across TACFIT Commando while looking for a good bodyweight program. As soon as I downloaded the program I simply fell in love with the exercises. I have to admit I didn’t follow the program, I just plugged in the cool exercises in my normal workout.  Just by doing the exercises I discovered a whole mess of weakness I didn’t know I had.

1. I discovered my coordination sucked.  Being used to just one dimensional exercises I never had to think about moving my body around space.  I might have looked good, but my muscles weren’t really helping me become better at sports or anything else.

2. My strength sucked.  This had to do a bit with the point stated above.  I could bench press my own weight, I could squat a couple hundred pounds, but I was very weak when it came to twisting.  When I preformed the Sit Thru Knee, it was impossible for me to go fast. I didn’t have the muscles necessary to twist my body or change direction really quick.

3. My workout habits were awful. I never warmed up according to my workout, and I never stretched or compensated according to my workout.  This eventually led to injuries, which for some stupid reason I felt proud of (maybe I thought they would make me tougher).

I’m not going to say my workout habit changed thanks to this program, because they didn’t.  After going through the manual I saw that Scott Sonnon was not your ordinary coach.  This guy knew what he was talking about.  There is a physiological and biological reason for each exercise, for the way the program is set (4×7 wave), and even the grading system (points and heart rate.)

After a year of following Scott I decided to get my TACFIT Instructor certification and CST Instructor certification.  During those 5 days I learned that TACFIT is much, much, more than what is written in the manual.  Now I’m just going to go ahead and explain some of the “voo doo” behind it, and the reason why so many federal agencies and first responder units are training with this program.

TACFIT was designed to help first responders deal with stress.  These guys and gals have to deal with life threatening situations for a living, and this eventually takes a toll on us both physically and mentally.  The funny thing is that the stress they feel when their lives are at danger is exactly the same one a basketball player feels when he has to make the winning shot, or when a football player has to make the winning touchdown.  Our bodies release the exact same hormones in the exact same amounts in both situations.

When we find are selves in stressful situations our heart rate and blood pressure go up.  As our heart rate goes up our motor skills deteriorate, which makes it harder for us to preform at our best.  Being able to maintain high motor skills during strenuous situations is what separates the good athletes from the bad athletes, and what keeps firemen, policemen, and Commandos alive.

Some people are born with this talent, others have to train it, but few know how.  This is where TACFIT kick ant other programs butt.  When you preform a high volume of complex skills refined and performed at high intensity, the faster your ability to acquire, adapt and learn new skills.  This works because when your body preforms complex skills under high intensity it physiologically adapts a decreases your heart rate.

Thus performing complex skills at high intensity is what helps tactical operators to have grater access to cognitive function.  If your an athlete this means that your able to keep your skills at a higher level when it counts the most.

TACFIT does this by going from simple exercises to complex exercises.  As you go through the program you will see your scores increase as your heart rate drops.

Being a tactical athlete you will develop the discipline to move through fatigue, exhaustion, and weakness while maintaining form and awareness.  Your body will turn the cascade of stress hormones most people feel during decisive moments of a match into a small drip, enabling you to manage and control the adverse effects of stress hormones.

If you believe your current program has all these benefits then don’t buy TACFIT Commando, if it doesn’t, then what are you waiting for? Learn how to manage your stress and CRUSH your opponents.

If you are trying to lose weight then you know that long, boring, and tedious cardio sessions are out and High intensity interval training is out (HIIT).  The good side of the fitness industry (you know the one that isn’t making you buy useless supplements, and expensive machines) has long discovered that running on a treadmill for hours a week is not the best way to lose fat; it messes up your knees and you have to spend another hour in the gym (who has an hour to spare nowadays).  HIIT is a much more effective way of losing fat.  You can still use the treadmill, stationary bike, etc, all you have to do is switch your intensity.

One example could be:  Warmup 3 min a an intensity level of 3 (1 easy 10 you max effort), then continue for 5 intervals switching from 1 min at an intensity level of 7 or 8, with a 2 minute break at an intensity level of 3.  At the end do 3 minutes at an intensity level of 3.

One of my favorite ways to do HIIT is with a jump rope.  Many coaches don’t use it because it takes some skill and time to learn, but they are missing out on a really fun and powerful tool.

You can get a great fat burning workout with just 5 minutes of jumping rope.

If you don’t know how to jump rope that is ok, just watch my tutorial below.

Jump Rope for Weight Loss Routines

Now that you know how to jump rope here are a few jump rope routines you can use after your workout to help you increase your weight loss.

Jump Rope Workout 1

Tabata Protocol

20 jump max speed and rest for 10 seconds. Repeat this 8 times for a total of 4 minutes.

Fibonacci Ladder

Follow this rep sequence 13, 21, 34, 55, 89 , then do it the other way around 55, 34, 21,13.  You can use any other numbers of the sequence.

3 Strikes

Jump for as long as you can until you mess up 3 times.  Count how many jumps you managed to do, and write them down.  Next time try to break your record.

You can make up your own routines or workouts as well.  With time you will find out that the jump rope for weight loss is awesome.  It will also help add some variety to your training.

I began this blog because I am fascinated with super heroes.  I wanted to give people tools to make them physically superior to other human beings.  I have shown you products to make that simply make you better by making you you stronger, faster, and more explosive.  Now being a super hero is not only about being physically superior, it is also about being more sensitive about your surroundings.  It’s about seeing things that aren’t evident to the normal human being Spiderman has his super “spider sense” that warns him that he is in danger.

Communication is more than 80% non verbal, that means that in a conversation you are  missing out on 80% of what the other person is trying to tell you.  Interpreting facial and body gestures is a key tool to knowing exactly what a person is feeling.  Verbal communication is a conscious act which can be manipulated into false statements or what we call lying.  Micro-expressions, on the other hand, are unconscious and are always sincere.

We are all liars, our society demands that we lie in order to avoid hurting other people.  If you have ever seen the movie “The Invention of Lying”, you will agree that it would suck to live in a world were no one could lie.  But lies can also be hurtful, and if it would be great if we learned how to detect them.

Watch this TED Talk by Pamela Meyer

Dr. Paul Ekman has been studying Micro-Expressions an body language for over 40 years.  He was a consultant for the hit series “Lie to Me” (maybe it wasn’t much of a hit considered it got canceled) featuring Tim Roth. Dr Ekman has created a cool lie detection training software called METT (Micro Expression Training Tool) which trains you in detecting micro expressions.

Try the free demo here

He also has a couple of books on the subject that you can buy from Amazon.

Lie Detecting Books

I’ve been surprised by a lot of things I have learned for these books.  Here are a few of them:

1. Liars usually don’t say, ” I didn’t do it.”

2.  Liars try to convince instead of convey.

3. Attacking questioner.

4. Build credibility through repetition.

5. Refusal to answer.

6. Inappropiate level of politeness

7.Use of perception qualifiers like “pretty”, “frankly”

8. Shifts in blink rate

9. Saying yes while nodding no, or vice versa.

10. Weak denials.

If you want to test yourself here is a cool slide show from the Huffington Post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pamela-meyer/lie-detector-sarah-palin_b_679271.html#s125533&title=Spotting_Deception_Is

You should check this website out as well:

http://www.liespotting.com

Brief History of Industrialized Foods

What we call food nowadays, is not what it was before.  Science, paired up with greed, and has created a monster that we now call the food industry.  Food began to be produced in mass around the eighteenth century.  Before that, it was obtained from local farmers, or from a few merchants that traveled to far away lands and brought all types of weird and tasty foods.

If you go back to your high school history you’ll remember that Industrial Revolution began right about that time.  Factories were being born, people were fleeing the country side, leaving their land behind seeking a better living.  This left the world with fewer farmers and a larger food demand.  Thankfully science came in and saved the day by providing new farming techniques that improved yields, and helped pave the way for urbanization and a growing population.

As time passed on, our understanding of plant physiology improved, thus we learned that by applying nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen via synthetic fertilizers that could improve plant growth, which in turn helped develop intensive types of agriculture.  This new knowledge soon hit the animal kingdom, and chickens became the first victims.

Chickens were the first animals to be farmed.  The discovery of vitamins around the early 1900′s, and their role in animal nutrition, soon led to the manufacturing of supplements, which enabled chickens to be raised indoors.  Then came WWII, millions died, countries were destroyed, but our knowledge grew like it had never done before.  Science was the big winner.  We learned to develop antibiotics and vaccines, not only to improve human health, but to keep a animals packed together in unhealthy conditions.  Thanks to these amazing discoveries the US began to farm pigs and cows in the 1960′s. But this is only have the story.

During the Industrial Revolution we also learned to preserve food longer.  We were tired of eating salty meet, so in 1809 Nicolas Appert placed food in a vacuum bottle keeping it away from bateria and fungus, which are the ones responsible of making our food go bad, and thus preserving it for longer periods of time.

On a side note: Real food spoils in just a couple days.

A year later Peter Dugand changed the bottle for cans and canned food was born ( Thanks to this guy I was able to feed myself in college).  Then came WWII and the Space Race.  There are very few if no supermarkets at all outside our atmosphere, so astronauts have to carry food that would last weeks or days with out spoiling.  Science was called upon once again and it came up with advances such as… spray drying, juice concentrates, freeze drying and the introduction of artificial sweeteners, colouring agents, and preservatives such as sodium benzoate. In the late 20th century products such as dried instant soups, reconstituted fruits and juices, and self cooking meals such as MRE food ration were developed. YUMMY.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Now lets take a look at the good things and the bad things about this.  I’ll begin with the good ones.

1.  Modernization:  Thanks to the fact that 1 person could produce the same amount of food as 10 people ( I made that stat up), that gave 9 other people the chance to build, and invent stuff that has helped our lives become easier.  Thanks to industrialized food we have the internet, radios, ipod’s etc.

2.  Saves us time:  Instead of spending an hour in the kitchen cooking real food all we have to do is: pop a box in the microwave for 5 minutes and voilá, or open a box of cereal pour milk on it, open another box of juice, and breakfast is served.

3. Kids love it: Parents are too tired from work to have to deal with their kids whining about not liking what they cooked for dinner, so why not please them with the stuff in the box they so much like.

4… that is about it.

Now for the bad things.

1. Destroyed environment:  Synthetic fertilizers are responsible for polluting a great deal of our water resources.  Why if they help plants grow?  Nothing in great amounts is good.  An excess of amounts of plant nutrients like nitrates and phosphates provoke what is called an “algae bloom”.  You might have seen algae blooms in sewers or by the side of a creek or river. Excess algae causes the water to lose oxygen an enter a state of hypoxia that is not suitable for other living things like fish.

2. Terrible food quality:  Just like humans, cows, chickens, and pigs get stressed when packed in too close together.  Living in an animal farm is like living in a heavy metal concert.  Imagine living in a Metallica concert  (with no music) for the rest of your life with Lars Ulrich throwing food into the crowd every once in awhile;  then they guy next to you sneezes on you, while some one else throws up on you because he is sick (get the picture). In a week or less a great deal of those people would have caught a cold or would have gotten some type of infection.  Now instead of people imagine chickens…  these are the chickens you eat. Hmmmm… tasty

3. Obesity: With over half the population of the US and Colombia suffering from obesity, I would guess it is save to say that what we are eating is not doing the trick.  Obesity is a sickness and more people die from it than from cancer, aids, and (place another creepy disease in here) together.  Hell, in Colombia it kills more people than violence does, and we have been at war for the past 60 years, and we are a third world country.

Every Super Hero has a side kick that gets him out of trouble, and helps him or her save the day.  Batman had Robin, Superman had… Spiderman had… ok maybe not all of them had side kicks, but hell most of them are not human.  Batman was really the only human, and he needed Robin’s help.  If you want a Super Hero Body then you need a side kick.  He or she doesn’t need to be human, but you do need one.  Side kicks help you get your ass out of the house to workout or into the gym when you don’t feel like training (which in most cases is  almost everyday); they push and demand more intensity helping you over come plateaus while reaching your fitness goals.

Ain't she a beauty?

My partner in crime at the moment is Lorenza.  Lorenza is an 8 year old German Shepard + Beagle that bugs me until I take her out to the park.  She knows she needs her exercise as well, and she needs to eat right just like me.  If you are dog owner, I know you love your mutt as much as your own children, so I know you are going to want to read what I found out today.

Turns out that dogs don’t live as much as they should.  The average American dog lives 11 years, while in optimum conditions they should live around 26 years!!!

Why are they dying so young?

They are dying for the same reason we are… their food is worst than crap.  Dog food is so bad my dog prefers to eat crap instead of her food.  I’ve tried all different types of brands, and she simply doesn’t like them.  I bet she can smell all the preservatives and chemicals in there.

In fact, through my own research I discovered dog food contains at least 6 deadly chemicals that have been banned from human foods because they cause:

• Kidney cancer
• Bladder cancer
• Skin cancer
• Stomach cancer
• Spleen cancer
• Leukemia
• Liver dysfunction
• Major organ failure
• Immune system collapse
• Severe allergic reactions
• Birth Defects
• Blindness
• Chronic Diarrhea
• Hair Loss and

• Behavior problems, including increased aggressiveness –> very dangerous if your dog is around children.

Parkour Tip of the Day

Learning Parkour is tough and dangerous, but this is no reason why you shouldn’t include some of its moves in your training.  One of the drills I enjoy the most from parkour are the stability exercises like cat balance and precision jumps (might have to register to view this or you can watch this video).  These two exercises are a wicked way of strengthening the core, and developing six pack abs, while having a cool goal.

The best way to learn parkour tricks is patience.  Learning these things takes time.  On youtube there are some good to tutorials that have a step by step process.  DON’T SKIP ANY STEPS!!!  Before you go from one step to the next be sure you have enough confidence in yourself.  Lack of confidence in this sport, and others like gymnastics, can make you hesitate and get injured.

Another tip I wanted to give you is, “don’t underestimate the small frame most traceurs have”.  These guys and gals are strong.  Down below I have a couple of parkour conditioning videos that will help you develop the strength and power necessary to pull off some of these stunts.

My last tip would be, ” BE CAREFUL”. I don’t want to lose any readers. If you have a gym near by where you can train, go ahead and sign up, or look up a parkour group in your home town.  Parkour is very popular nowadays, there might be some good instructors in your area.

Want to Learn Parkour

I bet there are various good programs out there, but I have only followed two sources:  American Parkour and Learn more Parkour.  Both of them have free tutorials, which really help you learn how to do the tricks.

Parkour Video of the Day

I loved this video from the first day I saw.  This has to be one of the coolest gyms ever.

Parkour Conditioning Video of the Day

Parkour is all about strength and very little muscle.  Just look at the stunts these guys pull.  Here are some tough exercises you can do to increase your strength.

Parkour tricks are something that really blow my mind.  They just seem so super heroish it is almost impossible to believe that a human can do them.  I personally feel envy towards these guys and gals.  Now who wouldn’t like to fly around all over the place as if they gave a damn about gravity?  I know I do.  Problem with Parkour is that it seems a bit difficult, and I have to admit I’m a bit of a… chicken (there I said it).

I’ve looked up tutorials on the web, and some are good, but none of them explain the real keys to each trick.  It seems they leave stuff behind, considering how close I have come to breaking my neck doing some of the stunts.  A couple months ago my friend Logan Christopher from the Lostartofhandbalancing.com introduced me to the Tapp Brothers and their Parkour Training System called Crash Course into Parkour and I just love how they explain how to do Parkour Tricks.

Here are some of their videos:

How to do the Human Flag

Want to Learn Some More Parkour Tricks Click Here?