Building Better Generations: The Importance of Risk-taking in Building Capable, Confident Children
In the past few generations, the instinct to protect children from harm has grown stronger - and with it, a ubiquitous culture of risk avoidance. What once felt like common-sense care has in many contexts become a risk-minimising default: children are kept safely inside, supervised closely at every turn, and discouraged from engaging in activities that might lead to bumps, bruises, or broken bones. But modern research suggests that this approach, while understandable, overlooks something essential about how children grow into capable adults. Experiences that involve risk, challenge, and physical engagement
Five Philosophical Checkpoints for a Capable Body
Most people train without ever stopping to ask why. They follow programmes, track numbers, chase adaptations. Strength increases. Mobility improves. Endurance climbs. And yet, something remains oddly hollow. The body becomes more impressive, but not necessarily more capable. Parkour has always resisted this quiet drift. Not by rejecting structure or discipline, but by insisting on something more fundamental: periodic self-examination. Not “How much can I lift?” but “What can I actually do, here, now, in the real world?” These are not rules. They are checkpoints — questions worth returning to if you care
Fit For Purpose
What’s the point of being fit? Have you ever asked yourself this simple question? Many would say it’s to ensure we have a long, wholesome life; some kind of biological duty to our own bodies, to stay in mint condition until we finally succumb to old age and die, leaving an unblemished corpse. For me, fitness and health are just a means to a larger end – something to enable me to live as I wish, to accomplish what I want, to face any challenge and adversity that may come my way
We Were Never Meant to Be Comfortable
We have been taught to optimise almost everything about living: our bodies, our leisure, our social interactions, even our rest. We track steps, monitor calories, regiment recovery cycles, and automate routines for “efficiency.” Yet in all this optimisation, something subtle but profound has been lost: the purposeful encounter with challenge itself. In the earlier piece we invited you to see beyond disconnected training metrics — strength here, endurance there — and remember that movement is an integrated, embodied act of being human. But there’s a deeper current beneath that insight: We
Athletic Performance: Why Elite Athletes Are Turning to Parkour
Athleticism is more than strength or speed — it’s the ability to apply physical capability under unpredictable, high-pressure conditions. That’s precisely why athletes from team sports, martial arts, climbing, and even combat sports are incorporating parkour into their training and have been doing so for years now, from professional rugby and football teams to MMA fighters and Olympic athletes. Explosive Power and Eccentric Control Parkour involves repeated jumps, precision landings, and quick direction changes — all of which train both concentric (power generation) and eccentric (force absorption) muscle actions. Research has long recognised
The Longevity Advantage: How Parkour Training Builds Bodies That Last
When we talk about longevity in fitness, most people think about cardiovascular health or flexibility. But longevity — true, lifelong physical capability — requires a broader, more integrative approach. Parkour inherently embraces that. Strength That Works in the Real World Parkour doesn’t separate strength from movement; it integrates them. Instead of training strength as a compartmentalised outcome, parkour demands that you apply strength in context — gripping, pulling, pushing, stabilising, launching, and absorbing forces unpredictably. Modern research on movement efficiency highlights how conditioning that combines strength with variable movement patterns reduces injury risk
Parkour and Physical Literacy: Foundations for Lifelong Movement
At first glance, parkour and physical literacy might seem like two separate pieces of the movement puzzle. Parkour is often seen as an expressive, dynamic art of negotiating space; physical literacy is sometimes framed as an educational concept about lifelong movement skills. But when we look deeper, these two share a powerful resonance: both are about how we interact with the world through our bodies, how we learn, adapt, and grow with every step, jump, balance and decision we make. Parkour, in its essence, is not just about clearing an obstacle
SPRING-LOADED: WHY PARKOUR JUMPS WORK
One question I’ve been asked countless times over the years by fitness professionals, physiotherapists, sport scientists and general public alike is how do you (parkour practitioners) not break things, explode joints and generally cripple yourselves taking all those impacts from jumps? And looking through the lens of many recent models of human movement – typically those that deconstruct and treat the body as an automaton – the question is an obvious one, as it just doesn’t seem to make sense or adhere to prevailing theories of what the human body can safely
London Gym Re-Opens 12th April
The Chainstore Gym reopens this April 12th and we couldn't be happier or more ready to welcome you back!
New London Classes
From the 29th March, we're transitioning out of lockdown with a new schedule of outdoor sessions for you to jump on into.