Newb here!

[Martin]

Hey guys, im a noob here...how did you guys get the flexibility and muscular strength to start with? I'm fairly fit but i have 24% body fat.....i m quite atheletic but comparing to u guys im probably obese ...so some tips please?

[Spike]

You after tips for loosig weight or for muscular efficiency or for flexibility. There is alot on al 3 but there are basics.

Loosing weight: Eat alot of protein, don't go for pathetic fad diets just eat nice healthy food and exercise alot. Cardiovascular work is good for loosing weight but with just light weight training your matabolism will work at a higher rate for longer. Don't eat empty calories ie. things that are high in calories but don't have any nutirtional value so dont satisfy your hunger. Aduki Beans rule, massive nutritional value to calorie count just awesom, you can find them at chinese supermarkets or maybe normal ones.

* Don't eat to little (your body will stop burning calories)
* Eat less but more often it will keep your body working at optimum levels
* Snack on fruit
* Don't eat from 2 hours before you sleep
* TUNA, CHICKEN, TUNA, CHICKEN!!!!!
* Drink gallons of water, as much as you can.
* Exercise all the time, Graftin was talking recently about doing some sit ups or press-ups during the adverts of your favourite shows, its a good idea.

Muscular efficiency: With these activities having a good strength to weight ratio is important so you want your muscles to work as well as they can. Neuro muscular recruitment training is the best thing for this. It's basically training that makes your muscles work to their full potential so you can be stronger and weigh less. It is simply plyometric type training. Things like press-up claps are probably the most common. Search for Air alert to get an idea on the basic exercises : Squat hops, Burnouts, Thrust-ups etc. They are very useful. I wouldn't suggest following the whole program just yet though as it is quite advanced.

Train often, always jump around like a little kid. It sounds stupid but if your interested in parkour thats what it is about. Having fun and perfecting the things you probably did as a child. If your see a gap, jump it (i can't walk past a car park space without jumping it a few times) if you see a rail vault it. You body will learn to adapt very quickly and will become much leaner and efficient.


Flexibility: I do the stretch program from www.trickstutorials.com i do it every other day and it is very good. I have modified it quite a bit but its a good start point. This like other things is a matter of work. Stretch alot, if you bend to tie your shoes try and keep your legs straight. Some people will disagree because stretching t often is apparently not a good thing, but i say do it as often as you can.

Not sure if any of that even helped you because i am not sure what you are looking for but i hope it does.

[Graftin]

Welcome Martin, take a look around the form in this section, alot of your main questions might have already been covered.

Good luck.

[m4rtin]

ya, thanks for the tip! i kept wondering how come i can never keep my weight down....lol i eat like 5 apples and 3 pears a day...and drink couple litres of water per day...but i eat a lot of fruits and drink a lot of milk b4 going to bed lol...and also, isnt it better to stretch after you are warmed up? I need some good techniques to get warmed up in my house lol so i can stretch more efficiently...

[Graftin]

Warm up, Stretch, Work out, Stretch, Warm Down, The End.

[Jingshen]

do you always eat breakfast??

eating early on kick starts your metabolism...if you are someone who has to skip breakfast most days because of work/ college etc then you will develop a slow metabolism...

[Graftin]

lol, if I dont have breakfast, I dont wake up. Simple as. hahah

[m4rtin]

lol ya i eat breakfast, a fair sized one too =D haha i ve been doing some sit ups and push ups...recovered 2 inches of hops...btw wat would be a good vertical jump to start doing back flips? im 5'11-6 feet...and i have 22 inches of vertical. is that good enough?

[Jingshen]

not sure i understand...do you mean you jump 22 inches off ther ground when you jump??

[TK17]

From standing, two feet together, and jumping straight up, if you're getting 22 inches off the ground without bending your knees in midair, then you are well within the safe range of being able to do a backflip.

Remember, though, that most of the difficulty of a backflip lies in the mind, not the body. Very few people have physical difficulty getting over; it's usually their thought process or their form that stops them from nailing the trick. There are good tips for backflips from people better than me scattered throughout the forum, but ...

1) Crouch, spring, and throw your hands up high, "touch them to the sky."
2) Jump straight up. Unless you're doing a backflip off a height where you need to land somewhat far away, you want to devote all of the energy into height; the rotation comes from elsewhere.
3) Once your hands are touching the sky, bring your knees to your hands and tilt your head back. Both of these must happen together ... if you don't bring your knees up and curl your body tightly, you won't stay in the air long enough or rotate (since your knees kicking in is what takes you over), and if you don't tilt your head back you'll just find yourself doing jump-crunches in midair.

Start with thick mats, or jumping from a higher surface onto something soft, and use spotters if you can find them.

Welcome to the forum, and listen to Spike ... his advice only helps if taken.

-TK17

[simon]

another tip:
looking to the ground helps stability
looking to the sky helps agility

loosing weight: in adition to spike's tips its good to take long walks (they also help to clear the mind and forget about everything)