The Achilles Tear in Parkour: A Pattern Observed, Solutions Offered

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The Achilles tear is a devastating injury, and although it is not common in parkour at the moment, we may see this pattern accelerate due to factors such as a growing demographic of older practitioners and the Achilles put under more and more tension in complex positions as advanced practitioners push human limits. We’ve taken notice of this injury showing up worldwide and have created solutions for mitigating it in our own coaching practices and curriculum.

This paper is not only a chance to share our solutions, but also to further study the pattern through an initial survey of 16 cases. As future cases appear, we will continue to gather and analyze data in order to bring to light more understanding. Through extensive research, data collection, and many years of coaching experience, we have identified several of the contributors to this injury and offer solutions that can be applied as a practitioner, a coach, and a program manager. We believe that applying this knowledge on a large scale worldwide will mitigate the Achilles tear in parkour as the amount of practitioners rapidly grows. We’re also pleased to contribute to exercise science in general.

Full Research Paper of Achilles Tears in Parkour (PDF)

  • Great article!
    Wonderful dissection of the wall run as well. This definitely helped motivate me to get back on it after this quad heals.

  • This was the first blog post and research paper that I’ve looked at so far and this already has me pumped for this website so do not get lazy with this. Keep the website and content strong. I am so excited for this new development in the parkour community!

  • Awesome article. Achilles issues scare me the most after I recovered from 6 months of achilles tendonitis last year. Probably pre-existing conditions (calves that were always tight) and overtraining/overuse did me in the most. Keep it up with the great work. This site is a great resource. I’m excited.

  • I was skeptical at first about ParkourEDU, and I still am a little, but articles like this are what I hope to see come out of this site. Things that really benefit the community help give me faith that organizations like this are really here to help and have the spirit of Parkour in mind.

    • Jay – The way to proceed is to read the chapter and to ask questions that are important to you. Respect your fellow voyagers. Most im08&tantlyr#o23p; speak from your heart about what is going on in you regarding the material. Look within, there is always a treasure there to share and help expand the group as a whole.

  • This is fantastic Amos. These are the discussions we need to translate parkour’s discoveries about human movement into usable knowledge for everyone, not just jumpy weirdos. I am grateful and inspired by this project. Keep it up!

    Question – do you plan to further explore the topic of massage/MFR/mashing/rolling/etc as it relates to joint rehabilitation and stimulating collagen production? There is very little research at the moment but I strongly believe that this is THE area of exercise science that, once thoroughly examined, will have huge implications for parkour training specifically and human performance generally.

    Once again, great work. I’ll be gobbling up everything here.

    • Thanks for the kind words!

      Yeah, I hope that this topic can make its way into our priorities someday soon. I’m definitely very interested in ways we can target ligament / tendon health to take our training next level 🙂

  • So I guess Amos does do other stuff than dance in a sleeping bag… this kind of article is more worthwhile than watching 10 tutorials relating to the subject. Thank you for sharing and I hope to see more content uploaded later!

  • Thanks for the report. Being a newbie and older (age) practitioner, this will come in very handy in my journey.

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