JUMP-START YOUR TRAINING REGIMEN

Free up your workouts and embrace a new kind of movement at Chainstore Parkour Academy. We know you’ll leap at the opportunity

The atmosphere in this east London warehouse is relaxed. Gym-goers wear baggy joggers in place of compression leggings and plimsolls instead of the latest lifters. But, set against a laidback hip-hop soundtrack, the promise of serious physical improvement at Chainstore Gym & Parkour Academy is anything but low-key. This, says founder and head coach Dan Edwardes, is where you can become a complete athlete. And we believe him.

“Yes, parkour alone will make you strong, mobile, agile and fast – but you won’t hear any parkour athlete break it down that way. For example: ‘ Today I’m going to work on my strength,’” he says. “That compartmentalisation is a bad hangover from bodybuilding in the 1960s.” Parkour is the opposite. The aim is to construct and build movement patterns, rather than break them down. “We perform complex, dynamic movements that are multidirectional, multi-planar, under control and at speed,” says Edwardes. In basic terms, it’s a holistic fitness pursuit that sounds far more aspirational than the standard, singular goals of a “faster” 10K or “heavier” deadlift.

The risks of jumping from pillar to post are good for you, too. Especially under the watchful eyes of Edwardes and his coaches. Venturing outside your comfort zone to find an acrobatic solution across this menagerie of concrete and metal is a mental workout – you just need to get out of your own way. “Your subconscious is excellent at movement,” says Edwardes. “But conscious thought from your brain’s neocortex tries to control every outcome. We help people switch that off.” Do that and your path to total athleticism is clear. Apart from all the scaffolding, obviously.