Ben Foden Parkour Interview

Today Ben Foden has been attending a parkour (Free Running) master class with the country’s leading free runner Kie Willis in an attempt to bolster his preseason preparations down in London today. This collaboration was set up by the guys at Multipower  to bring together two very special ambassadors and Here at Fitness Blogger HQ we got a chance to speak with Ben Foden after the event.

Q1/.  Hi Ben, before today have you ever tried Free running or Parkour before ??

I can safely say that no I haven’t tried free running before. I’m not really a big fan of running in general, and obviously with all the sport I do, in my time off I like to sit and watch TV and let my body relax. So this is definitely the first time for me

!

Q2/.   We have been watching some of Kie’s YouTube videos and was wondering  Have you been jumping over the rooftops of London today ??

Not rooftops, I don’t think I’m at that level just yet, but Kie is pretty impressive when you see it live. The distance he covers in his jumps and the power he creates in his body to do the things he does is pretty impressive. I have a long way to go before I reach his standard.

Q3/.   This is not your usual pre-season training how did this collaboration come about ?

Both of us being ambassadors for Multipower is sort of the meeting point but I’m also interested in how other sports men approach their sports and what their trying to do to look after their body. My ankle has been a problem recently and I’ve been doing rehab and activities that can strengthen my knees my hips and the way you fall in rugby is big a part of that. Crossing both sports and picking things out you can relate to and it’s quite interesting to meet someone from a different sport to see how they deal with injuries. Seeing how they can bounce back from similar injuries is really interesting and it’s all about how you can handle your body in those awkward situations.

Q4/.   Are there any similarities to how professional Free-Runners train to how a typical rugby player would train ??

I think there is definite similarity in terms of how we both land. Sometimes you can fall awkwardly or be tackled when you least expect it, you need to make sure you land safely otherwise you risk getting injured.

Q5/.    We hear you have been trying the out the famous Parkour “Front-Flip” move today ??

Yeah, I tried out the front flip today and obviously falling into a foam pit helps with the confidence, but I was put in my place by Kie shortly after. The guys ridiculous he did a crazy Arab spin into a full 360 summersault. It’s fun trying to control your body in the air then landing correctly and hopefully  I’ve learnt some move that I can show off to the guys back at the club.

Q6/.    Parkour has lots of explosives moves, jumps and flips will we be seeing any of these acrobatics on the rugby pitch next season ??

I’d love to do the forward flip as a celebration to score a try, especially after some of the celebrations we’ve seen in the football recently. Maybe I should start a new craze but I think I’d be too scared that I’d drop the ball, I don’t think you’ll see me on the pitch again.

Ben Foden CrossFit Challenge

Multipower Sportsfood ambassador Ben Foden takes on a gruelling CrossFit inspired workout in this new YouTube video.
The England and Northampton Saints Rugby player rises to the tough challenge set by Multipower’s personal trainer.

“Rugby is a sport that involves short, sharp periods of whole body movements, such as sprinting, tackling, lifting, pushing and pulling. All of these actions are full body compound movements and CrossFit uses functional movements with various objects as key features within your training.”
Robin Sowden-Taylor – Dragon CrossFit

Ben Fodens CrossFit Video

Can you beat Ben’s time of 5 minutes 6 seconds :

Exercise 1 — The Tyre Flip

Exercise 2 — Sledge Hammer

Exercise 3 — Keg walk

Exercise 4 — Knees to elbow

Exercise 5 — Battle Ropes Hip Toss

Exercise 6 — Olympic rings press ups

Exercise 1 – The Tyre Flip

The tyre flip is a movement that works almost the entire body and builds strength and power, especially though the legs, torso and shoulders. It’s a great conditioning exercise due to the high workload.



Standing about 10-12 inches behind the tyre, squat down keeping your back straight and grip underneath the tyre. Keeping your arms straight, lean into the tyre pressing your forearms and, depending on the width of the tyre, your biceps and shoulders firmly into the tyre.

Lift the tyre off the floor by leaning into it and keeping your arms and back straight and braced, working purely from the legs and hips. Once the tyre is at about 45 degrees or more you can then consider using your upper body and palms to help drive it over, but the heavier the tyre the later in the movement and the more upright you should be before trying to use your arms.

Once the tyre is upright, flip it over by powering through on the top. Remember to keep your feet and ankles away from the tyre as it hits the ground as there may be some movement.

Exercise 2 – Sledge Hammer

Hammer strikes are a great movement for working large muscle groups and developing explosive power. Due to the high work load and the way they lend themselves to rapid reps they’re also a great conditioning tool.

Stand in a slightly staggered boxing type stance about 1 foot in front of the tyre and hold the hammer in both hands so that the top hand – the one closest to the hammers head – is the same side as the front foot.

Raise the hammer above your head and leading shoulder, at this point your hands may be about a foot apart on the handle. Try to keep your feet flat on the floor, knees soft and back in a natural position, not too arched.

Using your abs, lats and shoulders, forcefully strike the tyre. You should also bend your knees slightly driving down onto the tyre with your whole body. As the hammer goes from above the head and shoulder bring your hands together on the handle.

Try to aim for the same spot on the tyre, one that gives a controlled small rebound, this is usually 1/3 of the way from the outside edge to the inner rim. Keep control of the hammer at all times being careful not to bring the hammer anywhere near the lower legs or feet.

Exercise 3 – Keg walk

The keg walk involves moving an object that’s an awkward shape and contains an unstable water load, this means that it is hard work and requires a lot of effort from the body.

Squat down and take hold of the keg with both hands (note: you may require gloves for this depending upon the design of the keg). Keep a natural curve in the spine as you would for any lifting movement.

Lift the keg up by keeping your torso and shoulders firm and working from the legs and hips. In order to get the keg out of the way of the thighs so you can easily walk, use a slight hip thrust and pull with the shoulders and arms to raise the keg up to waist level.

Begin walking using slightly smaller steps than your normal stride and being sure to keep the keg as steady as possible at the waist. Pay close attention to you balance as the load moves. Try not to lean over but rather keep you back straight against the load.

                               

Exercise 4 – Knees to elbow

The knees to elbows exercise, whilst resembling an abs exercise, actually utilises the whole of the torso integrating the use of the abdominal muscles, muscle of the front of the rib cage, the shoulders and the upper and lower back.

Hang relaxed from a pull up bar with your hands at a width slightly wider than your shoulders where you feel most comfortable through your arms and upper back.

Curling up from the waist, draw your knees up bending your legs slightly and trying to keep them as close to the body as possible. Stabilising with your lats, draw your knees up until they touch your elbows. At that point you may find it helps to pull slightly with the arms but try to minimise this movement as this is not a pull up.

Once you have touched your knees to elbows drive the legs deliberately straight back down and point your toes to the floor. Don’t let them just fall and keep them close to the body, all these actions – as well as keeping the knees close to the torso on the way up – stop the swinging motion that messes up your rhythm and makes quick reps impossible.

Exercise 5 – Battle Ropes Hip Toss

Battle ropes are an ideal conditioning exercise as they don’t overly fatigue one set of muscles but instead work the whole body meaning you’re able to do a lot of work and test the heart and lungs before becoming fatigued in any one muscle group.

                         

Standing face on to the ropes, grab the handle and lean back slightly against the weight of the ropes. Start the ‘hip toss’ or ‘hip throw’ movement by shifting your weight onto your right hand side, bending the right knee more, turning and leaning the torso slightly to the right and passing the hands to the right hand side and down.

Once in the coiled ‘set’ position, explode off driving with the right foot and twisting with the hips and torso to the left hand side. Towards the end of the movement, power the arms over to the left hand side and go up onto the ball of the right foot and twist the leg so you can twist the hips further

.

                        

You will now be in a similar ‘set position’ but on the left hand side. Repeat the movement, driving off the left foot, twisting to your right driving over with the arms and twisting on the ball of the left foot to allow the hip to work harder. 

Repeat for as many reps and desired.

Exercise 6 – Olympic rings press ups

Ring press ups are deceptively simple but are not easy. They require a high level of stabilisation through the upper torso, shoulders and arms as well as working the lower torso and hips in a similar but much more challenging way to a plank exercise.

Start by setting up the rings. Here the rigs are just off the floor but you can set them to a foot or even more away from the ground, the closer to the floor they are the more challenging the exercise will be.

Kneeling in front of the rings, grip them whilst keeping the wrists firm and straight. Move from your knees onto your toes as you would for a standard press-up; holding the back in a neutral ‘flat’ position and firming your abs. Keep your arms straight with your elbows closer to your sides than you might in a normal floor

press-up

Slowly lower yourself down keeping the movement controlled and staying rigid through the upper body. It may help shoulder stability if you think about turning your palms to nearly face each other – this ‘winds’ the shoulder up and helps stability in the joint.

Lower yourself down as far as comfort, mobility and stability allow and then pause very slightly at the bottom to avoid ‘bouncing’, then press yourself back up.

As you press back up keep the torso tight and control the shoulders and wrists. It may help your stability to keep the elbows relatively close to the body.

When you have completed your set go down onto the knees again placing them as close to the rings as possible – this will make moving back from the rigs easy.

Feeling brave then give this challenge a go – record your times and let us know how you get on.