This trend can be mainly attributed to factors like the growing presence of high net-worth individuals and the UAE’s removal from the FATF’s grey list
realty3 hours ago
A Dubai resident is overcoming some tall and heavy obstacles as part of his Dubai Fitness Challenge (DFC) journey - and quite literally so.
You can find 19-year-old Joshua Ray Rosas climbing walls, jumping over obstacles, springing from one street to another and free running around Dubai. The American expat practises the sport of parkour. In parkour, a person moves rapidly through an area - whether urban, indoors or in nature - all while using running, jumping and climbing to cross obstacles.
"Fitness is the wellbeing of your body and mind. That can only come from quality of movement. In parkour, that's exactly what we work on - moving your body more efficiently," Rosas told Khaleej Times. "In my opinion, people can benefit a lot from parkour. It's an extra step over exercising. You have your normal fitness training where you do squats, but in parkour you learn movements that you can apply in everyday life."
Parkour is not new to Rosas, as he used to teach it professionally in Boston. Today, he teaches UAE residents from age six all the way up to expats in their 40s. He said the sport is about turning exercise into a skill, allowing a person to move more confidently in his or her everyday life.
"Parkour dates back to 1915 and was developed by the French military. They wanted the mind and body worked together to move and cross obstacles in any given environment. So, they could climb and jump off a tree if required and in an urban environment, they could do the same with a wall," Rosas said.
It's certainly been picking up in Dubai over the past few years. A video of parkour athlete and freerunner Kie Willis, which went viral last year, shows him climbing the walls of Madinat Jumeirah. Another video of athlete Joel Eggimann showed him using a 360-degree camera while doing parkour around Dubai earlier this year.
Rosas said parkour is part of his everyday lifestyle. However, he is helping his students with their fitness challenge by teaching them how to improve movement.
"When practising parkour, your knowledge of how your body, mind, shoes, and apparel reacts in different environments, situations, climates and surfaces grows," he said. "This allows a practitioner to better analyse risks visually, before performing movements, which ultimately keeps them safe."
This trend can be mainly attributed to factors like the growing presence of high net-worth individuals and the UAE’s removal from the FATF’s grey list
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