CBC News | Posted: January 19, 2016 1:41 AM | Last Updated: January 19, 2016
No gym, no ball, no pads ... no problem: Street sport parkour pits you against your surroundings
Image | Gaza parkour flag pole on a light stand Gaza City Jan 15 2016
Caption: The sport of parkour, also known as free running, is popular with a group of young men in Gaza who have been using the war-torn city as a training ground due to lack of suitable indoor space. Here a man demonstrates a 'flagpole' manoeuvre on Jan. 15, 2016. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)
A group of young Palestinians have been garnering international attention through pictures and videos posted to their Facebook page, showing free runners — known as traceurs — running, flipping and rolling through the ruins of Gaza City.
Photogallery | Palestinian parkour team practises amid Gaza ruins
The group, known as Gaza Parkour and Free Running, is not the only one practising the sport of parkour, which originated on the streets of Calais, France, and has found roots in places where poverty and war have put conventional sports out of reach.
Young Afghans practise parkour in the ruins of Darul Aman Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Image | Parkour Afghanistan May 1 2015 ruins of Darul Aman Palace Kabul
Caption: Darul Aman Palace was damaged in the failed Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, leaving behind ruins after heavy shelling by warring mujahedeen factions in the early 1990s. This is a group practising in May 2015. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty)
The Gaza parkour club says it can't compete abroad because a blockade prevents them from travelling.
Image | Parkour Jerusalem Old City Dome of the Rock April 2015
Caption: A group of young Palestinians take to the air in front of Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock in the Old City in April 2015. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)
A group of Iranian women have discovered parkour as an outlet for evading social constraints and dealing with stress.
Image | Parkour Iranian woman practice March 2014
Caption: Iranian women practice parkour in Tehran's Tavalod Park in March 2014. (Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty)
Parkour has sprung up in war-torn Iraq …
Image | Parkour in Najaf Iraq May 2014
Caption: Iraqi men practise parkour in the central city of Najaf in May 2014. (Haidar Hamdani/AFP/Getty)
and in post-Gadhafi Libya, too.
Image | Parkour Tripoli LIBYA March 2014
Caption: Young Libyans flip out in Tripoli in March 2014. (Ismail Zitouny/Reuters)
Egypt has used parkour to promote its faltering tourism industry.
Image | Parkour EGYPT-EGY PK traceurs practice by Giza pyramids Dec 2014
Caption: Egypt, suffering from a loss of tourism in the wake of the Arab Spring uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in 2011, has used public parkour demonstrations as a way to boost its image. (Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)
Feats of strength are still performed on the beaches of Donetsk.
Image | Parkour in Ukraine May 2014 Mariupol beach practice
Caption: Amid the strife in eastern Ukraine, parkour has emerged as a form of exercise on the beaches of Mariupol, where these two men were photographed in May. (Brendan Hoffman/Getty)
Parkour has gone mainstream.
Image | Parkour Santorini Greece Red Bull event Oct 2014
Caption: Energy drink maker Red Bull promotes parkour 'jams' like this one in Santorini, Greece, in 2014. (Samo Vidic/Getty)
Image | Parkour high fashion Alexander Wang H M show 2014 Oct
Caption: Fashion designer Alexander Wang incorporated parkour into the live launch of a clothing line with H&M in New York City in 2014. (Randy Brooke/Getty)
Meanwhile, two teens on Manitoba's Pukatawagan First Nation practise parkour in –30 C.
Justin Bighetty and Anthony Francois, both 18, taught themselves how to do parkour using YouTube, and now one of their videos is racking up views on Facebook. (More than 36,000 at the time of publication.)