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" If you&amp;#039;ve seen the chase scene through the Madagascar construction site in Casino Royale, you&amp;#039;ve seen parkour -- a crazy French hybrid of running and martial arts whose practitioners jump over cars, swing through trees, and careen up the sides of buildings. (And if you haven&amp;#039;t seen parkour, check out YouTube or parkour-videos.com.) While we don&amp;#039;t recommend you take it up (unless you also want to take up burglary and joint pain), adding aspects of parkour to your workout can improve your balance, flexibility, and core strength. Try these exercises, devised exclusively for Esquire, two or three times a week. They&amp;#039;ll not only make you stronger and less prone to injury, but imagine the bets you&amp;#039;ll win at work when you tic-tac -- that&amp;#039;s parkour for &amp;quot;clear a large object by jumping off a nearby smaller object&amp;quot; -- off the color copier and over the vending machine.  Spider-Man With your body in a push-up position, quickly bring your left leg up and to the outside of your left elbow. Your right knee should lightly tap the ground. Switch legs and repeat for one rep.  Four sets of 20.  Donkey Kicks Starting with your hands and feet on the ground, kick your legs up so that your body makes a 60-degree angle with the floor. Use your upper body to lower your knees back slowly to the ground.  40 reps.    Spring  Squat and spring up as high as you can, touching your fingers to the soles of your feet. Use your knees and ankles to cushion your landing and make as little noise as possible.  Two sets of 10 reps. Mehmet Oz is a heart surgeon and the author of You: On a Diet. Joel Harper, a New York City personal trainer who has worked with Olympic gold medalists, is the creator of Fit Pack Workouts (fitpackdvd.com). "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/health/a3090/parkour0707/>