YAMAKASTEN - Yama-What?

term

The word Yamakasten has its origins in the terms Yama and Kasten. Yama is a Japanese word and stands for mountain, whereas the word Kasten is German and means as much as closet, however, it is often used as a means of describing a particular physically strong person, or at least one that likes to be strong. The term Kasten is to be understood in a rather humours fashion and should not be taken too seriously. Hence, a Yamakasten is a particular strong human being - at least in his mind - stoic like a mountain and strong as a Kasten. That being said, a Yamakasten is difficult to upset, no matter being the incident of physical or psychological nature. The training method itself, therefore, does not have its own name but rather derives itself from the athlete, the Yamakasten. Nevertheless, the act of training is often referred to as kasten or herumkasten, which is just making a verb out of the noun Kasten.

origin

Yamakasten has its origins in Parkour, Yoga and Meditation. Parkour is a training discipline using all sorts of movements in order to get from A to B in the fastest and most efficient way possible without assistive equipment . Parkour includes running, climbing, jumping, rolling, vaulting, swinging, quadruple movements, and other movements as deemed most suitable for the situation. Now Yamakasten is basically a preparation for Parkour as practice all natural movements that are used in Parkour. However, the movements are usually part of a string of strength, balance and endurance exercices, which also contain elements of Yoga and meditation. The exercises are done in playful way, using humours motivation technics.

spirit

Training takes places exclusively outside, no matter the temperature nor the weather. It's never to too cold, too hot or too wet to work on your Yamakasten spirit. We train in nature as well as in urban areas. A Yamakasten always uses what his environment is providing. Workouts can be done individual as well as in a group. However, it is much more fun and motivating to train in a group, especially in the beginning. The exercises a pretty loosely defined and you can be as creative as you like to do your exercises. The Yamakasten don't know any rules nor the words better or worse. The sports is completely uncompetitive and hence there are also no competition among participants. In this sense, the Yamakasten base their attitude closely to Parkour, which also doesn't know any competition, with the exception of challenging your own mental and physical limitations.