Whether they are running or jumping between buildings or down a flight of stairs, members of the ISU Parkour and FreeRunning Club has almost no boundaries.

Andrey Asadchev, founder of the ISU Parkour and FreeRunning Club and graduate student in chemistry, started the club last year to spread the sport around campus and to teach – and learn from – other traceurs, or parkour athletes.

“It’s an easier sport to learn from other people because other people have different perspectives,” Asadchev said.

“I had some injuries when I was starting up, and I thought it could be good to how to avoid injuries.”

Asadchev said “as a disclaimer” that it’s important to know all athletic activity can lead to injuries, and parkour and free running are no different.

“Some of the motions, like jumping from high ground, incur some shock and it takes a little while for your body to get used to it,” Asadchev said.

The American Parkour organization explains that parkour could best be grasped as a race through an obstacle course. “The goal is to overcome obstacles quickly and efficiently without using extraneous movement,” according to its Web site.

The philosophy of parkour, moving through an environment using only your body and your surroundings, defines the discipline.

“[Parkour] is just get as well as you can from one point to another,” Asadchev said.

The differences between parkour and free-running revolve mostly around their goals and definitions. Parkour stresses efficiency – moving through an environment using only your body and your surroundings – whereas free-running is more expressive and open to interpretation and creativity.

“You think of parkour as running away from somebody, and free-running is more aesthetically pleasing,” said Mike Rothschild, president of the ISU Parkour and FreeRunning Club and senior in computer science, noting the additions of “backflips, aerials, twirls, stuff like that.”

The philosophy for free-running is an open path, giving runners the ability to move through their environment any way they want. Free-running incorporates flips, acrobats and flairs – which are usually banished from parkour.

“You still try to be efficient, but you add some nice things,” Asadchev said. “Something like a backflip isn’t very practical to do, but it looks nice.”

Both Asadchev and Rothschild got started in the sport after seeing it in videos on YouTube.

“I saw a video on YouTube of a parkour group in Latvia, and that got me really interested in what you can do with your body,” Asadchev said.

Rothschild also saw a video and thought it looked cool.

“I met Andrey at the Rec and I started getting into it a little more about a year-and-a-half ago,” Rothschild said.

Parkour originated in Lisses, France, and can also be seen in popular culture, including a scene in 2006’s “Casino Royale” in which James Bond chases a terrorist traceur over a rooftop construction zone.

“Once you know the basic movements, you can kind of put them together into a single motion,” Asadchev said.

Rothschild said the group has recently had some “misunderstandings” about what areas on campus group members can practice the sport.

“We thought we had a few areas on campus that were cleared for practice, but a few weeks ago, we were told that we couldn’t [practice in those areas],” Rothschild said. “We’re getting that worked out. We usually practice around the Design Building and around Ames.”

Rothschild said new members don’t have to have any experience in the sport to join the club. Practices are held once a week in Beyer Hall in the Gymnastics Center, with a group of about 15, although only about eight practice the sport outside.