Dom Willoughby jumping by Waterloo Station, he teaches parkour-a type of fitness Jas Lehal

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THE closest Trafalgar Square gets to feats of world-class athleticism is usually a smashed ­Aussie hanging off a stone lion. But this Saturday, athletes from around the world will run, vault and somersault under the nose of Lord Nelson in the World Freerun Championships.

Twenty-seven uber-toned urbanites will perform gravity-defying jumps in front of 7,000 spectators.

It’s the pinnacle of a discipline that is growing in popularity, not least for its fitness benefits. An estimated 20,000 people across the UK practise the sport.

“It’s grown exponentially in popularity because people are bored of the treadmill and weights,” says Ez (pronounced Easy), director of Urban Freeflow, an online parkour and freerunning network.

For those who don’t know, freerunning is an English offshoot of the French discipline of parkour. While freerunning is all about getting from A to B regardless of the obstacles in your path, parkour concentrates on the style of movement required. Both disciplines use walls, railings and stairwells as a gigantic urban assault course – and they are both great ways to work up a sweat.

“It’s a cardio and strength ­workout,” says Ez. “With moves like the cat leap, you’re bending your legs and using your back and arm muscles.”

Freerunning can be an option for the beginner but if, like me, you are a slightly nervous virgin wall-leaper why not start by honing your technique with the phenomenon that started it all: parkour.

1. Warming up

‘The pain distracts from funny looks from passers-by’

For someone who struggles to get the lids off bottles, I’m sceptical about this parkour lark. How am I supposed to use my arm muscles to haul my body weight over brick walls when a jar of jam poses an obstacle?

“Parkour is a lot about the mind,” says my instructor and parkour guru Dom Willoughby. As we jog along the South Bank, Dom says: “Once you prove to yourself what the body is capable of, anyone can do it.” Dom is dark-haired, toned and has the ­patience of a saint. He’s been hooked on parkour since he saw a BBC documentary profiling the sport a few years ago.

But I soon put his enthusiasm to the test in the warm-up. To work the muscles, he has me on all fours, crawling down a slope leading to an underpass. With my knees not touching the ground, the descent is hard and crawling up backwards is harder. I’m ­already tired and sweaty. Though at least the pain distracts from funny looks from passers-by.

“Fitness and strength are equally important,” he explains. “There’s no point in being able to jump over walls if you can run for only a few minutes after.”

2. The moves

‘I jumped halfway up then lost my bottle’

Our first obstacle is the 5ft-high wall of the underpass, which I’m to get over by jumping on to it using my left hand and right foot and stepping over the wall with my other foot.

Dom demonstrates gracefully. Me? Not so graceful. Each time I do it he tells me where I’m going wrong, from the position of my foot to the angle of my landing. “With each practice go, focus on one thing to ­improve,” he advises. “Whether speed or positioning – each jump needs to be better than the last.”

My hands are grazed from clumsy contact with the wall and I feel a bruise forming on my shin from when I jumped halfway up then lost my bottle. But while I’d use any injury as an excuse to head for the showers in the gym, I don’t care. I just want to get it right.

We jog to the green by the London Eye. I walk, squat and turn on the railings to improve my balance, as well as ­practising jumping over them.

Then I clutch the back of a bench and jump back and forth over it to improve my ­leverage and get some distance in my jumps.

After an hour of launching myself over the urban landscape, I’m spent. But, although I’m no Lara Croft yet, I can ­already see improvement in my speed, fluidity and confidence. Time for a rest, or so I thought.

3. Warming down

‘My body shakes with the pressure on my muscles’

Warming down isn’t as gentle as it sounds. We sit on the grass with our feet and hands off the ground, which makes my body shake with the pressure on my ­stomach muscles.

“This is the rest ­position,” says Dom. Seriously?

From this position, we do a series of stretches that cover all the main muscle groups.

By the time I allow myself to collapse to the floor, I feel like I’ve had a thorough workout – it was like weight ­training, cardiovascular and yoga all rolled into one.

“Your perception of the world changes when you take up ­parkour,” Dom tells me as we walk back to Waterloo station.

“Everything you see is an obstacle and you can’t help but overcome it.”

I know what he means – already I have an urge to try jumping over every bin or bench I pass.

And this is where parkour wins out over a gym workout or just a run. The ­desire to improve makes me want to keep practising so, despite being knackered and sweatier than I’ve been after any other exercise, I’m not counting down the minutes until it’s over. It’s exciting and the muscle-building and calorie-­burnage feel like an added bonus.