workshop experience

Europe’s Most Wanted

October 21, 2014 By Al Kavadlo and Danny Kavadlo 33 Comments

Danny Al Ferris Wheel Europe PCC Workshops

This October has been a groundbreaking month for the Progressive Calisthenics Certification. For the first time ever, two PCC workshops took place on consecutive weekends, both overseas – and both a rollicking success! The PCC family continues to grow and grow. The passion for calisthenics transcends intercontinental boundaries.

First, we conducted our inaugural workshop in The Netherlands at Trainingscentrum Helena in Haarlem, Holland. Hosted by the #1 Krav Maga instructor in the world (outside of Israel), Martijn Bos, our premiere event in The Netherlands resulted in new calisthenics achievements from each and every attendee!

Support Press Holland PCC

Human flags, muscle-ups and elbow levers were all fair game for participants, as were handstands, archer pull-ups and back levers. Every single person who came to PCC Holland achieved at least one personal best. It’s an exciting experience to witness firsthand the birth of such excellence!

Europe PCC Muscle-Up

Knowledge was shared, friendships were formed and new PCC instructors now walk among us. The solidarity and kinship among the newest members of the PCC family is a heartwarming thing to behold. As usual, it was hard to say goodbye at the end of the whirlwind weekend!

PCC Group Photo Holland 2014

There was little time to relish in the success, however, as we soon headed over to Sweden to conduct our second PCC event in Gothenburg. The momentum of groundbreaking achievements that began in Holland didn’t slow down one bit once we arrived in the land of the midnight sun. Positivity breeds positivity, and the Sweden crew proved it. Some of the most recognizable faces from the international street workout team Barstarzz even showed up to earn their Progressive Calisthenics Certifications!

PCC Sweden 2014 Barstarzz

The fierce calisthenics vikings of Gothenburg continued in the tradition of previous PCC classes by smashing personal bests, inspiring one another and having a blast the whole time! We love our job!

PCC Sweden L-Sit on Danny and Al

Now that we are back in the States, it’s hard to believe how quickly it all went; time flies when you’re having fun! The good news is, we get to do it all over again next month! PCC wraps up the 2014 season with a return to the good ol’ USA. Our final event of the year will take place at Drench Fitness in Milwaukee, WI on November 7-9. Spots are still open for this event. Go sign up right now!

And for our European fans, do not fret! You will have three opportunities to attend the PCC next spring when we come to Germany, Italy and Ireland on three consecutive weekends!

No matter where we go, spreading the joy of calisthenics is fresh and exciting every time! We can’t wait to see YOU at our next event!

PCC Group Photo Sweden 2014

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About Al and Danny Kavadlo:

Al Kavadlo is the lead instructor for Dragon Door’s Progressive Calisthenics Certification. Recognized worldwide for his amazing bodyweight feats of strength as well as his unique coaching style, Al is the author of three books, including Raising The Bar: The Definitive Guide to Pull-up Bar Calisthenics and Pushing The Limits! Total Body Strength With No Equipment. Read more about Al on his website:www.AlKavadlo.com.

Danny Kavadlo is one of the world’s most established and respected personal trainers. He is a Master Instructor of Progressive Calisthenics and the author of Everybody Needs Training: Proven Success Secrets for the Professional Fitness Trainer. A true in-person experience, Danny is known globally as a motivator and leader in the body-weight community. Learn more about Danny at: www.DannyTheTrainer.com.

Preparing for the PCC Experience

September 30, 2014 By Adrienne Harvey 29 Comments

Adrienne Pull-Up

While we’ve shared a lot of information about what happens at PCC workshops, there are always still questions revolving around the same couple of topics: How do I prepare for the Progressive Calisthenics Certification, and is the PCC right for me?

Unlike many certification workshops in the modern fitness world, the PCC is a highly physical three-day workshop AND it has a strictly judged physical test (The Century!) to ensure you’re fit to present yourself to the world as a PCC Instructor. While this can seem daunting, there are some clear-cut strategic approaches which can help you both be prepared to pass the test, and be physically (and mentally) prepared to really get the most out of your PCC experience. (Be sure to click here for Paul Wade’s excellent PCC Q+A article written in January of 2013 which I hope you haven’t missed.)

One of the things I like most about The Century is that it’s a balanced test. While the numbers may not look frightening, having to perform each rep to our standards for the required number can prove to be challenging to say the least. I’ve personally seen very fit, very experienced people who were well prepared for the test need to take a second to mentally reset between exercises in the midst of testing.

Practicing the basics to the point that they are second nature is not only great for testing, but is also helpful for situations where you find yourself having to instruct a large group of people, or multi-task in some way while troubleshooting a client or student’s technique. In other words, performing the exercises during testing can tell us how you might perform as an instructor and leader. Not to mention, the testing occurs after three days of exhilarating and fun physical learning!

Attention to Detail During Testing at the PCC in Sweden

We usually have to remind especially inspired attendees not to go to complete failure while they are trying out some of the progressions we present during the workshop. It is hard after you get that first muscle-up to slow down and not immediately get back up on the bar for the 2nd, 3rd or 4th attempt at another. I’ve seen guys so overjoyed at their own progress after getting a game-changing cue from Al, Danny or myself that they’ve shredded up their hands while practicing it over and over again. (Yikes!)

Someone preparing for the PCC should really have two goals, passing the Century test is the more obvious of the two, but the other goal should be a focus on general strength, skill, and volume. The volume will also help prepare your body (and hands) for spending more time on the bar, pole, or floor. Suppose your most favorite (and/or most challenging) exercise falls on the 2nd or 3rd day? You will want to have as much strength and mobility at your disposal for trying as many of the progressions as possible—especially since the PCC instructors and your fellow attendees will be there to help you past any sticking points.

Adrienne coaching Tony towards a clutch flag at the PCC

When mentioning this particular topic, people often voice concerns that they think we will be doing muscle-ups and front levers 8 hours a day for three days in a row. Don’t be intimidated by the range of material the workshop offers, but do be prepared to attend at your best.

Also, I hope that you will bring us questions and moves you’ve been struggling with—we can help you work on them, and at the same time, the other attendees benefit from seeing how a given issue can be resolved. This is incredibly helpful for everyone’s own practice as well as that of their clients. I try to bring up stories of how either my clients or I overcame an issue so that others can try the approach too. So bring your strengths, but bring your “weaknesses” too.

By preparing for the Century, you will be drilling yourself well for the basics, which is often the most important aspect of being a professional trainer. While we would all love to be constantly coaching others on extremely advanced exercises, the reality is most of our clients will be everyday people who will need to start out at the very beginning. While many of us have long since progressed from the initial steps in Convict Conditioning (the basis of the PCC) and are slowly approaching the master steps, we need to remember how to really drill down and help someone who is just starting out. Often, beginners bring restricted movement patterns that can prove perplexing to an instructor who isn’t fully prepared.

It’s easy for us to be tempted to skip over that “easy stuff”, but I always remember an attendee at one of the very first PCC Workshops who was incredibly fit and able to do rep after perfect rep of “regulation” push-ups. But, when working through the progressions he was unable at first to correctly demonstrate a push-up from the knees. Fortunately with some attention to detail, and activation of the abdominals and glutes, he was not only able to demonstrate a knee push-up that would truly help a beginner, but he was able to progress further with his own push-ups because of this extra knowledge and experience. Similarly, when I get stuck on a given progression I go back and make sure I’m not taking my own strength for granted, simply because I’m able to “muscle through” a particular move.

The great thing about the PCC is that ALL levels of the progressions are useful—no matter your client’s fitness level. So, getting proficient with the Century Test is a crucial task, as is working up to a volume level that will allow you to fully participate in the workshop.

Jen Kalmes Pull-Up — PCC and RKC Instructor Jen Kalmes confidently completes a pull-up rep at a PCC Workshop in Minneapolis, MN

While we’ve seen a trend towards more men attending than women, everyone who has come to the PCC has been able to fully participate and learn from the experience. Women often ask me if I think they should “even bother” signing up, because somewhere along the line a rumor must have gotten started that we’re going to be doing backflip muscle-up spinaround jump squats (don’t ask me how to do that, I just made it up for emphasis) for three days in a row. But, the women who have shown up to past PCCs have not only thrived at the workshop but always seem to surprise themselves. Similarly, women with training backgrounds not as grounded in raw bodyweight strength often discover a whole new world of training to explore. As I’ve said many times before, if you understand the principles, you can really coach anyone—even people who have different strengths than your own.

The real treasures of the PCC are not just being able to perform or work towards performing cool moves and exercises, it’s being able to break down the movements for any situation. If there’s a common thread I’ve noticed among past attendees of the PCC workshops it’s a willingness to try new things, an innate form of leadership, and an intense desire to help others.

The PCC is an instructor course, and while many people do attend for their own knowledge (which we think is fantastic, by the way) we do find out that after a while those same people can’t help but share the information with others.

The world needs this accessible do-it-anywhere route to fitness, as well as instructors of all shapes, sizes and abilities to lead the way. I hope to see you bring your “A Game” to an upcoming workshop!

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About Adrienne Harvey, Senior PCC Instructor, RKC-II, CK-FMS, Primal Move Nat’l Instructor: Originally RKC Certified in 2010, and RKC Level 2 certified in 2011, kettlebell and bodyweight training have been crucial in Adrienne’s personal quest for fitness. A core member of the PCC team, Adrienne loves sharing her knowledge with small groups and individuals. She also loves to develop recipes and workout programs to further support performance, body composition, and of course—FUN. Go to http://www.giryagirl.com for more information about Adrienne!

PCC Australia – The Experience of The Century

March 25, 2014 By Darren Manser 26 Comments

When I signed up for the first ever PCC Australia, I knew I had my work cut out for me. I didn’t find out about the event until fairly late, so I only had 3 weeks to get ready for The Century.

The first time I attempted the test, I completed the 100 reps in 8 minutes and 50 seconds. Not bad. I’ll be able to shave those 50 seconds off in the next three weeks, I thought. I decided to send Andrew Read from Dragon Door Australia an email to make sure I was doing it right. Andrew responded to my email very quickly.

“100 repetitions need to be completed within 8 minutes. Once you start the exercise you cannot stop until the desired reps are completed. You must complete ALL ten chin ups in a row.”

Crap, Crap, Crap. I thought I was able to stop throughout the set.

Three weeks out my max rep chin ups was a whopping eight reps. And that was fresh, with no hanging knee raises before. How the hell am I going to do 10 chin ups AFTER holding onto the bar to do 20 hanging knee raises–especially at the end of three days of attempting all sorts of new and interesting techniques?

I then stumbled across Coach Wade’s article about kicking ass in the Convict Conditioning certification. Ideally you need to do 50% more for each activity prior to the weekend.

How the hell was I going to do that? I decided I was just going to keep doing the Century. I’d stop all other training and simply practice the test.

In the beginning I did the century morning and night for two days straight. What a stupid idea! As a result of me being 105kg (231lbs), I’m way too heavy to jump into that much volume. I was now way too sore and the PCC was getting way too close.

After a couple of days with no training, it was time to rethink the strategy and start again.

My new strategy was to do as much work as I possibly could whilst staying as fresh as I could so I decided to do ladder super-sets. I combined the squats and the push-ups and then the hanging knee raises and the chin ups. I based the ratios on what was coming up in the PCC. It looked something like this:

Squat: 4, 8, 12, 16, 20

Push up: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15

Squat: 4, 8, 12, 16, 20

Push up: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15

Squat: 4, 8, 12, 16

Push up: 3, 6, 9, 12

Squat: 4, 8, 12

Push up: 3, 6, 9

This adds up to a total of 184 squats and 138 push ups. All done with excellent form (at the time I thought I was doing a brilliant job, that was of course until I did the PCC and realized how you can polish every little technique to get more out of it).

The ladders for the hanging knee raises and the chin ups looked like this.

Knee Raises: 2, 4, 6, 8

Chin ups: 1, 2, 3, 4

Knee Raises: 2, 4, 6, 8

Chin ups: 1, 2, 3, 4

Knee Raises: 2, 4, 6

Chin ups: 1, 2, 3

Knee Raises: 2, 4

Chin ups: 1, 2

Knee Raises: 2

Chin ups: 1

Total hanging knee raises: 60 reps

Total chin ups: 30 reps

Ideally I would rest for a couple of minutes in between ladders, although sometimes the morning permitted this and sometimes it didn’t. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I have 6 children and I also run my own Natural therapies business, as a Naturopath, Acupuncturist and Kinesiologist. So between my sets I would lift up my 3 youngest children (Bodhi 4, Tyson 3 and Ruby 15 months) up onto the chin up bar, so they could hang. Or I would hold their feet and they would do a handstand.

I would do the routine three or four mornings in a row and then have a rest day. I made a deal with myself that I wouldn’t test myself again with the chin ups before the weekend. I simply didn’t have enough time to recover from a training session like that. I was however, hoping and praying that the adrenaline from the event and the other attendees cheering would help raise me over the bar.

Finally, it was off to Melbourne for me.

The Course was AMAZING. On the first morning, the first thing we did was the hollow position. We drilled this again and again. Then we applied that position to almost everything that we did. WOW!! It is totally amazing how much better a push up feels whilst doing this. I even feel my poor little abdominals now whilst push-upping.

Then onto the next exercise, then the next exercise. Every single section we did across the weekend, I had a first. There was not one activity that I didn’t improve on.

The weekend flew. The generosity of both Al and Danny was definitely one of the highlights of both the course and my life. The support from the other attendees was amazing.

Sunday afternoon we arrived at the Century test. There were a lot of fine looking specimens in the room. My heart rate was jacked. My palms were sweaty. How on earth was I going to hang onto the bar–let alone do the test? I had a massive feeling of letting down Al and Danny if I couldn’t do it. I also thought I was letting down my kids, particularly my boys. (I want to be a good role model for them).

As I watched the other people do the Century I was inspired. Some people were amazing. Some people were only just getting through. A couple of others were not making it. Then for some reason I thought, “The best thing I can do is the best that I can do.” If I hadn’t prepared enough then that’s my fault.

Finally it was my turn to test. I decided to take it nice and easy. I started with getting to 30 squats and decided to have a rest in the top position. (Once you start the set you can’t move your feet with the squats, shift your hand and lift your bum in the push ups or let go of the bar with the hanging knee raises and the chin ups. Although you are allowed to let go of the bar in between the hanging leg raises and the chin ups). Then I did another 10 squats until Andrew, my counter, says, “You’re done with the squats.” This caught me off guard – for some reason I thought I had to do 50. No complaints here!

On to the push ups! I waited maybe 30 seconds to allow my heart rate to fall slightly and then started my set. I moved to 15 reps. I stopped in the top of the push up position, took a few breaths, then did 5 more repetitions to make 20. Then 10 singles from 20 to 30. YES!!!! The push ups were now done.

From the push ups I moved straight across to the hanging knee raises. I wanted to get them done as quickly as possible so that I could have a long recovery before the pull-ups. I’d been practicing hanging knee raises a lot in the last three weeks and I actually got through them easier than I expected. All that was left was the pull-ups!

I had a lot of time left on the clock, so I took full advantage of it. I shook out the tension in the arms as much as I possibly could. I caught my breath and let my heart rate slow down. Before I knew it I was down to one minute and it was time to start the pull-ups.

I positioned my hands on the bar and started my first few repetitions. When I made it to 6 repetitions, I remember thinking, “I can’t believe it, only four to go!” I pulled really hard again – now only three repetitions left. Pulled hard again for number eight. Two to go!!! By this time the other two people who were testing at the same time I was had already finished. All the people were now cheering for me. Pulled hard once more, and I only had one repetition to go.

An image of my 4 year old son pops in my head. I decide that I’m going to do the last rep for him. I yell out a massive “Come on” to psych myself up. The crowd is cheering so loudly, Danny and Al both walk over and are standing in front of me, willing me to complete the last repetition. Andrew, my counter, was cheering too. I pulled as hard as I possibly could whilst only thinking about my son. I must do it for him. Somehow, some way I get over the bar. Everyone cheers. Al and Danny are both jumping up and down. They come over to me and high-five me and give me a big hug. I have tears in my eyes. What the hell just happened? How the hell did that happen? What an amazing feeling. I was then presented with my official instructor shirt and my certificates. Then went outside and cried. I did it!

So what did I learn from this process?

Ideally I should have been 15kg (30lbs) lighter. This would have made all of the movements and the test a great deal easier. More practice before the event would have been good, too. Now that the course is over I am so motivated to incorporate this into my lifestyle, not just as a work out. I am really looking forward to what is possible.

The whole PCC course was amazing. The presenters, Al Kavadlo and Danny Kavadlo were AMAZING with their knowledge and their time. All in all this was THE best course I have ever done. I would thoroughly recommend anyone to do this course.

I would like to say a massive thank you to John Du Cane, Paul Wade, Al Kavadlo, Danny Kavadlo and Andrew Read. You have all changed my life in one way or another. I love you all.