Looking back over the years, I was always fascinated with bodyweight training. I suppose it started when I was a child and I dabbled in gymnastics. Practicing the movements and principles of gymnastics ignited the fire that would become a lifetime interest in health, wellness and fitness.
It wasn’t all triumph and positivity back then. It was quite the contrary at times. I remember thinking as a young girl that my peers were “better” than me because they could perform more advanced movements than I could. Despite my affection for this form of training, even at that age, a part of me was put off by the competitive nature. I stopped training. That was over forty years ago.
These days I am a proud grandmother and, yes, fitness is still very much a part of my life. In fact, my grandson is one of my biggest motivators! I watch with a sense of wonder how beautifully he moves and I feel that we should all be able to move with the same grace: Natural squats with a full range of motion, the power to push oneself away from the floor, or even the ability to pull up onto something. Any young child can do these things. I see it in my grandson all the time.
Around this time, I also discovered Convict Conditioning and the Kavadlo Brothers’ books. I devoured them. In those books I saw much more than one of the most comprehensive types of training and writing ever assembled, I also saw a chance to reclaim the childhood passion I had lost… and a new way to connect to my grandson. When I saw some of these photos, I had to try bodyweight yet again!
I first heard of the PCC in June 2013 when Andrew Read and the Dragon Door Australia team attended the groundbreaking, first-ever PCC course in the United States. Months later, when I found out the course would be offered in Melbourne, Australia, I was overcome with excitement and I knew I had to attend!
Still, I live in Central Queensland, which is nearly four hours by plane. However, missing out was simply not an option! I was excited not just for myself, but for the opportunity to learn how to teach bodyweight exercises to others.
This life-changing 3-day Certification really put me in touch with something I should never have lost: Strength from movement using only my own body. Empowerment. Plus, body-weight training is fun! There is absolutely no reason why we as we get older shouldn’t still do it. Kids play in trees, on the roof and every other place they aren’t supposed to be. I saw that attending the PCC was a way to reconnect with the kid in me. I was always the “cool mum” that did cool stuff with my own kids, and now, since attending PCC, I can do even cooler stuff with my grandson as he develops.
I’m talking to all you moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas out there. I’m reaching out to anyone who says they’re too old or it’s too late. It’s not! Nothing is unattainable! It’s never too late to join your kids (or grandkids) in this wonderful world of bodyweight training. They play. We train. Progressive Calisthenics helps us grown-ups reclaim what was rightfully ours from the beginning. I know I did! Take it from me, the first PCC Grandma!
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Sigrun Bishop, RKC ll, PCC, is the first grandma to complete and pass the PCC. She has been working on bodyweight strength after her childhood gymnastics sporadically at first and more consistently for the last 5 years, and has been interested in fitness for most of her life. You can reach her at: www.healthwellnesslifestylestudio.com or here.
