The art of true living in this world is more like a wrestler’s than a dancer’s practice.
Marcus Aurelius
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I decided to do the School of Calisthenics review not only because calisthenics is a popular and established way of working out but due to an increased search in bodyweight workouts and courses/programs throughout the recent lockdowns as gyms and boxes closed their doors all over the globe. With that in mind, we decided to do our first calisthenics program review and to start things out, we will bring you our honest review of the School of Calisthenics.
What Is School of Calisthenics?
School of Calisthenics is an online calisthenics program co-created by Tim Stevenson and David Jackson. They have distinct backgrounds though I find they complement each other with their respective expertise. Below I will leave you with a brief description of both.
“Tim is a Co-Founder of the School of Calisthenics and has been a professional strength and conditioning coach working in elite sport since 2008.
He was part of the ParalympicsGB team at the Rio 2016 games, and throughout his career, he has supported athletes to win major medals at European, Commonwealth, World, and Paralympic championships.
He is a UK Strength and Conditioning Association Accredited coach and has a Masters of Research in Exercise Physiology. In addition, being a Director at the School of Calisthenics, he is also the Lead Strength and Conditioning Coach and Physical Preparation consultant for British Para-Swimming, lecturer in Sports Science at Nottingham Trent University, and is a qualified sports massage therapist.”
“David ‘Jacko’ Jackson was a professional rugby player for 14 years until his career was cut short due to a head injury.
Jacko is now a UKSCA Accredited Strength and Conditioning coach supporting Paralympic athletes and also works with them using his performance lifestyle experience, sports nutrition, and psychology qualifications.
He is a certified Performance Enhancement and Corrective Exercise Specialist and has trained athletes to win major medals on the world stage. If he didn’t already have enough qualifications, he also has a Masters in engineering and a PGCE in teaching.“
Now with an idea of who’s behind the School of Calisthenics, let’s take an overlook at what they have to offer before we take a deep dive into the different aspects of the School of Calisthenics programs.
So the School of Calisthenics has to offer you multiple online programs available with different types of difficulty, workshops, retreats, classes, coach education, and an active online community.
Suitable For Whom?
First and foremost, if you have any physical or other types of issue that you think is incompatible with the practice of calisthenics, please get in touch with your physician before taking any decision concerning this or any other calisthenics program for the matter.
With that said (and assuming that you don’t have any issue practicing calisthenics), I find that the School of Calisthenics programs are adapted for all types of practitioners. Rather they’re beginners, intermediates, or experts.
So if your main doubt is if you adapt to the physical effort and intensity of the programs, that should not present a problem.
School of Calisthenics Programs
Now that we have a clear idea of who and for whom the School of Calisthenics programs are destined, let’s see what each program has to offer.
They’re divided into three groups, Foundation Calisthenics, Specific Programmes, and Bodyweight Workouts, as you can see in the image below.
Foundation Calisthenics is a group composed of beginners’ programs, here you can find different programs that were made to attend different beginners’ needs.
Below is an overlook of the different Foundation Calisthenics programs.
Moving on to the second group, Specific Calisthenics Movements is a group of programs designed to learn some more advanced calisthenics moves like muscle up or human flag.
Again, I provide you with an image of the programs in this group.
Last but not least, let’s take a look at the third and final group, Bodyweight & Calisthenics Workouts.
If you’re wondering which type of workout you should follow, you can find all the guidance and assistance with this program. It’s adapted to all kinds of athletes, despite their level and goals.
Here’s another image that helps you visualize what the third group consists of.
School of Calisthenics Pricing
With a clear image of the different programs, let’s look at the different memberships and pricing.
There are two types of membership (Standard and VIP), which could be paid in monthly or annual fees, being the annual cost less expensive overall.
You can also buy the programs individually, with the price changing attending the programs you’d like to acquire.
If you opt for a membership, you will have a 7-day free trial rather you choosing the Standard or the VIP Membership.
Bellow, you have an image of the price and programs included in the School of Calisthenics Standard Membership.
Standard Monthly Membership: Click here
Standard Annual Membership: Click here
Below you have the pricing of the monthly and annual fees for both Standard and VIP Membership as well the number of courses within each module.
VIP Monthly Membership: Click here
VIP Annual Membership: Click here
In case you only want to buy a specific course within the Standard Membership, it is possible. It’s a once-in-life buy, and you have access for life to the program(s) you bought.
Below you have the different courses and prices.
Here are the programs within the VIP Membership that you can buy individually and his pricing. So again, it’s a once-in-life buy, and you have access to the program you purchased for life.
Movement + Mobility Masterclass: Click here
Nutrition for health and performance: Click here
Playtime + Challenges: Click here
School of Calisthenics Coaching
At the School of Calisthenics, you have access to classes (off and online), workshops, retreats, and 1-on-1 coaching. Let’s see how you can benefit from the coaching and its pricing.
Workshops
This first image shows you the online courses, their length, and price, the second and third image show you two different workshops and their respective prices.
Retreats & Workshops
This second image shows us the three different types of retreats you can expect in the School of Calisthenics. They are Movement + Mobility, Beginners Calisthenics, and Calisthenics Progressions.
Below you have some additional info concerning the three retreats.
Online 1-on-1 Coaching
With the online 1-on-1 coaching, you can get the best of your calisthenics’ sessions with all the professional help and support from an experienced coach from the comfort of your place.
Below is an image to help you visualize what consists of online coaching. Unfortunately, by the time of this post, this option was out of stock, as you can see in the image, which shows the popularity of this option.
Classes
If you live in the UK, you can always try a class, usually delivered by calisthenics coach Josh Cooke. Here’s a brief description of what you can expect from the classes:
“We’ll start the process and journey towards things like handstands, levers, human flags, and muscle-ups, but we’ll also be covering things like your first pull up, push up and dip as foundation bodyweight movements, which the ‘sexy stuff’ is built upon.
We want to help you move better (increasing mobility and control) while having fun getting strong and learning some new skills!
So whether you are working on your handstand, your first pull up, or even working towards something like a human with help you progressively along that journey.
We strip it right back to the basics and beginning, so welcome new beginners every week to the class.
Hope to see you there!” Josh Cooke
And there you have it all the coaching programs available at the School of Calisthenics. In the next chapter, we wrap it up, and I give you my personal thoughts on the program.
School of Calisthenics Review – My Honest 2 Cents
The reason I choose the School of Calisthenics program to review in the first place, dropping the possibility to write about other more popular calisthenics programs (with whom I will take much bigger commissions in case of conversion), is simple.
- First, I am using the School of Calisthenics program; hence, I can speak by my own personal experience. I already have an established weekly routine, but I wanted to learn advanced moves like the Human Flag and Muscle-up with my brand new gymnastic rings! : )
- The fact of paying a monthly fee of only 9.99£ which allows me to enjoy the programs I wanted and access to other content within the membership without additional cost.
- The fact that I had the chance to have a 7-day trial (that you can quit at any time) which allowed me to explore various programs and courses within that period.
- The quality I recognise on the programs and in the coaches was another reason that helped me in my decision.
So far, I’m glad about the results I’m getting; therefore, I’m happy with my investment, and I’m thinking of moving soon to an annual fee (Standard Membership in my case) to reduce the financial investment.
So to conclude, I recommend the School of Calisthenics programs.
It’s not expensive (in direct comparison with other similar programs), it’s pretty complete, and it has two professional and passionate coaches/co-founders that are very good at what they do.
And there you have it, my honest review of the School of Calisthenics program.
Do you think I miss something? Do you want to add something or give me your thoughts on the subject? Don’t hesitate to drop me a line in the comment section below, and I’ll gladly reply to you!
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If you like our content, check our previous post here and please consider following us everywhere (except on the street, that’s weird:)) and I’ll catch you in our next post; until then, stay strong and keep on moving! Amor Fati! : )
Pompeu Pedrosa,
Founder of Against the Ropes.
School of Calisthenics
9.99£