Revolution Parkour (RVPK) Gresham (503-328-9199) introduces its new line-up of parkour classes for adults and children.
RVPK announces that it has two new classes, the Superheroes In Training class and Young Heroes class. The former is recommended for individuals who are children ages 3-5 to the sport while the latter can be taken by kids ages 5-7. Some of the skills they will learn include the parkour roll, different vaults, wall climb, balance, landing, swinging and more.
More details can be found at https://rvpkgresham.com
The new classes are approximately 50 minutes long with a 10-minute warmup before and after the class. This prevents students from suffering muscle strains during instruction and allows them to be more limber for more complicated movements. RVPK explains that while they do now teach young children 3-7, students must be 8 years old or older to participate in the “all age classes”.
There is also an open gym option for experienced parkour enthusiasts who want to practice their skills. All open gym sessions must be reserved in advance so that they can guarantee a space, as open gym is very popular. The open gym is only open for students 13 years old and older and active members 8 yrs and up of any of the other classes.
RVPK first started in Beaverton, OR in 2008 and quickly became one of the largest and most reputable parkour gyms in the country. In 2014, Ryland Lanagan, the founder, decided to create another branch in Gresham to expand its reach and become more accessible to students. This became a significant milestone for the Parkour Gym/Academy business, which since then has taught over 5000 people aged 3 to 71.
As explained by Lanagan, he discovered parkour after serving in the US Army, and it saved him from depression, obesity, and even pre-diabetes. He felt that more people should experience the life-changing quality of parkour and created his gym to empower as many people as possible.
He built RVPK with an “if you build it, they will come” vision. He found a vacant roofing warehouse and turned it into a wooden city called the Labyrinth, decorated it with hero murals, scaffolding, a foam pit called the Abyss, and filled it with dozens of repurposed gymnastics equipment. From there, Revolution Parkour Gresham, also known as the Danger Room, was born.
One of the earliest challenges Revolution Parkour Gresham faced was overcoming the public’s perception and understanding of what parkour is. Contrary to popular perception, parkour is an art of movement and teaches people how to run, jump, roll, swing, vault, climb walls, and flip.
Lanagan says that one of his biggest accomplishments is teaching parkour as PE to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders of the MLA Middle School. RVPK Gresham has now completed its 5th year of teaching there and hopes to still teach parkour to students for many more years.
Lanagan says, “I believe the secret to getting this far in business today is that parkour has no off-season. It is hard-wired into the human mind/body, we just have to get over ourselves and our fears. If I had parkour as a young person, I would not have wrestled, played football, baseball or probably not even have joined the Army. Parkour has given me what I was looking for my whole life; fun, athleticism, knowledge of self and a self-improvement mentality of me vs me yesterday.”
Interested parties can find more information by visiting https://rvpkgresham.com