Four-year-old Teague Jenkins helped get his "Grammy" started in tae kwon do. Now, it seems, she's not going to stop.

At 61, retiree Joan Bark has spent the past eight months working up to her green belt, which she recently earned. She takes classes at Taekwondo America in Richmond three to four times a week. At a recent regional competition, she took home two medals.

"I may not make it to black belt, but it won't be for lack of trying," Bark said with a laugh.

Several of her martial-arts peers piped up when she made that comment.

"She'll make it," they said, almost in unison.

Bark is a classic example of someone who was burned out with going to the gym. She likes to exercise, and her doctors are telling her she needs it now more than ever before, but she had gotten bored with the same old stuff. So she tried something new. And she's glad she did.

A former dance instructor, Bark is known at the martial-arts center for her tenacity.

Sonja Scott, who owns the Taekwondo America location with her husband, Zac, said the retiree is hard on herself.

"We were not surprised that she took medals at the tournament," Scott said. "She might have been surprised, but we weren't."

When I first called Bark, she was telling me how she was a longtime gym member but hadn't been very excited about going lately. She said the classes she liked were held at times that she couldn't make.

Then she told me how she used to teach dance classes. So, even as a grandmother, "sitting in a rocking chair and knitting is not my style," she said.

She cares for grandson Teague, a round-faced preschooler with sparkling eyes and a big grin, a couple of days a week while his parents work. He affectionately calls her "Grammy."

She'd been taking him to Taekwondo America and had liked what she saw.

"There's no pressure here," she said. Everyone is expected to do their best, but participants can also back off when they need to take a break.

"When I'm tired, I ask permission, and I go sit down," Bark said. It makes the work doable for her.

And she likes the mental and physical challenge that tae kwon do provides. It's not just a good workout. There are the sequences of movements that must be memorized to earn a higher belt. For instance, the green belt she just earned required a demonstration of 20-plus moves performed in an exact sequence.

"It keeps your mind going," Bark told me.

She's not out to break any records with her pace of belt progression. But, at the same time, she's intense about it.

"I compete against my own self," she said.

Her goal is to keep moving.

"I want to remain young," Bark said. "I want to remain fun for my grandkids."

We should all have the same goal as Grammy.