I’m training to be an American Ninja Warrior! Sort of… let me explain. My husband, our boys and I love the television show American Ninja Warrior. If you aren’t familiar with this show, it’s an obstacle course for adults and a very difficult one at that! Contestants don’t know ahead of time just what obstacles they may face and these obstacles challenge them to be fast, to be strong, to utilize balance and to be quick thinkers. Completing the course may only take a matter of minutes, but it is a grueling, muscle-tiring, all-out few minutes!
What I love about the show is it focuses on everyday people with regular day jobs. One of the boys’ favorites is a weatherman by day and trains in his off time to be a ‘ninja‘. Many of the competitors don’t even have a gym to train in and they rock climb, do par cours, and use local parks to create their own obstacles. To date, no one has completed all four stages of the Ninja Warrior competition. It’s just that hard! Some competitors come back year after year with the hope of doing better than the year before.
The show, while entertaining to watch, teaches a few good lessons:
- Hardwork pays off
- You may not succeed the first time you try
- You may be faced with unexpected challenges but it’s what you do with them that counts
It’s good family show for us to watch. So when my husband came home from work one day and said a local gymnastics gym was going to offering a family Ninja Warrior night, I said let’s sign up! And we did! I had in my mind that this would be a significantly scaled-back version of the real thing. Certainly they would not expect families to be able to do the real deal??
Well, turns out I was wrong and this is the real deal. Gulp. I consider myself to be in good shape but am I warrior strong? Am I capable of conquering the warp wall? We are a few weeks out from our Ninja Warrior Competition and I am doing what any good warrior hopeful would – I am training! The boys and I hit the park last night and did the monkey bars. This morning I worked on push ups and pull-ups. And I am counting on my Pilates training to help me with balance, strength, endurance and body mind connection on the tricky obstacles. I also have a realistic goal – to do my best and have fun.
It’s good to have challenges and good to leave your comfort-zone from time to time. It’s also good to have an open mind and attitude. If you had asked me a couple months ago if I would try my hand at the warped wall or salmon ladder, I probably would have said ‘no thanks‘. But now – here we come! In September, my family becomes a family of Ninjas!
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