To say the response the new Australian Ninja Warrior TV show that began airing this month has been huge would be an understatement.
In the first two weeks 9 out 10 people I came into contact with asked me if I was going on it or what my opinion of it was.
There are many similarities in the training for Ninja Warrior shows to what we do in the gym at Livestrong Primal Fitness so I expected the questions. People associate the movement that they have seen us doing as well as many of our videos online with the tasks on Ninja Warrior.
What you don’t see is the training that happens before you get to the fun stuff that enables you to be able to use your upper body to pull, climb and swing your way through the obstacles.
I have always been completely open in naming where my influences have come from in terms of movement and am quick to point out that much of what I have learnt has come from modalities such as the Chek Institute, GMB, Animal Flow and from Immaculate Dissection.
No movement can ever be trademarked or ‘owned’. As humans we have been around long enough to have explored most movements that the human body can perform so trying to claim one specific movement as your own….well you’d have to prove to me that it hadn’t been done before.
Ninja Warrior is nothing new. Children have been playing with these movements all their lives and that plays a huge part in the attraction to the show. You need to use your body to maneuver through tasks, you need to use your imagination and logic to navigate the courses, as well as having high level of understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses. It also takes dedication to training.
Like any high level skill set that we use at Livestrong Primal Fitness it takes a skilled coach to be able to progress you through stability and mobility and then to strength and if needed, power.
It takes patience with exercises that train not just the larger muscles groups but that train the stabilizer systems of the body. It also takes months of strict training in skills that aren’t so sexy and understanding the power of correct programming.
There are only a very small percentage of the population who also have the genetic advantages to be a Ninja Warrior.
However there are many elements of the training required for Ninja Warrior that will benefit the average person. So although it’s not a walk in the park, there are definite health benefits both physically and mentally of this training style.
See you in the gym
Tanya Carroll
Livestrong Primal Fitness
P: 03 9331 7793
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