American Ninja Warrior is a show on NBC and G4 in which athletes of all backgrounds attempt some of the most difficult obstacle courses in the world. These obstacles require agility, strength, and endurance, and an athlete needs to be well rounded in order to be agile. American Ninja Warrior has captured the attentions of thousands who want to try the course for themselves, but if these hopefuls want to have any sort of chance, they need to train. If you want to be the best, you need to do more than just practice the obstacles a few times. The following methods of training will give you a head start on the course, and may just make you the next American Ninja Warrior.
*Bodyweight Training
When you are facing the course, your strength does not matter. You may be the strongest man in the world, but no doubt if the worlds strongest men did attempt the course, they would most likely fail. What you need in order to succeed is bodyweight strength, the strength to carry your own body. This means that the majority of your strength training should be pull-ups, muscle-ups, pushups, hand stands etc. The website http://beastskills.com/ has some very good tutorials on how to accomplish bodyweight feats. The learning of these feats will help tremendously on the obstacle course.
*Cardio
While many competitors may be able to complete obstacle of the course individually, very few are as able when they have to string the course together. It is not easy to complete the warped wall or the salmon ladder when you are already gasping for breath. For this reason, it is important to train for endurance in your workouts. To do this, set up different stations with a specific workout at each station. Then time yourself as you run from station to station. It is important to push yourself until you are confident that you will be albe to last the whole length of the course.
*Parkour
There is a reason why many of the most successful competitors on American Ninja Warrior are parkour athletes, also known as traceurs. This is because parkour is a discipline that is built around learning ways to move fluidly through obstacles in your environment. Practicing the basics of parkour will tremendously help your run. To get started, learn some of the basic vaults (explanations found here ) and practice wall runs. After you have done this, simply learn how to move through your environment as efficiently as possible.
While you cannot pass the course without preparation, it is very easy to fail no matter how much you have prepared. It is easy to make mistakes, but the strength and endurance learned from your training will help you recover from them. The most important thing once you get to the course is to visualize yourself at the top, know you can do it, and give it your best shot.
