Practical Ninja Warrior Training

 In my previous ninja article, I covered a brief introduction on Ninja Warrior, and then the topic of Sport Specialization, and a little bit on how it relates to Ninja Warrior. The purpose of this continuation is to lay out the impact of ninja warrior training on an athlete; so as to mitigate any negative impacts that may come from specialization. 

As I stated in the previous article, specialized training is not inherently bad; only when there is no other training involved to compensate for anything missed in the specific sport training regimen. Coming back to Ninja Warrior training, it covers a wide range of functional movements, body control, and cardiovascular exercise, but there is still more that could be done to balance an athlete out.

As a side note, when I say ninja training in this article, I am referring specifically to obstacle technique and course-focused training.

What is Ninja Warrior good at?

What are the main movements involved in competition and training, and what on the body do they train up the most? Knowing this will allow us to see any gaps to be focused on outside of ninja specific training. Because Ninja Warrior is obstacle focused, it is hard to pin down 100% of muscles used in training, but there is a lot of overlap with styles of obstacles and similar movements.

Lower body:

There are a few obstacles that target the legs specifically, the most obvious being the warped wall. That being said, rather than lower body strength, quick agile movements are much more effective for most obstacles that will be seen in the course. Balance, stabilization, and quickness take significant precedence over sheer power. Below is a list of obstacles previously seen on the ANW course and what kind of functionality best suits them.

Quintuple steps: power, stabilization, speed

Spider wall: strength, balance, flexibility

Warped wall: power, speed, stabilization

Bridge of Blades: agility, balance, quick leg retraction

Wall lift: Strength, power, flexibility

Block run: agility, balance, quick leg retraction

Spinning bridge: agility, balance, quick leg retraction

Broken bridge: agility, balance, quick leg retraction

Diamond dash: agility, balance, quick leg retraction

Shrinking steps: power, balance, speed

Diving boards: agility, balance, quick leg retraction

Hazard cones: agility, balance, quick leg retraction

Rib run: agility, balance, quick leg retraction

If it looks like there was a lot of copying and pasting in there, there is. The reason for this is that in most of the stage 1 courses or the regional courses there will always be at least one running balance focused obstacle. While they all may look different, the basic principle will always be the same, run across some weird shapes or unstable surfaces to get to the other side.

I’m starting off with these obstacles in mind because in terms of training and physical health and longevity, the training doesn’t really miss anything. In most sports, some functional movement, stabilization, and balance training will be recommended on the side. For any person wishing to have good body control and less risk for injury throughout life, this kind of training is very useful. So in this case, there is not much in terms of functional lower body training that needs to be added, as it is already a core component of specialized ninja training.

The two main areas where ninja warrior training (for the lower body) falls short, is strength training and endurance exercise. This is not to say that doing the specific training won’t be good for endurance, but the very set-up of a course doesn’t allow for long, lower-effort endurance or cardiovascular exercise, that would normally be covered by things like running, biking, or swimming. With strength training, it is quite clear that weightlifting, or targeted strength building movements are not a central point of obstacles, (excluding the wall lift). Additionally, accounting for the directional movements seen in obstacles would be an important factor in determining what effort, weight, and rep counts to use when doing strength training.

Taking these into account, factoring in some strength training regimens including squats, deadlifts, lunges, etc.(more to come in a future training segment) and long, lower effort endurance exercise would help cover some of the gaps that ninja obstacle training misses.

Upper body:

The majority of obstacles and training in Ninja Warrior are focused on upper body strength and control. Factoring out the specific technical skills required to master certain obstacles, upper body strength will be the most trained element of any ninja warrior athlete. The muscle groups that are most targeted are the Back Muscles, Arm Muscles, and the Shoulder Muscles. I’ll hone in on each group and examine what each muscle group is utilized for.

Back Muscles:

Latissimus Dorsi, or lats as most will refer to them; are the large triangular muscles along the back that connect the spinal cord (on the wide end) to the humerus bone in the upper end (at the narrow end). The contraction movement of the lats pulls the arms in and down, the best example exercise would be a pull-up. In ninja warrior, that motion is utilized for almost every hanging, swinging, and trapeze-like obstacle. Of all major muscles used in ninja warrior, the lats will be the most utilized and heavily trained.

Some big obstacle examples for the upper body: 

Salmon Ladder: Power, Speed

Rope Climb: Endurance, Grip Strength, Technique

Lache: Power, Grip Strength, Stability

Cliffhanger: Grip Strength, Endurance, Stability

Devil Steps: Grip Strength, Endurance, Stability

Pipe Slider: Power, Grip Strength, Stability

Jump Hang: Power, Grip Strength, Stability

Curtain Slider: Grip Strength, Endurance, Stability

Doorknobs: Grip Strength, Endurance, Stability

While the obstacles may change in shape and movement patterns, the foundational movements of the upper body muscles will be the same. The major differences between obstacles will be changes in duration, grip style, and possible directions of swings. Because there is such a variety in directionality and style with obstacles, the specific training on a course will be quite sufficient for building up the necessary prime mover muscles needed for completing obstacles.

This is all well and good, but what will we be lacking? The most obvious common thread between all upper body focused obstacles is that they are all pulling motion. To quickly describe what that means; there are two main motions that your body can do: push and pull. (if we are getting really down to the details, technically everything is a pull) but on the surface, as your body interacts with objects and surroundings, push and pull. The easiest comparison to make is with a push-up and a pull-up. 

If we bring this back to obstacles, you will notice that most, if not all, of them are essentially pull-ups with extra steps. Because of this in forming a robust training regimen for ninja athletes, it will be very important to create a well balanced workout routine that factors in how the primary obstacle muscles will already be trained. 

One additional factor of the obstacle movements that will alter how we train off-course is the speed and impact of obstacle movements. Unfortunately, it is difficult to do many of the obstacles in a slow, low-impact, style. No need to worry, this will just slightly adjust how we go about balancing those muscles during additional training.

With all of that in mind let’s get to the practical training information. We will want to secure all the hard work we put in on the obstacles, so additional low-resistance pulling exercises would be a good start to any off-course training. For example: Shoulder rotations, all directions, extensions, flexions with bands or very low weight; lower back extensions with a band; back rows, pull downs, back extensions with bands; curls with bands or low weight. These along with proper static and dynamic stretching will help strengthen these muscles as well as help prevent injury.

The next step would be the counteracting muscles, necessary for keeping the body functional and balanced. Chest presses, tricep presses, shoulder presses, and many directional core exercises. The specifics on which exercises, at what weights and intensities would fully depend on the preference and level of the athlete; but a mixture of both weighted resistance, and endurance exercises would be greatly beneficial. 

Neck Muscles:

The neck is a significantly under-appreciated section of muscle in most people’s training, given how important it is. I want to highlight it especially for ninja warrior training because of the high impact nature of the sport. Training of the neck muscles will most often be seen only in the realm of sports, rather than training for recreation or general health, and honestly won’t be started until athletes reach a certain level, when coaches might think it is relevant. 

The best example of neck training in sport is probably football. This may be a personal preference, but I believe that it is the most important thing to be trained in the sport; it significantly reduces the amount and severity of neck injuries and aids in the prevention and reduction of concussions. It may seem odd to compare football and ninja warrior, but they are both high-impact sports, and impact is what most leads to injury.

The impacts seen in ninja warrior are a little less obvious at first; they aren’t external forces directly slamming into the athlete, but instead a result of landings and catching on obstacles. Strong neck muscles will be able to hold the head firm and prevent strains and other injuries when performing longer courses that involve multiple laches, swings, and other movements that keep the muscles in a prolonged flexed state.

The practical training of neck muscles will be similar to the upper body pulling exercises; very light resistance and low-impact. Neck exercises are simple, but a little uncomfortable, simply moving the head slowly in various directions resisted with a band around the forehead, secured to a post. The amount and intensity should be very low to begin, and increase incrementally as the athlete becomes comfortable with the movements.

That covers it for the preliminary practical training write-up for this series of articles. You may notice that the training mentioned is light on detail and specific numbers and weights, this is quite intentional. Unique functional training differs from athlete to athlete and should generally be monitored by a proficient coach or trainer. These articles are meant to serve more as an informational guide to the ever-growing world of ninja warrior sport training, and an explanation as to why we as coaches are implementing some of the methods we do.

Thank you again for reading,

R. Andrew Paxton,  B.S., M.S. Kinesiology

Head Coach & Trainer, Coeur Ninja

e: robertpaxton11@gmail.com

p: (615) 424-3239