Get outside! Go on, git!

It's really, really important to take your training outside as much as you can. 

Let's say that the gym is where you develop your muscles, the more you train, the stronger you get... but it's running and climbing and jumping and leaping and hanging and swinging outside that you actually develop your tendons and your connective tissue and your stabilising muscles.

You'll realise this as soon as you try and obstacle course somewhere... you might be able to do a pull up or two, but suddenly on some course, getting from one tire on a chain to another tire on a chain is really, really challenging... it's those stabilising muscles that you're missing.

You might also notice that your legs or arms or whole body gets sore from running and leaping around, and that's exactly what you need to train and develop.  Sometimes on the Ninja Warrior show, you see competitors take massive falls as they've leaped off an obstacle at speed.  The strength and toughness to hit hard and carry on is as much practise as anything else.

AFL is a good example.  Sometimes you see footballers get hit hard or monster tackled to the ground and they just spring back up.  That's because all their stabilising muscles are as strong as their main gym muscles, and their body is used to being hit.  Kickboxers have to practise heaps before hitting the bag doesn't hurt their shins anymore, Karate kids get hit heaps to deaden the nerves and strengthen the connective tissue and fascia.

You'll need to be tough and you'll need to be strong to take on the Ninja Warrior course. You are definitely going to make awkward falls, you're going to have to grip on so tight that your hands would bleed if they weren't so calloused... you're going to have to take the hits and bounce along like nothing happened.  You can not be successful any other way.

So, training in the gym is fine, get as strong as you can... but you also need to train outside, anywhere that you can find so that you can also get as tough as you can. 

American Ninja Warrior Training - First attempt on a salmon ladder

For those that don't know, the Salmon Ladder is an obstacle on American Ninja Warrior that's been around since the start, is incredibly hard, is in every version of the show and forces veterans and rookies alike to get dunked in the water.

I tried it myself for the first time last Sunday, and it is so much harder than I ever imagined!

For those that don't know, basically, you grab hold of a bar, and then with a kind of pull-up jumping motion, you jump the bar (and yourself) to the next rung. My trainer only has 3 rungs, and it's a metal bar on metal rungs, so it's loud.  It echoes throughout the suburb.

Surprisingly, I didn't struggle on the strength requirements, it was the coordination that did me in.  My left side found the rung every time, but my right side often missed... which is weird because I'm definitely stronger on my right side.  I didn't actually make it up all three rungs, and my very first attempt was easily my best....  it's brutal on the hands,

I now have even more appreciation for the athletes that compete on the show, and given how unco my attempt was, I think it's crazy to try and compete without mastering the Salmon Ladder first, strength is important but technique is everything!

Training for ANW but also the rest of life.

One thing I've been struggling with for quite some time is how to fit in the rest of life, with my training. I'm sure it's literally what every competitor, every athlete, every musician, everyone who is trying to upskill themselves to the exclusion of pretty much all else.

I struggle, not for my own benefit, but for my partners.  I honestly don't care for fancy food, I don't crave deliciousness nor partyingness or ever really need to drink.  Honestly, I'm happiest when I'm training hard, resting well and eating properly.  All the things that make a great athlete.

However, my partner is not wired that way at all, she doesn't care about what she can or can't do, she cares about what she can experience.  She loves amazing food, it's almost orgasmic for her, she loves a great white wine, she's very social and loves to be out, to see bands, to experience restaurants and bars.

Since moving to America, she easily put on 20 pounds from sampling all the new cuisine available to us, and is now working hard to get back to her pre-America weight.  I try and be supportive and take her out to nice places, but it so feels like a huge waste of time, money, energy and calories.   Not only that, but because I see my trainer on Sunday mornings, I train my hardest on Thursdays so I'm recovered for Sunday.  Saturday is my rest day so I work hard on Fridays too, which means by Friday night (tonight!) I'm totally beat.

We've been invited out by some of my partner's work friends, that she really does want to be close to, but one of them won't arrive in town until 9pm, so the funness doesn't really start by then. It's barely midday now and I'm already ready for bed.  I've always laughed at party-girls that really want to hook up with professional athletes, who probably don't quite understand that their lives are diametrically opposed.

I can see why athletes often end up marrying other athletes, because they both understand the sacrifices required.  I want to be a good partner, but I'm also really worried that compromising just leads to mediocrity.  It's a tough call...
 

Emotional Fail in Training

I had one homework training task to complete when I got back into it after my 5 days off over Memorial Weekend.... and I couldn't do it.... for emotional reasons.

After taking nearly a week off, the task assigned to me by my personal trainer was after doing a bunch of rock climbing and/or bouldering, and after my hands were cactus, I was to climb a really difficult climb that would kind of force me to fall at least 3 times.  He wanted me try and complete the climb, but basically push myself hard enough that I fell off.

Couldn't do it.

I've yet to fall off a rock climbing wall, if I feel like I'm not going to be able to make it, I centre myself, get my balance right, sit back in the harness and let my belayer know that I want to come down.

I'm not scared of heights, I'm more than happy to stand on the edge of a cliff while everyone else is freaking out, but when I was a teenager I went rock climbing with my buddies, my harness wasn't put on super well, it was loose and twisted, which I didn't care about because I just wanted to climb... I didn't have a crazy fall like you're probably thinking, but when I hit the top and my mate started to lower me, he totally let me free fall for most of the way and then jerked me to a stop inches from the ground.  It hurt.  It hurt in all the places dudes are most sensitive and while I was totally winded, I laughed along with my buddies because he got me good.

That little joke though, kinda broke something inside of me, and so I've been a nervous nelly at the top of the wall ever since. I know the rope and the knots are tied tight, I know my belay partner is great and looks after me, but I just can't help but be incredibly nervous each and every time... and falling, I just can't seem to do it.   It's insanely limiting... you get better by pushing yourself, falling off and trying again until you get it.

Rock climbers have what they call a project.  It's a climb that is too hard for them, that they work and work at, climbing until they fall until days, weeks, months later they finally conquer it.  I haven't let myself do that, and so I'm not going to get better at the same rate who doesn't have this insanely nervous reaction. 

It's nuts, it's entirely entirely psychological and I'm honestly not sure what to do about it.




 

American Ninja Warrior - 4 steps to training

One of the reasons I love Ninja Warrior is that no one type of athlete, body type, age or discipline is perfect for it. The rock climbing guys are usually great at Stage 3, but there is a heap of balance obstacles to trip them up before before then. I have no real background, I did competitive dancing in my early 30s, then played a heap of indoor soccer, and gym it up a lot, but I've overhauled everything to train for Ninja Warrior. Basically, my thinking is that the four areas I'm training are: Parkour, Rock Climbing, Calisthenics and Endurance. I am brand new to all of these things, but it's fun.