Ninja Night @ Urban Acrobatics

Last night I attended American Warrior Ninja Night at a local Parkour Gym called Urban Acrobatics.  American Ninja Warrior, if you don’t know, is an obstacle course that uses body weight and momentum to travel across six obstacles.  Every time you complete a course, you move on to the next round. No American has ever finished the entire competition. I have been watching AWN for several years and have thought about it quite differently over that time:

3 years ago:  Are these people CRAZY?!?  Who wants or needs to be able to do that? What a waste of time. Get a life.

2 years ago: I don’t think I could do any of that!  These people are nuts.

1 year ago: Hm…..maybe I could do that one but never that one!

This year: I’ve got to find a gym to try this.

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So I looked into finding a place to play like a ninja  First, I had to figure out what the heck Parkour even was.  For a good read about it: Check this out in the New Yorker.

Also, here’s a video of one of most famous Parkour athletes: David Belle.

If you somehow don’t know what American Ninja Warrior is, you can watch highlights and clips from this season HERE.

Now that we’ve covered the background information, let’s get in to the workout!

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I found this gym, Urban Acrobatics, by doing a simple Google search for “Ninja Gym Denver”.  I saw they had a Tuesday night American Ninja Warrior class so I messaged them on Facebook for the details.  Basically, bring your $15, sign a death waiver, and have fun! The gym looked like it had a few obstacles and I figured why not! A few days ago I did some more searching into the gym to see how legit it was.  I figured I’d go either way just to get some experience. (My boxing trainer is out of town…..) The more I looked into UA the more nervous I got about attending.

Urban Acrobatics is managed by Lorin Ball, who has competed in every season of American Ninja Warrior.  You can watch him from last season HERE. The more I researched the facility and saw videos of what they had and what their athletes could do, the more nervous I got.  I thought I was going to make a total fool of myself.  I had no idea what I could and couldn’t do.  I practice on monkeys bars a lot and know I can do pull ups.  My arm and core strength are good but my back and chest need work.  I had no idea what I was getting in to.  So what do you do when this happens? You invite a friend and make them do it with you.  Thanks Thomas!

Breakdown of the night:

Run – We started by going for a short but quick run around the outside of the facility: up stairs, down stairs, hop over railings, jump up the wall and when we got back you climb down the rope wall to get started.  I felt good so far!  I could keep up and while I didn’t look graceful, I could quickly make it over the objects.

Stretching – This is when we did introductions and stretched out.  Pretty typical.

Demonstration – Then the instructors went through the course.  At each obstacle they would give tips on how to best do it or alternate ways if you couldn’t get it.  You only got two chances on each obstacle before moving on.  Here’s what the gym looks like: I’m not going to try and describe lasts night course because it’s almost impossible to imagine but here’s a short breakdown:

Hop from balance beam, swing across the 6 foot gap, climb up the wall, across 3 balance bars, jump to the next landing, walk down the pipe, warp wall, rope descending climb, swing to a tire, box jump, salmon ladder.

Did you get all that? While I’m watching the demonstration I’m thinking, “how can I get out of doing that obstacle?” “There’s no way I can even try that!”  “Yeah……right!”  BUT, I was here to try.  My greatest fear was showing up and looking like a total idiot.  I was happy that there were others there trying for their first time.  Right away the instructors encouraged everyone to just try their best and asked the veterans to help out the newbies.  I really appreciated them accepting us!  I didn’t feel judged by anyone, except myself of course.

Practice – We then had time to practice and just play on the obstacles and try to figure them out before our timed run. So I went around and tried all the different obstacles and was surprised at what I could do!  I had a pretty good vision of what my abilities were but I surprised myself a few times. Practice was essential for me because I really didn’t know.  This was also my favorite part of class because you could get tips from the other members.

Conditioning – After practice, everyone gets a chance to run the course timed.  While you’re waiting for your turn, Lorin assigns conditioning exercises.  Last nights were: 30 leg lifts, 3 rope climbs, and one minute holds on the rock wall.  The 30 leg lifts were easy as I do that exercise all the time.  The one minute holds were a little harder.  We were only allowed to use one foot but my toes are strong from boxing and my fingers are strong from play piano so I was pretty good at this exercise!

We also had to do rope climbs.  I am not awesome at this.  I had to use the rope with knots in it because after my run my arms were dead! But I made it to the top just the same.  I didn’t have three climbs in me but I did one. By the end of class my arms, forearms, chest and shoulders were sore.

My Run – During class everyone gets a timed run.  I was not at all excited about it!  I was nervous about everyone watching me!  Luckily I went towards the end and lots of members had moved on to their conditioning.  Some of the veterans finished the course in under a minute.  I was hoping to come out injury free.  When It came to my turn, I did the best I could.  I failed the first obstacle twice, got the second and third.  When I got to the Warp Wall, I already knew I couldn’t reach the top from practice.  But I gave it all I had anyway.  On my third attempt I finally touched the top!  The warp wall is just as hard as it looks even though it’s not nearly as scary as I thought! I was really proud of myself.  I had to take the alternate route since I couldn’t pull myself up the wall and then failed the rest of the obstacles.  It took me over 5 minutes. BUT I was impressed with myself and pushed myself to try and do new things, so in my mind, I win! Here I am after class trying a few things again.  Neither of these videos is as strong as I hoped since I was already pretty spent:

Wow.  This post has gone on for much longer than I thought it would………

After class I talked to Lorin about which class/classes would help me most.  Since I’ll be doing the Touch Mudder (AHHHH!) in September, I need obstacle training. He was very helpful and gave me a trainers name and number that works for UA.  I had a GREAT time and will definitely attend in the future and have lots of friends to bring! I’m already thinking about when I can try that warp wall again!

Moral of the story: I was scared as hell to go to Ninja night.  I was scared to try.  I was scared to get hurt or fall but I did it anyway.  And the result? No injuries and a huge amount of pride! Push yourself to try something new today even if it’s scary!