Training for Australian Ninja Warrior

Training for Australian Ninja Warrior is super fun, and having a big audacious goal really helps laser in your training focus.

The beauty of Ninja Warrior is that no one ever knows what skills or strengths will be required, and luck plays a huge part. There is always a mega beast who could have won the whole thing but goes out on the first couple of obstacles. The only things we can ever guesstimate are:

The course will start with some sort of quad steps variation
The second obstacle is usually a jolting type obstacle
The third obstacle is usually a balance obstacle
The fourth and fifth obstacles usually require moving your whole body using your hands
The last obstacle is usually the warped wall

None of the above are definite, but it tends to be the trend over the various formats of the show.

Essential skills for Australian Ninja Warrior

So, since no one ever knows what skill sets or strengths are going to be needed, no one can tell you for sure how to train for Australian Ninja Warrior. We are able to again, make some suggestions:

Laches are almost always required on a Ninja Warrior course
It’d help to get some rock climbing into your training week – strengthen those hands, the tendons and teach you to move around using your arms
Learn some Parkour skills to help with jumping, leaping and balance
Your first mission will be to complete the course, but your second mission will be to complete it fast – work on speed and transitions between obstacles
Calisthenics and Gymnastics offer good core strength, flexibility and dexterity
Pull ups and pull up variations are immensely useful training exercises for Ninja Warrior
Weight training isn’t always the best, you don’t want to be heavier than you need to be
The show is always harder than it looks, train hard

The above isn’t intended to be daunting, no one can be an expert in everything but if you want to compete then you’ll need to be fairly well rounded. Two rock climbers got to the top in American Ninja Warrior, but it took them both years to work on their other skills to even get to a point where their rock climbing would help. The next season the two guys that got the furthest weren’t rock climbers at all.

One thing I do want to mention is that Australian Ninja Warrior is first and foremost a TV show. It’s not a competition.

You can be the best obstacle course runner in the world, or the strongest rock climber or the flippiest trickster but it’ll still be up to the producers of the show to determine if you get to run or not, you know what reality shows are like, everyone is always crying and emotions are high, that’s what makes compelling television. Luckily though, if you want true competition there are lots of local and interstate Ninja Competitions at various gyms. Some of these local comps are super hard, potentially harder than the course on Australian Ninja Warrior.

Here at Aussie Ninja Warrior, we have a couple of resources to help you:

If you’re interested in competing for the next season, check out our page Competing on Australian Ninja Warrior

A great training tool is entering in local Ninja Gym competitions… see what’s coming up on the Australian Ninja Warrior Events Calendar

Click on the link to check out the Australian Ninja Warrior Training manual

Hang out with other ninjas on our Ninja Warrior Training forum

Find a Ninja Warrior Gym near you

Check out our Australian Ninja Warrior Blog for training tips, interviews and articles on the various happenings around the joint

Train hard ninjas

Save