Being able to control your own body, throw it around, and use it as a weapon will take you very far in American Ninja Warrior. You just need a good strength-to-weight ratio. We have guys who are 51 and 120 pounds and guys who are 61 and 200 pounds. Im 57 and 155 pounds.
I can do 40 unbroken pullups. My favorite workout is a pullup elevator. Do one rep, rest 15 seconds. Do two, rest fifteen second. Do three, rest fifteen seconds, and so on until youre up to 10 reps. Then go all the way back down. That equals 100 pullups.
If you dont have a really strong grip, youre not going far in the show. You need power and endurance in your forearms. For that I do a lot of hang workouts. Ill do a dead hang from a pullup bar for as long as I possibly can-my longest is 13 minutes.
I used to jog for cardio, but now I do high intensity interval training. It transfers better. At regular gyms, Ill do 25 to 50 pullups then Ill do 30 seconds of sprints on the treadmill then 100 pushups, and Ill repeat that a few times.
A lot of people dont realize that the show is filmed in the middle of the night, and the weather isnt always great. We might be competing at 3am in bad weather or heat. So Im constantly trying to find ways to keep myself ready-Ill change my sleep schedule, or spray down all the obstacles I train on to simulate rain. To prepare for the Las Vegas finale, where it was 98 degrees, we turned up the heat in the gym to make it ridiculously hot.