HIpk and CFO PK Camp gone Ninja Warrior???

After the "Ninja Warrior Marathon" playing on G4 a few days ago and delighting myself with each and every episode of it, the HIPK Camp at Crossfit Oahu went mad yesterday when I decided to have a "Ninja Warrior - MovNat Challenge". A course inspired by, well, the already mentioned show and some of the elements of MovNat.

We covered;

Balance, throwing, catching, QM, jumping, climbing, lifting, jumping, landing, rolling, crawling, dragging, vaulting. All in one challenging and fun course.

Here is a brief description of the course.

1. Start by running/walking over a 15ft gymnastics balance beam.
2. 5 Wall Ball progression 8# to 20#
3. Hands-Feet traverse 15ft.
4. Cat onto building support bean.
5. Climb the beam 10ft and down.
6. Use rings to swing to monkey bar.
7. Traverse monkey bar all the way and drop.
8. Pick up katterbel 25kg each hand - step onto boxes from 8" to 20" drop weight
9. Clear 8ft gap and roll (running start)
10. QM/Crawl under 15ft "tunnel"
11. Pick up 45# weight and perform 4 lunges toward next obstacle.
12. Jump onto rope from about 5ft away and climb pass half and down.
13. Flip punching bag (I estimate it at least 100#) drag it 15ft
14. Vault box - end

It was a great time and cant wait to have many more classes to enjoy it or hate it, whichever the case will make me very happy.

Check out the rest of the pics HERE

If you think you are up to the challenge or just want to have a good time, maybe we can make this happen sometime soon for some of you to try it.

Ninja Warrior - the heartbreak and the hero

I watched the newest Sasuke (Ninja Warrior) Tournament this past week in anticipation of seeing either Levi (Levi Meeuwenberg ) or Nagano (Makoto Nagano) beating the entire course. Needless to say, the evening was a mix of heartbreak and serendipitous anticipation.

WARNING: Spoilers below. Do not read if you do not want to know about the outcome of the tournament.




Unfortunately I missed the run of the American Female that participated this year. I did happen to catch the G4 Ninja Warrior winner, and I have to say I was rather upset with this individual. He made it all the way to the top of the cargo net at the end of the first stage only to run out of time. 2 to 5 more seconds would have been plenty to beat the stage. The announcers stated that the miraculous save he had on the first cargo net was what took up his time (his foot getting caught in the cargo net saved him from a watery doom), however I disagree. That save kept him on the course, without it he would have been done there. What took too long was the constant centering and preparation that he took before each obstacle. Being a martial artist, I understand why he was doing it, however it was too much, and it took up too much time. Looking from the outside, some of the centering looked too much like posing for a second before attempting an obstacle. Again, I understand the use of centering oneself before performing a task, but when time is involved you have to center yourself and then stay centered as you move from one thing to the next.

Then it was Levi's turn. Many times during other people's runs the announcer would comment on if the person running would be leading the way for Levi. There was a lot of anticipation of him not just here in the States, but in Japan as well. My heart dropped as he failed to complete the first round. Thats right, the first time Levi competed he was the only person to make it to the newly designed 3rd stage, the second time he competed he didn't make it through the 2nd stage, and this, his 3rd time, he was defeated by a new obstacle on the first stage. You could tell from his interview after his fall, that Levi was not sure what happened this time. It is hard to believe that someone with as much physical control and talent as Levi would have fallen so short. This just goes to show that mistakes happen. Levi was joined by ALL of the other Sasuke All Stars, none of whom passed the first stage this tournament.

The surprise came when a shoe salesman and self proclaimed Sasuke's biggest fan made it all the way to the fourth stage. He was the first person to pass the third stage, and it was on his first attempt. They stated that he has been training intensely and loggin a lot of hours at Japan's Muscle Park, which contains many of the obstacles from the Sasuke show. He was less than 5 seconds from being only the third person to complete all 4 stages of the tournament. It is rare that you see stage 4.

It was an interesting night. Levi has brought much more attention to the show and to our discipline, and it is unfortunate seeing someone so great fall, however it is good to be reminded that there is always someone out there, some unknown person who in any situation can come along and surpass everyone's expectations.

How's things in the Midwest?

Things are looking good in the Midwest. We just had our National Midwest Jam in Minnesota and the week before was National Parkour Day. Aero had a great chance to get together and train while holding a Leave No Trace program has well. The day turned out great with 40 Traceurs in Chicago cleaning up one of our favorite spots at UIC. At first we didn't think there would be a lot of trash, but within no time we filled 7 bags of cigarette butts and bottles. The day went great with some light rain and good wholesome training. Check out the Video to see it all in action.

Last weekend was the Midwest Jam held in Minneapolis this year. We had a great turn out and the MNPK community was a great host. Many thanks to Mitch "Skinny" who lead the event. Over 40 Traceurs came together and had a solid day of training. The next day we headed out to Taylor Falls for total nature day of training. All around it was a great time and if your ever in the area try to hook up with the MNPK community. Well be posting a write up about the event soon on APK.

Taylor Falls is an amazing palce to train!

Making Time

In February I started working a full time job (8am to 5pm) after having worked "part time" in a couple of different jobs (driving a delivery van in DC, teaching Martial arts, office work) for two years. I immediately noticed that with the time at work itself plus the communte time (about 30 minutes one way), I was starting to find less and less time to train with others. I would get off work and have to run some errands, or I would head home and make dinner and spend time with my wife, or I would volunteer to teach an hour or so of martial arts, and before I knew it I had to hit the hey or I'd hate myself in the morning.

With the sudden cut in training, I decided that I had to 'make time' for myself to work on my parkour and martial arts training. So far I have been using my unpaid lunch hour to go out and train, as I am lucky enough to work in a building that has showering facilities. This however only leaves me maybe 35 or 40 minutes to train, as changing and showering and such take up the other 20 or so minutes. This really effects the way I train, as I used to take my time warming up, and then drill something for a while with no particular rush. Now I have to get right to work and try to squeeze as much into my weekly sessions as possible. Quite often I found myself finishing a warmup and workout and not getting any time in to train specific skills.

So the question becomes, what can I cut out next? Starting next week, I'll likely be getting up significantly earlier and going to train before work. Propapby going to try to get teh workout/conditioning done in teh morning, and then just train skills at lunch. We'll see how well and how long this lasts.

What sort of things do you do to 'make time' for yourself and your training?