Physical fitness, muscular endurance, and stamina are essential to being a modern ninja, whose training involves parkour, martial arts, and stealth.
While there are many ways to train for your fitness, bodyweight workouts (aka Calisthenics) allows you to naturally progress towards Parkour’s conditioning exercises. Bodyweight exercises use the body’s weight as resistance for your workout. Some notable examples are push ups, pull ups and crunches.
This form of workout also allows you to build strength and endurance without going to the gym.
Therefore, because of the simplicity, you’ll have no excuses to skip a workout session, and should be able to build your cardiovascular strength fairly quickly.
Basic Workout Program by Way Of Ninja
The following program is meant only for beginners to train towards a basic level of fitness using Calisthenics workouts. The workout should be done thrice a week, with a day of rest in between (e.g. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday). Please consult your doctor before attempting any exercise program.
Part 1:
There should be 10 to 15 seconds of rest between each exercise and set.
Push-ups (3,5,3)
Crunches (10)
Tricep Pushups (3,5,3)
Bicycle Crunch (10)
Touch your toes (3)
Reverse Crunch (10)
Wide Pushups (3,5,3)
Vertical Leg Crunch (10)
Cobra Stretch (3)
Dive Bomber Push-ups (3,5,3)
Prone Bridge (30 sec)
Side Bridge -static (30 sec per side)
Part 2:
Take a 10 to 20 minutes break before continuing.
The jogging should last no more than 14 minutes for males and 18 minutes for females.
Pull-ups (1,1,1)
Supine Pullups (7,7,7)
Tuck Jumps (5,5,5)
Bodyweight Squats (30)
Jogging (1.5miles)
Inspiration For The Bodyweight Workout
This workout routine was inspired by The Complete Guide to Navy Seal Fitness by Stew Smith. I would personally recommend getting his book for more advanced workout progressions. My personal workout routine before being in the military was heavily influenced by an older edition of his book.
Stew Smith was a former Navy SEAL and was featured on Fight Science (National Geographic). The new edition of his book, The Complete Guide to Navy Seal Fitness, includes a DVD that explains and demonstrates the correct way to perform specific Callisthenics exercises.
