Isaac Caldiero On How He Became The First To Win ‘American Ninja Warrior’ [Video Exclusive]

Isaac Caldiero On How He Became The First To… by uSports

American Ninja Warrior came to an end in September and a champion walked out victorious for the first time. In the previous seasons, no one could make it all the way to the final stage. Finally, Isaac Caldiero finished the Man vs. Man competition against Geoff Britten. Both men completed the course, but Caldiero had the quicker time with 26.14 seconds and thus was crowned the champion and awarded $1 million for the feat.

uSports spoke to Caldiero to find out what his training methods he utilized to become victorious in American Ninja Warrior.

How did you train to become a Ninja Warrior?
Apart from my rock climbing training, I did a lot of specific ninja training. I built ninja obstacles. I would go to other people’s gyms and try out their obstacles. I would try to get my hands on many ninja obstacles as possible. In the meantime, I would keep up with my own rock climbing and create my own styling and also create mental training which is equally if not more important, I feel, than of the physical aspects of the American Ninja Warrior. I feel a lot of the mental aspects I have developed over the years in rock climbing has helped. I do a lot of the free solo rock climbing where I am climbing without ropes sometimes while being 50 to hundreds of feet above the ground with my life literally in my own hands. For me to be in that position all the time and know the consequences, you really have to have a strong, mental focus at all times. I definitely correlate that same focus and mental strengths onto the ninja course because it because it is not like you are going to die when you fall. I treat it like a one shot, one kill and this is your only chance and that’s it. You don’t get a second chance or practice but one shot and you’re done. So I use that same kind of mental strength on the ninja course itself as well as a lot of breathing meditation practices that I have done at a really young age and I’ve learned to use it in my day-to-day life. I feel like it is connected in my mind and body and that has a lot to do with my success on American Ninja Warrior.

What are some of your mental training methods?
I would recommend starting with small amounts like finding a peaceful, quiet place to sit down and meditate for ten minutes a day and getting used to that routine of being able to focus and relax to take your mind off the stressful things of life. If you can really learn how to do that in your day-to-day life, when you are out their on the course, it is simple as that because it is so nerve-wracking and stressful to be there in person seeing the course and then knowing that it is going to be your turn soon. You are trying to visualize everything ahead of time. A lot of it is trying to use positive visualization and visualizing all your success and never visualizing any failure. Focusing on your breathing is what I would recommend and to stay calm and focused is the basic level of meditation.

What physical training did you do for the competition?
I would do a lot of circuit training in the rock climbing gym. I would pick about ten really difficult boulder problems and I would do them back-to-back with zero rest in between. That was my biggest rock climbing training that I did. I would do a lot of trail running to help build my coordination in all the little muscles to help my running skills as well as some really good cardio. On top of that, I would tweak a lot of my ninja skill obstacles and make them as hard as possible and just do them again back-to-back with zero rest to the point where if I made it as far as I wanted to on stage two or three, it becomes more upper-body involved and I was above and beyond prepared to tackle whatever obstacles they gave us. That’s how I felt throughout the entire competition and I felt so strong and prepared both mentally and physically that it was literally a breeze in the park and I just felt right at home. It was perfect.

Article by Ryan Kappy