Grandma's Ninja Warrior Diary: The Cost

One of the things I thought about only cursorily when I entered on this quest was what the cost would be. Sure, I figured there would be some cost for training and for gym membership, but with obstacles around the neighborhood and at home, I figured a lot of training could actually be obtained for free, just through the course of living.

To some extnet, the free-from-living training expecttion has panned out. Running into stores from parking lots. Jumping up and down curbs. Flying across car hoods and landing at the door to my  misaligned-elbow-from-lifting-a-sectional-sofa-with-one-hand physiotherpist (he was looking out the window once and saw that -- said I was his only patient who arrived at his door that way).

The basics, though, the very necessary things where I need advice and access to equipment that speeds up the building up of specific muscles and specific ninja techniques (not available at our local gym, so travel to distant gyms is required), undeerstanding what my body is doing at any given moment, dealing with minor injuries from overuse and abuse, planning next steps, and the like, all require money -- for trainers, for the gym, and more. So, $360 for the annual gym membership and $140 a month for training adds up to $2040 for the year. At least, there are some other classes I can take there for free, such as yoga, which I have needed for balance improvement.

Even our "local" gym is 10 miles away. On raindy days and Sundays, that is far. So, the "need" arose for a home gym: weights, straps, bosun ball, elliptical machine (had that alresady, at least), pull-up bar, yoga mat, kettle ball (and I splurged on a salmon ladder). Well, at least, I could use some basic stuff-around-the-house-finds for putting together a bench for pressing weights, hand & finger grips, steps for climbing (no need for a stair machine), and other such things. (Still have to get a rope for jumping., but that is not going to break the bank.) All together: another $1000, without the elliptical machine that we got on sale for $250 ten years ago when someone returned a defective one to Sears and husband Carl offered $250 for it, figuring he could fix it -- he did.

Then, there was the overnight trip to the closest ninja gym to assess what I would need to work on. Aother $200, with gase and lodging and the small gym fee.

So, at leaset $3500, not ounting gas,

And not counting the additional costs I am about to embrace at the rock climbing gym an hour away -- starting lessons there on Tuesday, but those will be next year's costs.

Whew! How do the ninjas do it? I don't mean physically. I mean financially!

Moving forward with counting and cutting pennies -- and concerned that might have to turn into counting and cutting dollars quite soon. Taking it one month at a time.

End of financial assessment. Next week: physical assessment.