PRECERPT from Grandma's Ninja Training Diary: Nature's Ninja Course – The Hill, The Steps, The Trash, and the Kid

a precerpt (excerpt prior to publication) from Grandma's Ninja Training Diary (Leaver and Renz)

You don’t need a fancy obstacle course or a gym full of equipment to train like a Ninja. Sometimes, the best training obstacles weren’t built by man—they were just waiting for someone stubborn enough to use them.

Case in point: my house. It sits proudly at the top of a hill roughly the length of a football field, steep enough to make newcomers pause and reassess their life choices. I climb that hill daily and then top it off with 17 steps to get inside the house. That’s my warm-up. No treadmill on Earth can match the satisfaction of reaching the top and knowing you earned every breath.

But wait, it gets better.

Once a week, I wrangle three giant bins—trash, yard waste, recycling—and drag them to the bottom of the hill. It's a downhill sled-push simulator on the way down and a full-body sled pull on the way up, minus the sled and with bonus smells. That right there is strength, cardio, balance, and a heavy dose of mental grit, all rolled into one sweaty ritual.

And then there’s my favorite obstacle of all: the neighbor’s pre-teen son. We share a birthday, which he thinks makes us kindred spirits. I think it just makes him my personal hill-sprint rival. He waits until we’re a few houses away from mine, gives me a sly glance, and then it’s go time. He always beats me to the top by one second and one foot length. Every. Single. Time.

He gloats. I laugh. Then I say the same thing I always do:
“You are exactly 60 years younger than I am. You should be beating me by a lot more. Work on it.”

That hill, those bins, those steps, and that boy? They keep me sharper than any gym membership. They're not just obstacles. They’re part of my personal, never-quit, Ninja-style life training.

So if you’re looking for the perfect training course, take a look outside. Nature—and neighborhood life—may have already built it for you. 

Read more precerpts from Grandma's Ninja Training Diary and related posts HERE.

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