MSI Press Blog

  Coming soon! Watch for it!  Grandma's Ninja Training Diary  (Leaver and Renz) Grandma’s Ninja Training Diary  is the inspiring true story of a 70-year-old grandmother who dares to dream big—by training for  American Ninja Warrior . Teaming up with coach and trainer Brittany Renz, she embarks on a three-year journey to build strength, resilience, flexibility, balance, and endurance—starting from scratch. Told in a dynamic mix of diary entries, coaching insights, and behind-the-scenes reflections, this book chronicles the ups and downs of late-in-life athletic training. From gym workouts to rock climbing, yoga to injury recovery, sleep to mindset—every aspect of the transformation is explored with honesty and humor. Grandma shares what she’s learning; Coach Brittany explains why she’s right—or wrong. Together, they offer a realistic, encouraging look at what it takes to pursue an extraordinary goal at any age. Part training manual, part motivational memoir,...

Slugging though a 5-year period of preparation has moments of high motivation and moments of wondering if the bridge is just too far. I was wondering that today after gaining (not losing) two pounds (still beating around the overweight-obese divide) and thinking maybe commonsense is the better part of valor when I saw this quote from Thomas Merton: "The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little," OK - rock climbing, yoga, it's still on! Judo in January!! And back to more sit-ups, more push-ups, trying to really do a pull up. Strong Fitness challenges -- I'm all in!