MSI Press Blog

  The following is a precerpt (book excerpt prior to publication) from  Grandma's Ninja Training Diary  (Leaver & Renz). Of Spiders, Stairs, and Ninja Instincts Last week, I learned an important lesson about physics... and pride. I'd just lugged 40+ pounds of groceries up 17 stairs, both hands full, feeling like the domestic Hercules. As I approached the door, I spotted an intruder: a spider crawling just above waist height. My options? Put down the bags and squish it like a sensible person… or attempt a ninja-style door kick with one leg while gripping two unevenly weighted grocery sacks. I chose violence. I got the bug. But physics got me. When my foot hit the door, the force reverberated like a bad plot twist. I staggered backward, bags swinging, and slammed my wrist into the railing. I didn’t fall. I recalibrated mid-collapse, channeling every ounce of aging grace and stubborn dignity. The wrist puffed up. I thought: “It’s broken. I’m doomed.” My doctor, on th...

Precerpt from Grandma's Ninja Training Diary: The Secret to Losing Weight: It’s Not Just Eating Less There is no question that beyond serious muscle training, I needed to lose weight. The weight, though, did not just disappear, though I tried hard to eat less—a lot less. Thanks to Brittany, my trainer, I learned that it really was not how much I ate, but what I ate.      Like most people trying to lose weight, I thought cutting calories was the answer. If I just ate less, surely the pounds would melt away. But instead of feeling lighter, I felt exhausted, cranky, and constantly hungry. Brittany took one look at my food choices and explained that my body wasn’t getting what it needed. It turns out that the key to weight loss wasn’t starvation—it was nourishment. I had to shift my focus from eating less to eating right. More protein, more fiber, and fewer empty carbs. More whole foods, fewer processed snacks. Instead of a tiny bowl of cereal that left me hungry an hour l...

Most days, Grandma Ninja can take on the world. Steep hills? No problem. Ninety‑pound garbage cans? Bring them on. Workouts with planks, glute bridges, and Russian twists? Just another morning in the dojo. But then came a pinched nerve, followed by prednisone. Not the whole‑body‑weakening, can’t‑lift‑a‑thing kind. Oh no. Prednisone chose a far more mischievous strategy. It went after my balance . Not my strength. Not my endurance. Not my ability to haul a garbage can down a 30‑degree incline while a well‑meaning neighbor tried (and failed) to “save” me from it. No — prednisone went after the tiny stabilizer muscles. The micro‑adjusters. The little ninjas inside the big ninja. And suddenly, the BOSU ball — my old friend — became a treacherous, wobbling island. One moment I was centered. The next, I was sliding off like a cartoon character stepping on a banana peel. Strength? Perfect. Coordination? Fine. Balance? On vacation. Prednisone had declared itself the new s...

  Ninja work requires strength, especially upper body strength. That is obvious to any who watch Ninja Warrior games, and I concentrated on upper body strength at every session with my trainer. But there is something else. When I began my ninja training, my bone tests showed mild osteoporosis, not atypical for my age. After a couple of years of strength training as part of my "ninja training, my bone density tested normal. The strength training added to the density of my leg and upper body bones. Walking took care of the spine. I used to think that walking was boring, and that walking was simple. You just put one step in front of the other over and over again, and soon you are striding along, losing weight and gaining health. Then, I learned about High-Intensity Interval Training , varying speed over time. My cup of tea. I could mis things up on an outdoor walk and distract myself from boredom by playing with the controls on the treadmill at the gym: fast, slow, almost-running, st...

Today would have been our 56th anniversary. We never got to celebrate our 50th — COVID locked the world down, and then 2021 took Carl with it. The grand plans we had for that golden milestone evaporated into hospital protocols and masked goodbyes. Life doesn’t always give you the ceremony you earned. But ninjas adapt. Ninjas restructure, reorganize, recalibrate. Ninjas keep moving. And this anniversary belongs in the Grandma Ninja series because Carl was part of the training long before I ever called myself a ninja. He went to every single one of my sessions with trainer Brittany. Every one. He’d sit there like my personal cheering section, amused, supportive, and absolutely determined not to be recruited into anything that looked like effort. If Brittany tried to rope him in, he’d grin and say, “You must stay up late at night thinking up the next marvelous torture.” Meanwhile, I was sweating through hours of drills — because it does take hours to go from flabby government wor...