Ramstad: Not just for birthdays, ninja gyms growing in popularity to provide challenging fitness options

Scott Bishop of White Bear Lake overcame a 2016 motorcycle accident to become a contestant on NBC-TV’s “American Ninja Warrior.” In a local competition Sunday at the Ninjas United gym in Maple Grove, he was the first to succeed at the hardest obstacle on the pro-level course.

About eight other athletes before him, all considerably younger than the 39-year-old Bishop, failed or decided not to attempt it. He did it in a blink. Cooling down afterward, Bishop said, “I got to watch a couple people ahead of me. You can see what doesn’t work.”

Most weekends, Ninjas United hosts 15 to 20 birthday parties, though owners Jen and Chris Voigt told me people visiting for a party don’t get the whole picture. The real magic happens during its daily classes and open gyms, when Ninjas United is a regular destination both for obstacle-racing athletes like Bishop and families with children as young as 3 who scramble, climb, swing and dash around 10,000 square feet of obstacles.

“There’s a lot of kids who don’t fit the sit-down-and-listen, team sport aesthetic,” Chris Voigt said. “This environment is highly stimulating. It’s dynamic and it’s constantly changing. We change the gym every week.”

Ninjas United is one of a half-dozen or so ninja gyms in the Twin Cities metro area (and a few hundred nationwide) that have turned playground fun into a life-long fitness activity — and a fast-growing business. Most of the others in the metro are franchisees of the Conquer Ninja firm that has operations in four states. Obstacles Academy in Eden Prairie, like Ninjas United, is locally-owned.

A few times a year, the gym hosts a competition as part of a circuit with ninja gyms in Iowa, South Dakota and North Dakota. Bishop and 31 other athletes, ages 15 to 43, took part in the “professional” division. The other five divisions for younger kids drew even more competitors, with 230 participating over the entire weekend.

The biggest thing they learn is perseverance. “You have a crowd of people and you fall in front of them and you have to pick yourself back up, move on to the next obstacle and stay focused on the course,” Jen Voigt said.

“Amongst the kids out there, I have in three years never seen anyone be picked on or made fun of,” said Rachael Gallagher of Becker, who brings her sons Abraham and Saul to Ninjas United weekly. “The positivity here is so refreshing because you don’t always find that in other peer activities.”