The System · Body
NinjaGym
The health and fitness curriculum — bodyweight training built out of martial arts stances, aimed at longevity rather than short-term transformation.
NinjaGym was a one-month fitness program focused on five areas of physical development, using bodyweight workouts derived from martial arts stances rather than gym equipment.
The five areas
- Strength
- Bodyweight-based, no equipment required
- Agility
- Motor control and directional change
- Flexibility
- Range of movement, maintained rather than forced
- Heart and lungs
- Cardiovascular conditioning
- Stamina
- Sustained output and endurance
Ten stances, five workouts
The distinctive part of the method: every participant learned ten martial arts stances, then used those same ten stances across five different workouts. The stances stay constant, the arrangement changes, and the workout stays interesting without needing new equipment or new movements.
Rick’s yoga variant followed the same logic — a sequence where no move repeats, running one through ten without returning to the same position. Built specifically for people who find the pace and repetition of traditional yoga difficult to stay with.
Martial arts training also supplies what the curriculum calls muscle confusion, and works all five areas at once, which is why it sat at the centre of the fitness program rather than beside it.
Why most fitness plans fail
The program’s own list of reasons people fall off, unedited:
- They get too busy
- Cravings take over
- Food gets used to change moods
- Lack of social support
- Living in the moment
- Didn’t buy the right groceries
- Don’t fully understand the process
- No energy to work out
- Motivation died on day three
The month-long structure was the answer to that list. Not because a month transforms anyone, but because a month is roughly what it takes for a routine to become a habit rather than a decision made daily.
Stated bluntly on the original page: “It is unrealistic to believe you will change your life in only a few days. You need to change core habits, which require a set routine after a large focus of time and repetition.”
Movement and diet
The framing avoided the usual move-more-eat-less shorthand. The position taken was that both what you do and when you do it matter more than volume alone — what moves, when to move, how to move, and the same three questions applied to eating.
And a caution against the punishment model: “Your program should never be about pain, starving or challenging your body. Those strategies are what hinders people from achieving long-term success.”