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Ninja Cardioflow
Copyright © 2011 Shapeshifter Media Inc. All rights reserved.

Important: If you have access to a printer, please PRINT this report (you have our full permission). Youʼll get a lot more out of it.

Legal Disclaimer
The information presented in this work is by no way intended as medical advice or as a substitute for medical counseling. The
information should be used in conjunction with the guidance and care of your physician. Consult your physician before beginning
this program as you would with any exercise and nutrition program. If you choose not to obtain the consent of your physician and/
or work with your physician throughout the duration of your time using the recommendations in the program, you are agreeing to
accept full responsibility for your actions.

By continuing with the program you recognize that despite all precautions on the part of Shapeshifter Media Inc., there are risks of
injury or illness which can occur because of your use of the aforementioned information and you expressly assume such risks and
waive, relinquish and release any claim which you may have against Shapeshifter Media Inc. and itʼs representatives, or its
affiliates as a result of any future physical injury or illness incurred in connection with, or as a result of, the use or misuse of the
program.
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Welcome to the Bodyweightcoach.com Ninja Cardio program!

Sharpen your sword and dust off your kusari gama! The secret of the ninjaʼs fluid movement and
circus freak endurance is well within your grasp... But getting it wonʼt be easy.

Ninja stamina is the stuff of legend. You donʼt cover that many miles on foot, fight a field full of
samurai, or remain hyper-alert on a long intelligence gathering mission without some serious
training secrets.

How did they do it?

They learned to rewire how they move through space with exercises that reestablish
biomechanically efficient movement patterns. Learning to load your structure and take advantage
of the natural elasticity of your connective tissues teaches you to balance tension and relaxation.
Learning to re-integrate your breathing, movement and structure teaches you to move with a
ninjaʼs efficiency.

That stuffʼs very cool if youʼre on a mission, but what the heck does it have to do with YOUR body
composition?

When these neurologically challenging movements are performed circuit-style — as in Ninja

Cardio — theyʼll give you a hell of a workout and burn a boatload of calories in a very short time!

You might think weʼre kidding about the name, but Ryan actually trained in that ninja stuff for over
20 years. Heʼs got the black belts, certificates, and the silly collection of practice weapons to prove
it. And now weʼre sharing some of it with you.

This program was buried deep within the BodyweightCoach vaults. Itʼs a secretive circuit created
for Ryanʼs very first — and long out of print — DVD project. He compiled the best of what he
learned from the legendary “shadow warriors,” processed it through the filter of modern sport
science, and distilled that essence down like a fine gin.
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Itʼs crisp, itʼs effective, and it hits you right in the Third Eye.

Turn the page and letʼs get started...

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Ninja Cardio: Concepts & Principles

Ninja Cardio incorporates some incredibly effective training protocols into one high-powered
performance package. Letʼs take a quick look at whatʼs under the hood.

Cardioflow

Sorry.... cardio-who???

Cardioflow. Itʼs a bodyweight routine that places a series of exercises into one long flowing chain.
Often performed for time rather than reps, the goal is continuous, flowing movement with no
breaks or rest pauses in between.

It makes for a very tough workout. You hit that gasping out of breath wall of circulo-respiratory
distress in a healthy way, and you punch through to the endorphin-filled state of the “runnerʼs high”
sooner than you would with other types of activity.

Why not just run instead?

Yes, “long slow cardio” is a tried and true fat burning staple. But spinning your wheels on
treadmills, stationary bikes and elliptical machines isnʼt just boring, it can also increase your risk of
injury. Doing the exact same movement over and over puts you at risk for something called
“repetitive stress” or “overuse” injuries.

Because Ninja Cardio takes your body through the entire spectrum of human movement, you
avoid that risk of overuse injuries.

At the same time, a Cardioflow session is strangely soothing. Youʼll find yourself getting caught up
in the flow of the movements. Youʼll start to focus on process — transitioning seamlessly from one
position to the next. The movements will become their own reward, and youʼll finish your session
refreshed, energetic and ready for more.
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Oh yeah, and this style of training increases blood flow throughout your body, and it also uses up
fatty acids for fuel. That means serious fat burning, baybee!

Active Rest

Active rest refers to recovery in motion. You donʼt stop moving, but youʼre catching your breath,
shaking it off and releasing the burn.

To perform at your most efficient, your breath must be integrated with your structure and
movement. In simple terms this means finding the most efficient moments for breath, and allowing
it to come naturally rather than being forced.

Ninja Cardio teaches you to use your body as a bellows, allowing movement to “cause” breath in
the most effortless way possible. As your body is expanded by movement (think of a movement
where the chest is raised and opened), air is sucked into the spongy tissues of the lungs. As your
body is compressed by movement (for example, in the final phase of an abdominal crunch), air is
forced out.

The faster you move, the faster this bellows pumps. All you have to do is learn to relax and get out
of the way. That skill is trainable, and it leads to greater movement efficiency — and eventually to
mastery.

Those are just a couple of the unique principles hardwired into our Ninja Cardio program.

Next, weʼll talk about how to put these shadowy circuits to work…

Programming Ninja Cardio

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In order to put Ninja Cardio to work for you, itʼs necessary to understand the performance rating
system youʼll use to ensure youʼre in the right range for progress.

Even if youʼre already familiar with our work, itʼs a good idea to review this section — you can
always improve your lens and become more precise at gauging your output.

Intuitive Training: Your Governor

How much is ʻa lotʼ? How tough is ʻtoughʼ?

What might be considered a difficult session for a newbie would be a walk in the park for an elite
athlete, and what an elite athlete considers low intensity might be beyond extreme for the average
couch potato. How do you determine “low” or “high” when itʼs all so subjective?

You do this by journaling your training and by applying your tools. A performance rating system
gives you the ability to differentiate form, exertion and discomfort subjectively, and you can then
use this as a determinant factor in progressive resistance. By learning to quantify the subjective,
you give yourself an immediate sense of where you stand, and you create a very accurate gauge
of your progress.

In order to make this tool work for you, you must first learn how to use it. That takes a bit of
diligence in the beginning. By journaling your training and by rating these three variables, you will
come to a better understanding of your body and you will calibrate your instrument. The skill of
rating your performance becomes more finely honed with each use, until eventually you barely
have to think about it. But you will have to think about it in the beginning.

These are the three variables you will rate after each training session:

Exertion (E): the subjective evaluation of your effort on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the hardest
youʼve ever worked.
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Discomfort (D): the subjective evaluation of your pain level on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the
worst pain youʼve ever experienced.

Technique (T): the subjective evaluation of your performance on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the
best possible form in that exercise.

If your technique is high enough (greater than or equal to 8) and your discomfort is low enough
(less than or equal to 3) you can hold even an exertion level of 10 for as long as your stamina,
strength and endurance allow.

But your stamina, strength and endurance diminish as you begin to hit the wall. As fatigue takes
over, your technique begins to deteriorate. Without that technique you no longer have the channel
to safely harness your effort, and discomfort increases. As discomfort increases, your potential for
injury also increases, and so on down the spiral. Your goal is to ride that edge of high output, high
quality technique, and to stop when youʼve tipped the balance into deteriorating form. Youʼre
playing a game of balancing between your output and whatʼs being lost as ʻleakageʼ to poor
technique.

In addition to carrying the potential—or even the likelihood—of injury, poor technique is
repeatable. Itʼs a fundamental aspect of the Law of Conditioning: whatever you repeat you are
making repeatable, whether you want to or not. The greatest efficiency lies in knowing how to
precisely gauge your form so that you stop exercising before you begin to groove poor technique.

As a general guideline, when you can sustain T of equal to or greater than 8, D of less than or
equal to 3, and E of equal to or greater than 6 over the course of 3 sessions, itʼs time to increase a
variable: frequency, intensity, speed, density, volume, complexity, etc.

The Ninja Cardio Program

Objectives
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Ninja Cardio is designed to burn fat, increase stamina, and give you a better option than
treadmills, stationary bikes or jogging to meet your cardio needs. Build your base by following this
program, and then use Ninja Cardio anytime you want to sneak in a fast, efficient cardio session.

The goal of this program is continuous movement. The final exercise in the circuit — the Trinity or
Breathing Squat — allows to to catch your breath in motion so you can go straight in to the next
round. If you need a break in the beginning, take one after each circuit, but shave that down
throughout the program. By the end of 3 weeks you should be performing all your rounds nonstop.

As you move through the 28-day program, the number of rounds will change. Consult your Master
Program Chart to see how many rounds you should complete that day.

Choose the level of movement difficulty that best matches your current abilities. By Week 4 you
should be performing all movements at Level 2 for the full 10 rounds.

The program is structured around a traditional Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule. But you can
do it on whichever days you like as long as you leave one day of rest in between, and hit 3
sessions minimum per week.

If you want to see optimal progress, you should perform extra cycles of the Cool Down on at least
a few of your non-training days. When you fit it in is up to you. Just donʼt neglect it.

Now letʼs get to the work…

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Ninja Cardio

This Master Program Chart lists the round numbers for each workout in your 28-day program.

The Progression:

Cycle Sun Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat

Week 1 5 rounds 5 rounds 5 rounds

Week 2 6 rounds 7 rounds 8 rounds

Week 3 10 rounds 10 rounds 10 rounds

Week 4 8 rounds 9 rounds 10 rounds

LEVEL 2 LEVEL 2 LEVEL 2

Instructional Videos

• Ninja Cardio Instructional (Detailed explanation of each movement in the workout)

• Ninja Cardio Follow Along Intro (Ryanʼs tips for taking it further after the 28 day program)
• Ninja Cardio Follow Along 1 (One sample round of the circuit using Level 1 movements)
• Ninja Cardio Follow Along 2 (One sample round of the circuit using Level 2 movements)
• Cool Down (BWC Introductory Yoga Session on workout days; optional added recovery on
non-training days
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The How-To

The Master Program Chart on the previous page provides an overview of the entire program. It
also lists how many rounds you should perform in each session.

Hereʼs what to do on your workout days:

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The Ninja Cardio Workout:

Warm up with a few slow and deep reps of each of the exercises in your upcoming workout. This
will heat your body up and prime your nervous system for the work youʼre about to complete.

Donʼt forget to check your Master Program Chart to see how many rounds you should perform.

Begin the circuit with Flat Foot Squats. Move down the column through Spinal Rocks, Screwing
Arm Press Ups, Quad Switches, and Drop Steps. Catch your breath with the Trinity Squat and
move right into the next round without stopping for rest.

Level 1 Level 2 Reps

Flat Foot Squat Squat to Spinal Rock 5

Spinal Rock Screwing Arm Press (Fist) 5

Screwing Arm Press Up Quad Hop 5

Quad Switch Slingshot 5

Drop Step Trinity Squat (Ichimonji) 5

Trinity Squat n/a 5

Start Again — no rest between rounds

Choose the level of movement difficulty that best matches your current abilities. By Week 4 you
will be performing all movements at Level 2 for the full 10 rounds.
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End your session with the Bodyweight Coach Introductory Yoga progression. Reference the video
in your download library.

Thatʼs it. Simply plug this pattern into the Master Program Chart and youʼre ready to burn fat, build
stamina, and move like Sho Kosugi with Ninja Cardio!
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Exercise Description

The following photos are a reminder of the directions presented in the detailed instructional
videos. Study the videos carefully before you begin Ninja Cardio.
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Level 1 Movements

Flat Foot Squat

Stand tall with mid-foot balance, stretching your crown towards the sky. Create a small arch in
your lower back by tilting your pelvis, and begin to lower yourself as though sitting back on an
imaginary chair. Reach your hands forward to counter balance. Maintain a long spine and a slight
arch in your lower back. Stop your descent when you begin to lose that arch.

Drive your hips forward and up by driving off heels to mid-foot. Spine is long and glutes are tight
throughout.
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Spinal Rock

Begin sitting with knees bent to about 90° in front. Stretch your crown tall, open your ribcage, and
inhale deeply.

Exhale, tighten your abs, and round your back. Lower yourself backward as you engage the
ground one vertebra at a time, as though your spine were a string of pearls.

As the roll reaches your shoulder blades, drive your hips towards the sky. Your feet will drive
momentarily back towards the ground. Immediately fold back into a tuck, exhale and roll back to
your starting position.
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Screwing Arm Press Up

Begin in the same top position as the basic pushup. Shoulders are packed down (no scapular
flare), chin down /crown long, glutes, thighs and core stay strong to prevent “belly sag” and
maintain solid alignment.

Exhale to stabilize as you bend the right arm and touch your right forearm to the ground. Elbow
pits face front, with the goal of pressing back to top position by driving the elbow pits forward
rather than simply pushing up. Repeat the movement from side to side, pressing off alternating
arms.
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Quad Switch

Begin face-down on all fours, with your butt close to your heels and arms extended. Raise one
hand from the floor, and replace that hand with the opposite foot by drawing the knee under
yourself as you rotate your chest to face the ceiling. First plant your foot, then reach back to plant
your hand.

Youʼre now in a face-up position with your weight equally distributed between your hands and feet.
Continue the movement in the same direction by lifting the opposite foot and pulling it beneath you
as you rotate over.

Reverse the movement and return to starting position for one complete rep. As you get better at
this movement, increase the difficulty by increasing your pace. You should strive to move as fast
as possible while maintaining good form.
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Drop Step

Stand in a relaxed position with feet about shoulder width apart. Raise one leg and allow yourself
to ʻfall intoʼ a front stance. Donʼt worry about your arm position. Push strongly off the front leg to
return to start. As your foot comes back, quickly switch legs and fall forward with the other leg.
Repeat this pattern. The goal is to reverse the momentum quickly. This should feel like a low-
impact plyometric exercise.
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Trinity Squat

Stand tall with mid-foot balance, and your arms raised above your head. Create a small arch in
your lower back by tilting your pelvis, and begin to lower yourself as though sitting back on an
imaginary chair. Your arms wave down as you drop into the squat. Exhale all the way down by
contracting your diaphragm, opening your mouth, and allowing the air to be squeezed out.

Maintain a long spine and a slight arch in your lower back. Stop your descent when you begin to
lose that arch. Drive your hips forward and up by driving off heels to mid-foot. Spine is long and
glutes are tight throughout. Your arms raise as you come up, and air sucks in through your nose.
Focus on normalizing your breathing throughout.
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Level 2 Movements

Squat to Spinal Rock

Stand tall with mid-foot balance, stretching your crown towards the sky. Create a small arch in
your lower back by tilting your pelvis, and begin to lower yourself as though sitting back on an
imaginary chair. Tuck your pelvis under at the bottom of the squat to engage the ground smoothly

Lower yourself backward one vertebra at a time, as though your spine were a string of pearls. Pull
your knees to your chest, and keep rolling back until you reach the level of your shoulder blades—
never roll onto your neck. Extend your feet over your head and touch your toes to the floor.

Exhale and reverse the direction of the rock, rolling back up to a seated position. Place your feet
in your stance as you roll back up to the squat, and keep your feet close to your butt. Drive your
hips forward and up by driving off heels to mid-foot to return to standing.
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Screwing Arm Press (Fist)

Begin in the same top position as the basic pushup, but on your fists. Shoulders are packed down
(no scapular flare), chin down /crown long, glutes, thighs and core stay strong to prevent “belly
sag” and maintain solid alignment.

Exhale to stabilize as you bend the right arm and touch your right forearm to the ground. Elbow
pits face front, with the goal of pressing back to top position by driving the elbow pits forward
rather than simply pushing up. Repeat the movement from side to side, pressing off alternating
arms.
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Quad Hop

Kneel on the floor and bring your butt as close to your heels as possible. Lean forward until your
back is parallel to the floor, with hands on the ground. Knees and elbows should be slightly
splayed (at about a 45° angle) and the position should feel buoyant. Keep a long spine with good
crown to coccyx alignment.

Press equally with all four limbs to drive away from the floor. Spine stays long and back is parallel
to the floor throughout.

When you reach the bottom portion of the movement, allow the loading of your tendons and
ligaments to help propel you back up into a hop. Exhale on the downward phase (as your lungs
are compressed), and allow air to be sucked in on the upward phase (as that compression is
released).
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Slingshot

Stand in a relaxed position with one foot in front of the other. Pull the forward leg back. As the toe
touches down behind you, allow that loading of the ankle to slingshot your other leg forward so
that it becomes the front leg. Repeat this pattern, switching feet rapidly by using the stored elastic
energy of your ankles and legs.
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Trinity Squat (Ichimonji)

Begin standing with legs spread apart, feet on rails. Shift your weight to one side — in ninjutsu this
position is called Ichimonji no Kamae — and squat on the rear leg. Squat only as low as you can
go while keeping the bent leg heel down. The long leg is straight but not locked.

When you reach the bottom of your range of motion, shift forward to change sides. The opposite
leg is now the rear load-bearing leg. Drive from the heel of the bent leg to return to standing.
Repeat the movement, switching sides at the bottom each time.