Trainer, new dad pursues chance at ‘American Ninja Warrior’

Fatherhood hasn’t become an obstacle to fitness for Ky Vuong, a personal trainer who hopes to compete again in NBC’s "American Ninja Warrior."

Vuong, 43, and wife Lorrie celebrated the arrival of a baby boy named Skylar eight months ago at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children. It was a profound experience for Vuong.

"The moment I held him I felt a deep, warming sensation and sense of happiness and that our family is complete," he said.

As his life filled with diaper changes and sleepless nights, Vuong, owner of Key Fitness Hawaii, tailored his training with an eye toward qualifying for Season 8 of "American Ninja Warrior" next year.

He scheduled workouts around his baby’s schedule. He typically watches Skylar during the day while his wife works as a pharmacist. When Vuong goes to the gym — which he does seven days a week — it has to be early in the morning or in the evening. If Vuong has to, he’ll train as late as 11 p.m.

The inconvenience hasn’t affected his effort, though.

Vuong’s workout routines can include 100 minutes at the hardest level of a StairMaster, weightlifting, pullups, burpees and a high-intensity exercise that can include 20 to 30 repetitions of lifting, followed by another 30 reps of a different lift with only 30 seconds of rest in between.

But Vuong also made Skylar part of the workout.

Pushing the baby in his stroller, Vuong runs up to 10 miles at Ko Olina Resort every Friday — a win-win because the baby falls asleep while Vuong gets in his cardio workout. Vuong also uses his 24-pound son as a weight while he does ab workouts, including crunches and leg lifts.

On weekends he mixes in hikes, yoga or stand-up paddling.

VUONG has had a passion for fitness since he became a personal trainer at age 16 while volunteering at a YMCA in Maryland, where his family moved as refugees from the Vietnam War. He loved sports as a kid — track and field, football and wrestling. He went on to get a degree in exercise physiology from Springfield College in Massachusetts and moved to Hawaii in 1998 to work at YMCA Honolulu.

Just eight months before Skylar’s birth, Vuong, at 5 feet 8 inches tall, competed at a qualifying round of the sixth season of "American Ninja Warrior" in Venice Beach, Calif.

The televised competition features obstacle courses that require upper-body strength, balance and agility. Courses typically include dashing across a spinning log, moving over a giant pegboard while hanging above a pool of water and running up a wall curved like a skateboard halfpipe that’s more than 15 feet tall.

Qualifying finalists advance to Las Vegas to tackle the show’s most challenging course. The grand prize is $1 million.

The reality is there’s a lot of waiting before you even compete — in Vuong’s case, more than six hours. When it was time to compete, it was 50 degrees. He was the first contestant, too, which is a strategic disadvantage because he didin’t get to observe how others tackled the course.

Vuong’s foot slipped off an obstacle called the rolling escargot — a large disc with hand and footholds that rolls through the first part of the course — and was disqualified.

"One little slip and you’re done," he said. "And you can be in the best shape."

GYM TIME can take an aspiring ninja only so far before it’s time to practice on real obstacles. Some aspiring contestants will build a course at home, but Vuong prefers to find obstacles outside.

For upper-body work he sometimes uses monkey bars at playgrounds. To train for the curved wall, he’ll sprint up hills and even the steep Koko Crater steps. Currently, Vuong’s best flight up the giant "stair master" is 10 minutes and 18 seconds. His goal is to make it under 10 minutes.

Vuong, who also teaches a keiki warrior workout class at 360 Strong, a fitness center in Kapolei, hopes he’ll have another chance at "American Ninja Warrior." This time he wants to bring Skylar along to watch, which is only fair. The baby helped him train.

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