Natalie Duran

Climbing Athlete / American Ninja Warrior

How do you train for your sport?: When it is a few months before I expect to film for American or Team Ninja Warrior I work out 6 days a week, and visit two different gyms every day (sometimes three). My typical hump day goes as follows: wake up at 5AM to jog to my gym Equinox and take an hour long Tabata class for my cardio and leg strengthening.

Then around 3pm I drive my motorcycle to Cliffs of ID my local Touchstone climbing gym. Having a motorcycle is imperative because I live in this horrible/wonderful city of West LA. Where finding parking at your gym is like entering the Hunger Games. Riding my bike also subtly helps with my balance training, dodging all the Land Rover rich people merging without paying attention. I climb for about about 3-4hrs with 75% of that time dedicated to loitering.

My 3^rd gym visit of the day concludes at Tempest Free running Academy, where I hone in on my specific Ninja Training skills. Which include precision jumps, lache (jump from bar to bar without feet), warped-wall runs, and lots of other scary shit.

Other sports/hobbies: Being a ninja, slack lining, sauna-ing, professional party crasher.

Favorite JTree product: I am in constant fear that the inner workings of my hands and fingers will give up on me due the constant abuse. So my absolute favorite product is the Joshua Tree After Sport – Recovery Lotion (loaded with Arnica).

Secondly, I have fallen in a deep love with the hand soaps people didn’t know JTree makes. I love the JTree Hippy Soap Lavender, fully plant based ecosoap. So I can feel a little better about myself making the world a better place.

And of course the scented JTree Flower Power chalk, to cover up my gym sweat stank.

What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out: MILAGE! For climbing get on the wall as much as you can, and work till you are totally burned out. If you wake up the following morning sore, you did a good job… if not, climb harder and longer!

What’s your best “party” trick: Bro, I will CRUSH anyone at a game of limbo. Nuff said. Also at parties I love to challenge all the men to pull-up challenges, or gather everyone to hanging contests.   

What is the coolest thing you’ve ever won: I think the coolest thing I’ve won is the bragging rights to say I’ve successfully snuck into over 25+ Hollywood parties/award shows I never was invited to. My most successful and proud moments was sneaking into the Emmys, Oscars, and the Golden Globes (twice). Fake it, till you make it. 

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