Ninjutsu Exercises

While ninjutsu practitioners are often highly romanticized in today's movies as stealthy assassins, ninjutsu can trace its history back to the late 15th century Japan. Ninjutsu is a martial arts system that blends combatives and espionage with physical, spiritual and sensitivity training. To study and practice ninjutsu exercises is to become a student of the art of endurance and patience while striving to maximize your own unique potential.

  1. Sensitivity Excercises

    • Ninjutsu sensitivity training increases your awareness of your immediate environment. Using a partner, stand in the middle of a large room with your eyes closed and your body relaxed. Concentrate on your breathing. Your partner should silently move into position approximately 3 feet in front of you and begin to slowly extend his arm, aiming to place his two fingers between your eyes. As soon as you sense his fingers, you should raise your hand to stop the exercise. The goal is to learn and recognize the difference between actual stimuli and imagination.

    Spiritual Exercises

    • Ninjutsu spiritual training is designed to enhance the concentration skills and focus of the practitioner. A common mechanism to bring forward those subconscious skills to the conscious mind is the use of nine hand gestures, collectively known as the kuji kiri. Each of the nine symbolic gestures is associated with a specific spiritual energy that can be invoked by creating the gesture. The nine gestures represent power, harmony, energy, healing, intuition, awareness, creation, dimension and absolute. As an example, one spiritual exercise is to select a spiritual energy such as harmony and then draw the symbol representing harmony and meditate upon that icon as part of your daily practice. Once you feel you have empowered the symbol, you make the accompanying hand gesture while you meditate upon harmony. In time, you should be able to invoke the spiritual energy of harmony by simply making the appropriate hand gesture.

    Physical Exercises

    • Ninjutsu requires a strong and flexible body that is not only capable of withstanding the rigors of combat, but also of maneuvering in a wide variety of urban and outdoor environments. Accordingly, an emphasis is placed on bodyweight exercises such as push-ups, pull-ups and dips as well as endurance exercise such as running. A beginning exercise that develops endurance and strength in the upper body and hands is the hang. Grab a branch or chin-up bar with an overhand grip and hang with your feet off the ground. Hold on as long as you can. Keep track of your hang time to gauge your progress.

    Combative Exercises

    • Ninjutsu combatives focus on both armed and unarmed skills that are best learned from a qualified instructor. Combative exercises are based on taijutsu, a Japanese martial art that incorporates hand strikes, kicks, joint locks and throws. A basic exercise that can be done without instruction is practicing peripheral vision blocking with a partner. Have your training partner slowly throw hand and foot strikes at various parts of your body while you block or parry him. Your goal is to focus on your opponent's chest, not his incoming strikes. This is not a speed exercise, but one designed to develop your awareness in a self-defense situation.