The American Ninja Warrior Philadelphia City Finals will introduce us to the Stair Hopper. This new obstacle went through edit after edit to make it as challenging as possible and utilized the latest in fitness technology.
Ninjas will have to traverse the stairs using a free floating bar that’s only a few inches wider than the stairs themselves. That means one wrong hop and you’re done. They’ll need to hop DOWN the stairs and then back UP to finish the obstacle. This positioning means they’ll be totally taxed by the time they finish. IF they finish.
But not content with just trusting athletes to tell them it’s difficult, the Ninja Warrior team employed some fancy new technology to measure muscle exertion to make sure competitors are really going to feel the pain when they try the Stair Hopper.
Testers wore specialized clothes that monitored which muscles were working, and how hard. The exertion of their muscles is reflected on a monitor using the colors blue, yellow and red.
If the testers aren’t working hard to complete the obstacles, pushing them into the red zone, the producers will ratchet up the intensity of the course.
With this information, producers could tell just how gassed a competitor will be once they reach the Stair Hopper, and how deep they’ll need to dig to complete the course.
This might be an example of technology being used for evil.