Brian Montagnese an 'American Ninja Warrior'

If you want to be a ninja, you've got to love high-intensive interval obstacle course training. And Brian Montagnese does love it. It's a big part of his workout routine in preparation for competing on this season's "American Ninja Warrior." "What we do is line up four or five obstacles and just run through them," he said. "It's a circle and you go through it eight to 10 times, working on speed, but also endurance in the context of an actual course. One is challenging enough, but we are going to be facing six and then when we pass, it will be 10." He is one three members of The Studio Martial Arts and Fitness Studio, along with Francisco Barajas and Jose Gomez, who qualified to appear on the 13th season of the popular NBC reality show. Montagnese, whose mother has Parkinson's disease, decided to try ninja training when he saw a contestant with Parkinson's on the show. "I was inspired to see him out there competing," Montagnese said. "I also found out that he was working with the Michael J. Fox Foundation to raise funds. That was my moment. I decided to find a gym. I wanted to raise money to find a cure for my mother's disease." The Fair Oaks resident joined The Studio's ninja program three and half years ago. "I was hooked from day one," Montagnese said. "I couldn't even do the monkey bars. I felt like the weakest guy in the world. At the time, I was 39. It was fun but a rude awakening though I had stayed fit." Less than two years later, Montagnese entered an application and video tape in "American Ninja Warrior's" season 11 auditions and was accepted. In his appearance on the show, he made it to the second obstacle but didn't get past the difficult walk-the-plank. Last year's season had a reduced cast due the pandemic so this year he entered again. "I don't know how many people apply," Montagnese said. "NBC casting goes through the applications. I submitted it in November and had to wait about three months. Every ninja knows, once those calls go out, you are eager and hopeful. When you see the 818 area code on your phone, your heart races a little faster. At that moment, I looked up at a photo of me and my dad — he passed away last year from brain cancer and never got to see me compete — and broke into tears and told him, 'We made it.'" Montagnese estimates he spends 12 to 15 hours a week in ninja course training and an additional five or so hours on cardio. A lot of the training is at the Roseville facility. He also travels to gyms in the Bay Area and to nationwide competitions. "Those competitions are part of the preparation for American Ninja Warrior," he said. For season 13, Montagnese will go to Tacoma, Wash., to be on the show. "There are two to three days of interviews and (what are known as) hero shots," he said. "Then there's the actual competition." If Montagnese makes it through that, there's a second round in another city and then the finals in Las Vegas for the top performers. For Montagnese, a big part of the experience has been the friendships he has made. "It's the support they give you even when you fail and the elation that everyone shows when you complete an obstacle or challenge you've been working on," he said. "I get such a good feeling when I see someone make it up the warp wall. It's the greatest support group to be around — the camaraderie and just the sense of support in the community." Montagneses is not surprised that The Studio has three ninjas in this year's competition. "It's a great place with great people and it shows — not only in ninja but Taekwondo …," he said. "There really is a sense of family there. I see people constantly supporting each other. That's what we do. Everybody builds each other up." A characteristic that describes all three ninjas and contributes to their success is that they are all very hard working," said Amitis Pourarian, who operates The Studio. "They work hard to push themselves to new heights and work hard to overcome whatever obstacles come their way," she said.