Meet Michelle Warnky Burrma from Movement Lab Ohio
Movement Lab Ohio just opened in mid-December at 7086 Huntley Road, offering a full range of activities for kids and adults, from parkour to Ninja Warrior classes, elite obstacle course training and general fitness classes.
Heading up the Movement Lab is someone you have seen on TV already: Michelle Warnky Buurma. Michelle has appeared on seasons 5-11 of NBC’s American Ninja Warrior, as well as several other competition shows all around the world.
We checked in with Michelle to learn about her background, her experiences on American Ninja Warrior, and what you’ll find at Movement Lab Ohio.
You grew up in Worthington, yes?
Yes! We moved to Columbus when I was five. I went to Worthington Park, Worthingway, and then Thomas Worthington. At Thomas Worthington I did cross country and track.
How did you get connected with American Ninja Warrior?
It’s pretty crazy. I lived overseas for five years and then I came back and had been working as a server as Texas Roadhouse and then as a trainer at Urban Active, now LA Fitness.
I had three friends all in one week who said, “There’s this show, you would love it so much.” I didn’t really watch TV but I looked up American Ninja Warrior and thought, “This is amazing!” I loved it. I looked on Facebook and saw in New Jersey they had an event where people could try the courses, but I missed it by a month. I wrote the owner of the gym and asked, “When’s the next one?” He said, “Next year, but you’re welcome to come out any weekend to try stuff.” So I made the drive to New Jersey.
I got up on the salmon ladder on my first try, and the owner said, “I’ve never seen a girl get the salmon ladder on the first try.” The next day I did the warped wall and he said, “I’ve never had a girl get my warped wall either.” I ended up going to two other events and trying all the obstacles. All the guys were like, “You’re going to try out, right?”
In second grade we started going once a month to Vertical Adventures, so I’d been friends with owner since it opened. I started building obstacle courses at Vertical Adventures, and showed him videos of all the obstacles. He said we could put in a warped wall: “If you find the people to help you build it, I can help you with materials.” I started building obstacles at the gym, pushed them out on Facebook.
Then I found I had a missed call from the producers at American Ninja Warrior! I thought, “How did they get my number?” But I had personal training info online and they found me and asked if I could submit an application, so I submitted and got accepted.
What was the reaction to you being on the show?
I continued hosting events at Vertical Adventures for two-and-a-half years. We’d set up events there at 6 p.m. so we didn’t disturb the regulars. Started at 9 p.m., go till midnight, then tear down until 3 a.m. It was crazy. It was so exhausting, but so much fun.
When I hit the buzzer my second season of American Ninja Warriors, the story got out that I was hosting events. So at the next event we had an insane amount of people. I got bombarded with phone calls, e-mails: “We want a camp, we want birthday parties, we want classes.” I said, “I don’t even have a gym. I'm just doing it after hours at Vertical Adventures.”
What has the experience of American Ninja Warrior been like for you?
I just finished my eighth season. It’s gets harder because there’s so much pressure. The first season I thought, “Oh my goodness I’m competing on this obstacle course!” I knew I had the skills. My first and my second, maybe third season, are some of the strongest I’ve ever been because it was before opening the gym. I was training and climbing quite a bit. And since then, once the season’s happening I’ll start hardcore training. The rest of the year I’ll still train but it’s not as prominent.
It’s weird because there’s so much more pressure every year you do it. This past year they did it during COVID. They had delayed the season and we found out three weeks beforehand that it was going to happen. Those of us who were business owners were trying to figure out what to do. Some of us had trained super hard and some of us not at all. I got three solid weeks of training, good enough to get one buzzer.
My husband and I want to start a family. I keep asking, “Is this my last season? Was this my worst season?” But last year was my best season. It’s a very humbling sport. Anyone can fall anywhere, and it’s over.
So what led to you opening Movement Lab Ohio?
When I got bombarded with requests for events I didn’t know what to do. Vertical Adventures was going to move to a bigger space. They said, maybe we can have you work in the back section of our old gym. But their insurance said no way because it was so new at that point. You would have to buy pre-made obstacles which were really expensive. It would take a year and a half to build out – I thought, that’s a long, long time.
I reached out to my friend Chris Wilczewski and was talking to him and told him it would take one-and-a-half years to build. And he said, “I don’t think that’d take that long. You want to open a Movement Lab in Ohio?”
I never really wanted to open a gym – I’m an athlete – I love competing and training. I had so many friends who own gyms, and they said once you own a gym you don’t use it as much. But I decided it’s totally worth it, worth the sacrifice to bring it to Columbus and give more and more people the experience and the camaraderie.
We opened in our first space at the end of July 2015. When had our soft opening it was so crowded and people asked, “When are you going to expand?” It’s like, we just opened! But it’s like everything worked out for a reason. All that time of looking for a space and finding this space is a huge answer to prayer.
What does Movement Lab Ohio offer currently?
Classes, open gym, competitions, events. We have a ladies night coming up, and we’re actually going to do an adaptive ninja course for people with special needs.
If it wasn’t for COVID we’d have more people in the gym. We have definitely limited capacity, but we still have a solid amount to offer. We can offer multiple classes at once because it’s a big enough space.
We have team competitions, and we also do parkour and obstacle course racing. We’re working on adding in more with those, plus a parkour competition. A lot of obstacle course racing had to be canceled last year, we’re working on more.
We just started a Pre-K play class for 3-5 year olds. Our cut-off used to be five years old and little siblings used to cry because they couldn’t try the courses!
We did just open up for birthday parties as well. Just the gym part, not the party room yet.
What are your plans for Movement Lab in the future?
We used to go to events, go to schools – now you can’t do these things. I like to do speaking engagements and right now you can’t really go speak places. We’ve been working on getting a mobile course. We have things that we’ll bring to schools but we’d love to have a bigger setup to go with that.
I personally love Worthington, I loved all the schools and everything. I’m excited to continue to hosting. There’s a national ninja league that we’ll host. It’s a regional and international competition. A lot people want to get on the show – this is a way to compete against ninjas on the show without having to send it a video.
Get a look at one of Michelle’s famous runs in the 2019 Cincinnati city qualifiers for American Ninja Warrior:
And you can follow her on Instagram at @michellewarnky.