This story was originally posted on the Pop Culture Blog.

A lot of us played ninja when we were little kids, but two Dallas-based athletes are living out the fantasy for real. Kevin Klein and Bob Pondrom have reached the finals of the competitive reality show American Ninja Warrior, which will air later this summer on NBC. They successfully completed the obstacle course in the regionals here in Dallas and will move on to the finals in Las Vegas. We sat down for a Q&A with both competitors. We start with Klein, who we think has a pretty cool day job. (Read the Q&A with Pondrom here.)

Name: Kevin Klein

Height: 5'7" Weight: 148

Occupation: Bootcamp fitness instructor; helps train the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders

Hobbies: CrossFit, rock climbing, cycling, backpacking, camping

How did you find out about the show?

My boss Linn Johnson with Jay's Boot Camp Fitness, she told me she got an email and they were looking for people to try out for American Ninja Warrior.

I had only seen the Japanese version of the show and wasn't very familiar with the American version. So, when she told me about this, I said that sounds great.

I was running around like crazy trying to get my video submitted before the deadline just to be able to compete. About two weeks later, I was standing there on the start line ready to go. Fortunately, I was selected and was able to run the course. I was very happy about that.

I found the application video on YouTube that you submitted. That's some crazy, crazy stuff.

The funny thing is that I shot all of that in about an hour. It was about an hour of jumping around and flipping at the park where people thought I was a weirdo.

You were doing things in the video I couldn't even fathom being able to do. How do you realize you can do some of those things?

It's kind of funny. As a kid growing up, I was a gymnast.

For some reason, when I was 5 years old at our gymnastics class we had a competition where they put us up on a bar and we had to see how long we could hang there. The person who hung on the longest ended up getting a prize.

Well, we went 10 or 15 minutes or so and they had to pull me down. The rest of the kids had fallen off. I don't know, I guess I was just born with that kind of weird functional strength, I guess.

At that moment, as a 5 year old, I said "I like doing this sort of stuff because I'm good at it." So, growing up I stuck with gymnastics for a little while and learned how to do all the flips and when I was in high school, I started doing a lot of strength training.

The agility, I think, that's just a God-given gift I was blessed with from birth. I haven't really specifically trained for the agility parts, but it just sort of happened.

What was the process like to be on the show? Have you ever done anything like this before?

Absolutely new. I had never done any of the obstacles, but it was funny that it just so happened that all of the training I do on a regular basis all bottlenecks and ends up being perfect for this. I get a lot of the strength from CrossFit, I get a lot of the hanging ability and pull-ups and grip strength from climbing, so it all worked out well.

I got out there and I had never done any of the obstacles before. I've seen the Japanese version of the show, so I was familiar with what they looked like and all of that. But as far as touching one or trying it, I'd never tried it before.

What was the hardest part of the obstacle course?

The Warped Wall was the hardest thing. It's a really technique-based obstacle. It's not too bad once you get the technique, but trying to find that technique – and especially not ever being on one before, trying to find that technique in three attempts was pretty challenging.

The easiest?

The easiest part was probably the Quad Steps, although the second you start to think something is easy, that will be the obstacle that gets you. But the Quad Steps were probably the easiest thing, although they are way bigger, way bigger in person than they are on TV. They are huge. It's a big jump in between each one.

Is there anything that surprised you about the process or the obstacle course?

More so, I think that I surprised myself. The obstacles are things I've seen before and I had seen people do them. But me thinking that I'm an alpha-male, I would sit at home watching the Japanese version and say, "Oh my God, this looks so easy. These guys are falling left and right. I could totally do that."

Then when push comes to shove, I got out there and I was really nervous. Now I'm sitting there saying all of these years that I could do this, so I need to prove to myself that I'm not just sitting there on the couch eating my bag of chips making stuff up.
So, to prove it to myself was I think my most exciting thing.

Where do you go from here with the show?

The top 15 from each of the six regions and they end up going to Las Vegas where they do the finals of Mt. Midoriyama, which is what they have in Japan. They brought it to Las Vegas for the finals.

The finals air later in the summer. You'll have to watch and see that one.

What did you friends and family say about the experience?

They have been super supportive. They almost treat me like I'm a superstar, which I'm not at all. I'm just a regular guy.

My family is super supportive and extremely excited to see me compete. Some of my family don't really know what I did, they just know that I'm going to be on some sort of TV show this weekend.