During the past few years, endurance athletes in a number of sports have added resistance exercises to their training programs to boost their muscle power. Research has linked resistance training with a reduced rate of injury in athletes. It fortifies leg muscles and strengthens ‘weak links' in athletes' bodies, including the often-injured hamstrings and shin muscles, as well as abdominal and low-back muscles. Resistance work also improves tendon and ligament strength and increases bone density, which decreases the risk of injury.

For mountaineers, the general preparation period before the beginning of actual climbing season is an ideal time to initiate a resistance training program. A four to five month period of sound resistance training helps to develop a nice foundation of suppleness (mobility), strength, and stamina (endurance), to which climbers can add speed circuits just before the season begins.

Circuit training is an excellent way to simultaneously build strength and stamina.

Example eight exercise circuit
After a postural strengthening period and dynamic mobility exercises, try this exercise circuit. Each exercise should be performed for 30 seconds without stopping, adding a 30 second rest before moving to the next exercise. Perform six circuits in all, followed by static stretching.

1. Total-body exercise: Squat thrusts
Develops strength and mobility in your knee and hip joints – important for high-speed movement. Develops stability and strength in the upper trunk, abdominal, and pelvic regions, strength that is necessary to control torso movements. Greatly increases your cardiac demand, hikes the power of your leg muscles, and increases the impact forces (upon landing) as well, fortifying the bones in your legs and feet.

• Using dumbbells, squat (heels on the floor, Neutral Spine!) until the weights reach a height just above your ankles. Then explode upwards into a jump.

2. Upper-body exercise: Push-ups
Increases upper-body strength, developing abdominal and hip-flexor stability. Improves stability, helps to control hip, trunk, and shoulder movements as you move quickly. Also promotes balance between the upper and lower body.

• Need to perform “Core Lock”. While standing, squeeze your butt muscles – like pinching a coin between cheeks, then, squeeze abdominal muscles – akin to pointing your sternum towards your pelvis. This is the position you want to maintain during push-ups – no sway back!!!

3. Lower-body exercise: Scissor step-ups
Develops leg strength, power, and dynamic-balance control (coordination), without which you can't move quickly. Cardiovascular benefits of this exercise can be increased by speeding up your stepping cadence or by increasing the height of the step. Enhances leg-muscle power and improves mobility of the hip and knee joints.

• Start in telemark stance – similar to a lunge, but with most of your weight on the front foot. Step up on a bench with the back foot of the telemark stance and raise the foot that was forward to a high knee.

4. Core/trunk exercise: Abdominal sit-backs
Increases abdominal stability, which carries over to improved posture and better core stability as you run. A strong pelvic girdle and trunk provide the anchor point for a strong pair of legs, allowing you to use your legs in a maximally powerful manner.

• Seated on the floor, with feet flat on the ground, sit back (with a straight back) until you feel like you will fall to the ground. Before falling, sit back up.

5. Total-body exercise: Squats to presses
Increase strength and power in your legs, hips, low back, abdominals, shoulders, and arms. Note that the whole-body involvement of this exercise increases your cardiorespiratory requirements, compared to the more commonly used, isolated pressing exercises such as bench and shoulder presses.

• Holding dumbbells with your palms facing back (like the finish of a curl), squat (using aforementioned technique) until your elbows touch your knees. Squat upward powerfully and press the weights over your head.

6. Upper-body exercise: Body-weight rows
Improves pulling strength of the upper-back, shoulder, and arm muscles, and does for the back side of the body what the push-up does for the front side. Also serves to increase stabilizing strength in the low back, gluteals, and hamstrings, all of which are critically important for quick movement. You'll achieve a balance between lower and upper body strength by performing this exercise.

• Holding a horizontal bar or rock rings/handles, place your feet so that your complete body is horizontal facing the ceiling. Pull up mimicking a rowing motion.

7. Lower-body exercise: One-leg squats
Develops muscle strength in the quads, hamstrings, and gluteals, the muscles which provide much of your power while running. By strengthening your hip and knee joints in a coordinated and integrated fashion, your leg strength and climbing power should improve tremendously.

• Stand with one foot straight out (that includes straight legs/knees), and holding a weighted object in your straightened arms – squat down (with heel still firmly planted) as far as you can go.

8. Core/trunk exercise: Low-back stabilizers
Heightens low-back strength providing for proper posture while climbing and also provides excellent ‘motion control' of the torso and hips throughout the step.

• Back extensions while prone (belly down) on a FitBall. Relax your torso until your face comes close to the ball, then explode upwards until your spine is in a neutral position – not hyper-flexed. 3 sets of 5 repetitions.

Remember that improvements in how your body functions can occur whenever you overload your body's systems. It provides an overload of your cardiorespiratory system (especially the hard circuits), taxes your muscular system by forcing it to work against increased resistance, and forces the key joints involved in moving your body to go through a wider range of motion than they commonly encounter.