In this Uphill Athlete video tutorial, coach Scott Johnston demonstrates box step-off exercises, which activate and strengthen the gluteus medius and vastus medialis oblique (VMO). Interested in learning more about developing strength for mountain sports? Check out "Strength Training for the Mountain Athlete."

Steve and Scott—My name’s Nikita. I’m a climber from Ukraine.I decided to write you this letter just to thank you for the work you’ve done with Scott in writing your Training for the New Alpinism.I’m 26 years old. When I was 18 I definitely decided that alpine climbing is the main thing in my life. Since then I’ve been climbing in different mountains. At first in our former USSR regions (Tien-Shan, Caucasus, Altai, etc.) and there I made lots of seldom-ascended lines and some first ascents. Of course training is important part of my life. I’ve been using lots of…

Kilian Jornet talks with Uphill Athlete co-founder and alpinist Steve House about his fastest vertical K (vertical kilometer; VK) time.

I was sitting on my couch in my underwear, watching Family Guy in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday, when I decided I wanted to climb Everest without supplemental oxygen. And I know it sounds overly dramatic, but that’s really how it went down. I was in the deepest, darkest hole of my life following a rough divorce, as well as losing a major sponsorship that I had depended upon (to some extent) for my career. I was so fat I could literally see stomach rolls hanging out over the waistband of my boxers. I knew I needed help…

In June 2001, I found myself standing atop the 17,400-foot Mount Foraker in the Alaska Range, looking toward Denali. The Argentine alpinist Rolando Garibotti and I had just climbed the Infinite Spur in 25 hours, turning what was once a multiday testpiece of Alaskan mountaineering into a day climb. Staring at Denali—where I had established three new routes, and climbed the Slovak Direct in a 60-hour push—it dawned on me that there was nothing bigger to climb as far as the eye could see. At the time Rolo and I made our ascent of the Infinite Spur, there was a…

I got my start in climbing in high school, while growing up in Boulder, Colorado, in the late ’60s and ’70s. Boulder was one of the hotbeds for rock climbing at the time. I had many heroes—Layton Kor, Duncan Ferguson, Jim Erickson, to name just a few—to look up to and try to emulate. I was also part of a group of young swimmers selected to live and train at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. After a failed attempt to make the ’72 Olympic team, I decided to use my swimming talents to pay for my college education.…

In this video interview with Steve House, Kilian Jornet gives all uphill athletes one simple piece of advice: Keep your motivation high! Do the things you do seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously. Because in the end running up a mountain is—and should always be—joyful.

Each person has a different strength in ski mountaineering: either their muscles or their endurance. This also tells how you run or ski. Kilian Jornet explains this concept in detail—and how you can utilize it while racing—in a video interview with Steve House.

In this video interview with Steve House, Kilian Jornet discusses training for multiple sports. He describes how everything is linked: your physical, technical, and mental preparation, even your gear. It needs to be an evolution of everything together.

In this video interview, Kilian Jornet describes how the obstacles you encounter in the mountains can help you progress as an athlete.