A few years back, I had my friend Doug Kechijian write my training program for a few months.

You might remember Doug from Michael Easter's popular book The Comfort Crisis.

Doug is a former Air Force Parajumper and a world-class physical therapist and performance coach.

(He was on our podcast a little while back. You can listen here.

In the final phase of my training, Doug included an exercise that set off alarms in my mind.

Don't get me wrong, I trust Doug. But I was a skeptical fella. 

But, knowing that Doug knows his stuff as well as just about anyone in the world, I trusted him and I did the exercise.

My quads burned with the fury of Hades and my back was pretty smoked.

But, man, did I ever build some uphill endurance in my quads and bulletproof my back.

The exercise is the rounded back step up.

(Image is linked to a YouTube video.)

We're going to end up in disadvantaged positions in the mountains, so we might as well train for them.

Right now, our Backcountry Ready members on our pre-season program are doing these as a finisher at the end of their second strength workout each week.

Keep in mind that they've done a ton of work to build resiliency in their backs before doing these.

We didn't just jump into these.

In the program, we're doing 5 total minutes, getting as many GOOD reps as possible in those 5 minutes. We're switching legs every 10 reps.

Check 'em out.

(If you have a backcountry hunt, mountain hunt, or just want to be in the best physical condition you can be for hunting season, click HERE to checkout our flagship coaching program, Backcountry Ready.)