Body tension is a crucial and much underestimated form of climbing strength that sorts the good climbers from the rest. Many are quick to blame their arms or fingers for poor performances, but there is no point having strong limbs unless they are attached to a stable core.

The ability to work out the sequence of a route from the ground is an essential sport climbing skill, which makes a huge difference to performance. Time invested on the floor is time and energy saved on the route, and yet so many climbers are prone to just leaping on and seeing what happens. How many times have you fallen off an indoor lead because you’ve failed to spot your colour, or pumped out on a sport route at the crag because you’ve missed a hidden hold?

Trad climbing is all about coping with the stresses of running it out into unknown territory. A skilled trad climber must be capable of making an accurate risk assessment as they make progress up the route and be able to distinguish between the point to go for it and the point to back off.

Forget the multigym, bouldering is the most effective form of strength and power training for climbing and it will improve your technique in to the bargain.

For those climbers who have already gained a solid foundation of strength through bouldering, the next obvious step if you're keen to crank your power training up another gear is to experiment with Campus boarding.

We all know that the best training for climbing is climbing, but for those long rainy evenings when you can't face the indoor wall, or for those quick lunch-break workouts, a fingerboard session may provide the next best thing.