How To Avoid The 'Intermediate Climber' Plateau

We asked our climbing community; where is the biggest plateau in performance? The majority answer was between V5 and V6, which got us thinking. Clearly something needs to change if the V5 barrier is not going to be a barricade in your performance. And this video will lead on from our recent "Beginners Guide to Bouldering" video where we set an example session for simple progression.

In this video we run through another simple training session that defines the tactic and approach we think climbers need to pay attention to, when transitioning from realms of Beginner to Intermediate climber. This takes shape in a 7 part training session which explores the details of intermediate climbing training AND suggests ways to break the plateau into higher grades.

0:16 RAMP warm-up
1:06 V5 Hangboard Strength
4:54 Entry to Board
8:00 MagDust
9:44 Training Volume
12:25 Skill Practice
14:45 Strength Training
17:31 TEMPO Stretching

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[fawncashew]

My strategy is to plateau at v2/3 so I don't have to worry about the v5 plateau, working great so far

[jc_tellez]

1. Begin with a RAMP protocol to warm up effectively (elevate heart rate, activate muscles, mobilise joints, and potentiate - specific dynamic exercise)
2. Utilize a hangboard with +35% body weight (male mean?) for grip training: 20mm edge, grip as preferred, and perform six 5-second hangs with a 2-minute rest between each.
3. Practice board climbing for people in V8 to V11 difficulty: Choose three challenging boulders and spend 10 minutes on each with a 5-minute rest in between.
4. Ensure to use of quality equipment such as good chalk (bias?) and climbing shoes for better performance.
5. Engage in volume climbing: Complete five climbing routes three times each, taking 2.5 minutes for each climb and a 5-minute rest between different routes.
6. Work on skill development by recording your climbs to analyze and improve difficult moves, and try creating your own routes for additional practice.
7. Incorporate strength training with +35% additional weight (male mean?) on pull-up bars to prevent injuries, and include supplementary and isolation exercises to target joint stabilizers and address specific weaknesses.
8. Improve flexibility through tempo stretching exercises that include eccentric movements, pauses, and concentric movements with pauses. Also, static stretching.

[Mylada]

The top thing for me was systematically doing finger strength training, pull ups, shoulders and flexibility stuff 2-3 times a week for years. You just have to progressively hit the same exercises from week to week, maybe changing something every 2-3 months. Sometimes there is no progress for months and then you suddenly go up 5kg after 3 months or hit a flexibility PR. It all adds up.

[cedric]

Sorry to be that guy, but it's the first time I hear that the type of chalk is such an important tool that it warrants being mentioned in this kind of video and it happens to also be a sponsor, so I have a real problem deciphering if it's a true advice or not.

[Joren]

For me the biggest tip I would give for breaking past plateaus that applies to a lot of people who feel stuck is, try hard on problems that are on and above your limit. Have patience and persevere, actually spend the time to project something that you can't climb and focus on progressing on isolated moves. Some people say they are at a plateau but also aren't trying problems that go beyond that plateau, usually due to lack of confidence, patience, getting frustrated with failing. If you want to improve, you'll have to fail a ton. If you don't invite that abundance of failure into your sessions, you'll limit your progression.
Example, my second/third 7A, it took me two sessions, one of which I spent 1.5 hour on the same problem, reaching a point where people will probably think it's borderline obsessive. Remaining focused and being disciplined, spending 4-5 minutes between attempts collecting my strength and my mental, and trying to reflect what I did wrong/suboptimal and how to improve it on the next go. Encourage myself that the tiny improvements will eventually amount up to sending it, and if it doesn't, that's still a ton of learning for the next project.

[DougBeardsley]

This is some seriously fantastic content.

Early this year I added structured weekly hangboarding to my climbing. This summer I sent my first V8 on the Kilter board. Hangboarding *definitely* played a huge role for me.

[sakkiebasson]

For me the issue was as soon as I hit this grade, my strength was not up to bar to any of these boulders. Most of the boulders were pretty binary, either I could hold on to the holds or I couldnt. There was no technique adaptions with body or movement, either I could hold the hold and I could send or I wasnt strong enough in fingers / mobility / strength to hold and needed to train more

[viktoriiaolifirenko]

Warm-up recommendations would be really useful 🥺

[jordanbroadhead]

I found I hit a hard plateau around this range and adding some structure into my sessions made a huge difference. This was as hard as I was going to climb with just trying hard and doing random training when the psche was there. Now I love the structure and I've broke through to V8 this season. Looking forward to another good training season

[stephantom]

I feel like for a lot of people maybe it’s a mistake to even have “breaking past the plateau” as a goal. It’s not necessary. Just maintaining V5-V6 can be a goal if you enjoy climbing at that level. Personally I started climbing in my 30s and after the quick progression in the first few months, it’s just been a cycle more than a line. Every time I try to ramp it up, I get injured.

[nbrockbank]

I come back to this video so often it is incredibly useful! Thank you ⭐

[IAMDIMITRI]

I just did 9c Strength Test and it revealed that my weakness are finger strength and pull ups. And I climb 6b+ ish (almost V5). I think my progress is consistent with the video and weaknesses too. Good job.

[sethturner]

Now a video like this for v7-8 would be sick. I assume there’s a lot of carry over but some unique things too.

[dark-o]

16:22 8 reps is the max reps at 80% if we take one rep max calculator. Meaning that 8 reps will be going to failure on each set. Not much left in reserve. I would prefer 5-6 reps.

[fabiopalma]

Wow, what an excellent video! I'm a passionate beginner with 9 months of climbing and reached gym's V5 very recently. Did some hangboard (and also some overhang kilterboard) and noticed amazing results. For sure with start doing it more seriously, and in a smarter way! Thank you so much for all the determining tips! Hugs from Portugal 👊🏼

[stefslyfe]

I think that there is so much variation in grade difficulty at this level (V5) that it’s hard to ever really tell where you’re at skill wise. I know that this is meant to be taken as a generalization but it’s possible that some people plateau because the area that they climb in is simply hella sandbagged and if they were to climb in areas that aren’t as much, they could theoretically be climbing a grade or two harder. As well as the fact that some people are climbing in areas that are really soft and aren’t actually climbing at the level that they think they are.

[daviddomingos]

Thanks a lot for this video and making this content freely available for the community. I feel I’m a bit in a v4-V5 plateau for a while, I kept training but I feel a bit lost in what to change to overcome the plateau. This video gave me some inspiration.

[GeorgeDutchHam]

A video on the warmups would be geat! I have been getting aches in my elbow and shoulders, and believe a great warm-up/down would solve both that and my climbing endurance :) Great video also!

[Amatsuichi]

whenever I tried to push harder, I ended up with some injury, so yes, I am at around V5+ for years, best I did was 7b+ on rope but got injured shortly after that and fell down to my standard 6c+/7a

[MrWill]

I recommend that for videos like these, with lots of take-aways, you do a recap at the end of the video.