Why Is My Climbing Not Getting Better?! (A Word About Progression)
- Sophia
- Nov 2
- 12 min read
Here's the big question: Why do we keep climbing? Why do we keep trying after months of failing and failing?
In essence, it is the opportunity of progression that pushes us to try harder, to get back on our feet after every fall and every attempt. Of course, everybody likes to succeed.
Sometimes, it might feel like your skills are flying up like a rocket. Every day you come to the gym or the crag and you're sending something new; onsight a new grade; or cruise through an old project.
But in reality, it won't always be like that. Every climber will encounter a plateau in their progression somewhere along the way, and here's the biggest lesson that helped me get through this time period the fastest.
Some of the things that have helped me get through those plateaus:
The "plotline" of progression:
*Note that this isn't set in stone for every single climber. Everybody experiences progression at a different rate, and it's just roughly an outline of what I've been observing over the years. :)
1 WEEK - 6 MONTHS: You just begin climbing. V0/5.4 through V2/5.6 is a cruise. Jugs feel like lifesavers; crimps are still okay because the moves are small. Within a few weeks, you're flashing the next grade.
<1 YEAR: As you learn more about the technical aspect of the sport, harder moves begin to make sense. You're projecting about V3/5.7 to ~V5/5.9+, and sending comes pretty easily after a few sessions. The infamous "middle-grade" plateau happens somewhere around here.
1 - 2 YEARS: As you continuously keep training, your body adapts to the load and begins to withstand longer, harder, steeper routes. Gaining better understanding of the correlation of movement and physical literacy, you're able to progress at a decent pace because you've got a few years of climbing under your belt already. Roughly <V6/5.11d climbing here.
3 YEARS: The biggest progress plateau stunts your climbing around here, as the transition on the brink of intermediate to advanced climbing is always steeper than ever.
Did you know that the higher you go on the grading scale, the greater the difference between the numbers? For example, the difficulty difference between V9 and V10 is almost exactly the same as the difference between V1 and V6. At this point in your climbing, you're just scraping up to V6/5.12 - <V8/5.13, and there's little progress in sending higher grades.
4 - 5 YEARS: After a short speed-up period in your skills, progress becomes painfully slow. Your climbing is nearly perfected, and you feel the flow in almost every move; but somehow that doesn't help you send that long-wanted V9/5.13d+ - so near yet so difficult at the same time.
6 - 8 YEARS: Dedicatedly climbing for a long, consistent period of time, your skills are just scraping up to the elite level of V9-10/5.14+, yet you can spend years stuck on a single grade. It's less about the send than it is of the process now, achieving that long-wanted state of absolute precision on every route you climb.
9+ YEARS: Almost a decade of climbing has taught you valuable insights that help you spread your knowledge to others around you. Many people reach the peak of their abilities by now; progress stunting at the maximum level their climbing can handle - anywhere from V8/5.12 to the limit known today, V17/5.15d!!!
Often times, feeling your climbing skills plateau can be annoying and frustrating.
But, remember that there are always things you can do to keep climbing at this time period, even if you can't send that long-wanted next grade.
FOCUS ON YOUR WEAKNESSES:
My coaches have always told me that the first step towards success is identifying where you're at in the moment and what you need to work on to move forward.
For me, this means looking at the kinds of climbing I like; the hold types I like the best; the wall angle or terrain I perform most easily on; and how much experience I have.
This lets me put my goals into contrast with what I already have and build a structured mental "plan" of how to combat my weaknesses.
For example, you could try creating a spreadsheet outlining a visual representation of your current climbing level. Make sure to include a date, so you can go back to it later and see how you've progressed.
The image above is an example of how I would create my own outline. I've made it quite clear on the kinds of climbing I excel at; and you can see a repetitive pattern in statements closer to the "Weakness" side.
Remember, the word "weakness" doesn't mean something negative. All it means is that you've got something to work towards, because this concept is a very dynamic thing that's changing almost daily as you continue climbing.
FOLLOW A STRUCTURED ROUTINE:
Another really big thing to progress faster is to follow a specific structure - or routine - in your daily training. This way your body will get used to the schedule, and therefore will be able to withstand harder climbing in a shorter period of time.
For me, I like to outline a weekly plan of what I’m going to focus on every training session. I also set reminders on my phone to help me remember to stick to my routine and not get distracted by my friends at the gym or the new set on slab. ;)
My approximate weekly schedule:
Monday: Endurance (Drills, circuits, kilter board = High interval low intensity) = 2 HRS
Tuesday: Team Practice (includes sprints = cardio, coaching, & structured workout) = 3 HRS
Wednesday: Comp-style onsight (New set day) = 2 HRS
Thursday: Team Practice (Same as Tues.) = 3 HRS
Friday: Projecting (Low interval high intensity) = 1.5 HRS
Saturday: Rest*
Sunday: Rest/Off-Wall
*It’s important to have at least two rest days in your schedule, to leave your body some time to recover.
And this is just my own personal schedule, much unlike the hundreds of other variations you can choose from.
One big upside with having specific structured days such as youth team practice is that you'll always have the reassurance that you will be doing a certain set of exercises no matter what. For me, this means mandatory workouts - something I probably would give up on right away on my own time; but doing it in a coached setting just leaves no other choice!
Remember, training schedules only work properly if they’re done with three crucial components in mind:
Simplicity
Consistency
Rest
The biggest thing is, make sure this schedule is something simple. Simplicity is key because rather than creating complex 6-hour sessions that leave you exhausted every night; find something that works for you and will still keep you motivated.
Consistency is ever so important because you won’t see any progress if you slack off and decide to give up on the plan. It has to be something you will WANT to follow and keep at, even on days when you don’t really want to be climbing in the first place.
That's also the upside with structured days in your schedule such as private lessons or team practice. Having done both in my experience, I can say that it's helped me a lot with staying consistent in doing exercises or drills I may have given up on in my own time.
You also shouldn’t be climbing for more than two days in a row without rest. This can injure your muscles, finger tendons, and leave you over-exhausted. However, if your schedule doesn’t allow you to do that - like me - consider making shorter sessions and focusing on lower-intensity exercises.
One other thing to keep in mind is not to overshoot it. For example, Climbing Magazine writer Ben Ruek says that the biggest trap in training is trying to mimic pro athletes' routines.
"It highlighted just how easy it is to get swept up by online climbing training advice. Everywhere you look, flashy programs promise quick gains: Do these exercises and you’ll climb harder in no time. But the reality is far messier. (...) Elite climbers like Janja Garnbret can handle massive training loads because they’ve built decades of base strength and skill. (…) For the average climber, jumping into that level of intensity is unsustainable and often harmful." (https://www.climbing.com/skills/training/online-climbing-training-plan-trap/).
Ruek explains how aiming too high in your training plan can backfire really easily - and harm you instead of helping you. "A spreadsheet and a YouTube link won’t fix your form. Without proper coaching, it’s easy to ingrain poor habits, bad posture, sloppy movement, and over-gripping. This can lead to real injuries down the line." (Ruek, 2025).
So make sure you’ve weighed all the odds and discussed you plan with a coach before actually attempting it. But hey - structure is what leads to success, most of the time!
CHANGE THE GAME:
Another factor that I felt has helped me a lot in progressing my skills has been changing where, when, and how I climb on a daily basis.
It's only too easy to become that one gym rat who spends their entire lifetime cooped up in that one crusty climbing garage two minutes away from their house.
Okay, maybe not that extreme.
And yet in all seriousness, widening your horizons within the logistical aspect of climbing can go great lengths.
The Where: Your location where you climb is arguably the most important thing in learning to adapt. I realize that for many people out there, travelling or even simply finding a car can be a challenge, and that one nearby gym is all you need for the moment. But, even if you meet up with friends for a sporadic day trip to another climbing gym, that's already a huge location change.
You'll find out how your body adapts to different styles of climbing; like new environments and unfamiliar route setters. It's interesting to notice how I can flash V8 at my home gym, yet I've fallen on V5 before in other climbing centres.
Other climbing gyms: Lets you experience different hold types, different people, a different atmosphere, and more.
The crag: For some people, this might be the only kind of climbing they know. But for climbers used to training in an indoor setting, getting "out there" can change your perspective incredibly. You'll find how you move differently on rock versus artificial wall, how the environment affects you, the temperatures, and etc.
Competitions: Definitely not the vibe for every climber, but a worthy choice to look into. Even small local scramble comps at your home gym can show you what it's like to climb in a loud, crowded setting when all the eyes are on you.
Travel: For lucky climbers having the opportunity to travel to other cities or countries, experiencing the climbing culture there can be eye-opening. Crags will be made of new types of rock for you; gyms might look completely different from what you're used to.
The When: Interesting, but I find that personally I climb very differently at various times in the day. If it fits your schedule, experiment with going climbing at an hour when you're not usually training, to see how the time change affects your performance.
Morning sessions: When I'm on break from school, I like to double-train a few days a week and go in the mornings as well for some chill circuits on the spray wall. For someone used to climbing in the evenings, going right after breakfast can be a huge change in sending rate.
Evening sessions: Probably the busiest time in most gyms, and a popular choice.
Shorter/Longer sessions: Someone who typically climbs for 4 hours at a time may find it interesting to try shorter, but higher intensity gym/crag trips.
The How: What do you do when you climb?
For some people, the answer is going to be "chill with friends, sit on the mats, project the popular dyno and then go home." Others might say they turn up the music and follow a routine consisting of crucial timed exercises on the hangboards. There are a million different things you can do to consider it 'climbing.'
However, changing it up can help your body adapt to this new scenario and in doing so alter your performace. If you're used to very low-interval projecting, consider trying circuits or drills to get your endurance and cardio going. If all you do is send powerful, dynamic boulders, look into technical crimpy climbing to help yourself become a better-oriented climber in general.
There's no limit to how far you can go!
MAKE A GOAL:
Heads up, all climbers wanting to "get better" at their favourite sport in the world!
Ask yourself this question: WHY do I want to get better?
When we want to progress, our minds need motivation. And motivation stems from a constant, persisting goal or dream you have that you want to achieve.
Is it that aesthetic 5.15a somewhere in Italy? Or is it the iconic 14d Changing Corners pitch on El Cap? Perhaps you just want to send the next grade in the gym. Even if all you want is to overcome your fear of falling, that's still a goal.
Whatever your goal is, make it so that everything you do in climbing somehow gets you a single step closer to that dream. The vision is important, but the value of the process is what will actually get you there.
That being said, look at goal setting through the eyes of a logical thinker. Ask yourself, "How much time do I have to complete this goal? Why do I want to achieve this? How will I achieve this? Who can help me do so? What steps will I take to achieving this dream?"
Another thing to remember is to keep it specific. One can argue that the statement itself, "I want to get better at climbing" is a goal on its own. In some ways, yes. But when you piece it apart by figuring out in what area specifically you want to get better, whether it be dynamic movement or, say, route-reading; it starts to seem more realistic.
Breaking it down into smaller steps - or even steps of steps of steps! - helps your mind create a kind of "ladder" timeline that keeps pushing you forward, to that dream.
And that's where progression comes in. It just happens naturally.
DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING ONLINE
As we talked about earlier in this post, falling into the online thinking trap is a major issue for aspiring climbers.
Remember, everything you see on the internet has already been carefully filtered and molded into the final product they want you to see. Only too often do I witness a climber at the crag thanking another for the video they took and then saying, "I'll edit it at home to make it look like I didn't fall for Insta."
Today, we are living in an incredible digital age that lets us connect with people all over the world and exchange life-changing ideas, perspectives, and stories. But unfortunately, this also makes it so that we have no way of knowing whether what we really see is actually true.
I'm going to put this into context by using this very blog post. Just judging by the photos I presented in this post, one could picture me as this hardcore crag climber who crushes outdoor V7 all the time.
Realistically, I climb outdoors maybe two months of the entire year. :(
Just seeing this tells you how misleading the internet can be. We watch reels of pro athletes onsighting grades twice as hard as what we can climb - and we have absolutely no control over believing in this or not.
The bottom line is, using climbers on the internet as examples of progression won't lead to success from your side.
While there's nothing wrong with looking up to climbers you hear about online, never use them as a measure for your own success. For example, a youth climber could think: "Well, Brooke Raboutou sent 5.14a when she was 10 years old. I'm the same age, and I'm still falling on 5.10! Therefore, I'm not good enough."
What's negative with this kind of thinking is that you're comparing yourself to entirely different people. Remember; Seb Bouin, Sasha DiGiulian, Alex Honnold, Hazel Findlay, and all the other pro climbers have completely different backgrounds and climbing experiences. They don't train in the same gym as you. They don't have the same body and climbing ability as you do. They're not the same person as you, and therefore don't progress at the same rate.
And the biggest thing is - just keep trying.
Keep at it no matter how many times you fall and how many times it seems like you're the worst climber in the whole universe.
You know what? Though it might not seem like it, you'll always be better than someone out there - and someone else will always be better than you.
And the true "best" climber is the one who can understand their weaknesses and take measures to overcome these in a way that not only helps themselves, but also the climbing community around them.
Well, what use is it to be the "best" climber if all you do is sneer at the others, brag about your sends, and talk to virtually no one?
Remember that every experience you have with the sport; every day at the gym teaches you something new and valuable that brings you a tiny step closer to your goals and helps your progression by a tiny bit. Over time, these "tiny" bits and pieces will come together to help you learn and be the climber you want to!
Keep climbing!
-- Sophia
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