I hit a plateau

I think it is a combination of things. Strenght/grip, power, and stabilization. I am not a tall climber so sometimes I really need to throw myself up there but I can't really support myself with one arm. On the overhangs my core tends to struggle to stay in place of center of gravity so all the weight bares on my shoulders making me feel heavier. And lastly I cannot pinch for dear life. My technique and endurance is really good, I don't get tired fast I just lack the power to do the harder routes.

Going at it hasn't helped increased my strength as much, it is very slow progression. How can I speed this up? Hangboard, weight pull ups, one armed pull ups, core strengthening exercises and strength training in general like a 5x5 bench, squat, deadlift, etc. Can this help and is it worthwhile if I want to be able to climb higher than a 5.12.

Gavin Anastasiou wrote: I think it is a combination of things. Strenght/grip, power, and stabilization. I am not a tall climber so sometimes I really need to throw myself up there but I can't really support myself with one arm. On the overhangs my core tends to struggle to stay in place of center of gravity so all the weight bares on my shoulders making me feel heavier. And lastly I cannot pinch for dear life. My technique and endurance is really good, I don't get tired fast I just lack the power to do the harder routes.

Going at it hasn't helped increased my strength as much, it is very slow progression. How can I speed this up? Hangboard, weight pull ups, one armed pull ups, core strengthening exercises and strength training in general like a 5x5 bench, squat, deadlift, etc. Can this help and is it worthwhile if I want to be able to climb higher than a 5.12.

How long have you been climbing?

I've been climbing for 6 years, haven't been consistent though so no surprise. My bouldering is stuck at a V5. I focused a lot on technique, and slowly developed my endurance and strength along the way.

This has been my workout plan I made so far, I haven't really put a schedule in place of it but here is what all the exercises of the week will be.

5x5, 3x3, 3x2 Bench press, dead lift, and squat. Military press for shoulders, box jumps, tricep dips, weighted pull ups and chin ups, then some core exercises. Lastly working on the one arm pull up, I can get my self halfway with the one-armed pull up then I drop. Some complementary things I add would be rotator cuff exercises and stretching to help with range of motion.

We all plateau.  Even the top athletes in professional sports.  Not all of have the body types to performance at super high levels.

But to answer the question focus on what you lack.  If need be that might be weight training specific areas.  Or consider technique.  Strength is only half the game.

How much do you weigh?

I weigh close to 140 at 5'6''. 

Finger strength and flexibility would be my suggestion. At your height you are gonna have to get creative with heel hooking often matching hand to heel or you are going to have to grab smaller intermediate holds.

i would say staying on a consistent climbing specific work out schedule would be beneficial (hangboarding, ARC training, 4x4 etc). for me personally the anderson brothers guide was a major breakthrough in my climbing. 

Thank you for the suggestions. I can definitely see flexibility helping since my legs can't extend really far like a gymnast can. As for 4x4 which lifts were your performing and did you notice it helping you in rock climbing?

I've been researching about weight lifting and how it translates in athletism and from what I found so far was a bummer (I was hoping for a strong positive correlation). From my experience, it helped a lot at the beginning. Further down the road as I continued I found some improvement,  but at the same time it could of just been me climbing that improved instead of the weightlifting but I'm unsure since there was no control group.

i used to do a lot of Olympic style lifting, i didnt find many gains in my climbing until i began taking climbing training more seriously. as for 4x4, its the act of doing 4 boulder problems in a row, 4 times. great for power endurance. Personally i would look into The rock climbers training manual, by the Anderson brothers. It outlines everything youll need to know about breaking through your plateau. 

One question I have is how do you guys work the opposing muscle groups that are often neglected during climbing? We use our pull muscles much more, which eventually creates an imbalance in our push muscles from what I've experienced. 

I have climbers back, weak triceps, weak push muscles in general and I'm looking forward to fixing it soon since I felt close to causing an injury when I had to push myself up a ledge. No more issues with the tricep so I'm assuming it healed. Probably was in a strange position or something.