UKC

Iv realized that in order to improve my climbing I have to climb more then I already do. currently that is once or twice a week normally indoors this time of year, but 50/50 indoors /outdoors split in fairer months. How many of you guys climb 3-4 times a week? did you notice a marked difference in your performance?

The other problem for me is the cost of going to a wall, £9 per session seams petty common now. So if I was to go 3 or 4 times that would work out at £27 a week or more. Is that really what it takes to develop as a climber?

Climbing more will make you better at climbing, it's a no brainer. I can't imagine anyone who would not see a marked improvement from doubling the amount they climb in a given time period. The amount of improvement will depend on lots of factors. At VS, climbing more outside would be your first option, indoors as a fall back.

Surely you'd buy a ten entry pass/month's pass/annual membership if you were committed to going regularly?

If you're climbing one or twice a week indoors and (from your profile) are ok with 6c and V5, then it is not that that is holding back your lead grade to VS, it is more about trad psychology, experience and nous.   You should be able to move to leading E1 to E2 straightforwardly.

A recommendation is to find a partner who leads about E2 to E3, second some routes at those grades to get mentally attuned to them, then --  picking routes that suit your style -- push to HVS then E1 on lead. 

"Is that really what it takes to develop as a climber?"

I have to stop myself from climbing everyday to be honest, my body can't handle it haha if you dont feel like you want to climb everyday then you haven't caught the bug

If you’re genuinely interested in making an effort and training for climbing I reckon 3 sessions is the minimum requirement.

Last year was my first year of training, rather than just chumming around and I went up from 7b/+ to 7c+ RP which isn’t a massive jump but I now climb so much better. My bouldering has improved too as has my trad.

This year I’m upping it to 4 with the aim of 8a.

It depends on what is holding you back from climbing harder, have you had any advice from someone that has seen you climb?

I've found that quality not quantity is what counts, I've been climbing again for about 9 months after  over 11 years with no climbing at all (  I had plateaued at V5 F6c onisght ). Since I started again I can only afford to climb once a week indoors and so I've made that time count by concentrating on my weaknesses. I also do 2 days a week general strength, prehab and flexibility work. 

It's generally considered that (after the initial easy progress that comes with learning a new skill) once or twice a week will maintain your level and more is required for progress.

Eventually, even climbing time isn't enough to progress and you'll need dedicated physical training to break a plateau, but until then the more time you can spend climbing rock the better, and failing that the more time you can spend climbing plastic the better (up to the maximum amount of time that you can properly recover from).

in terms of trad yeh I just need to get out more with experienced people. Its not always easy to find partners though especially with trad as it tends to be fairly slow and boring if you belaying.

My problem is a feel like I cant do much more then I currently am due to financial and time limitations. Going climbing/bouldering twice weekly on my own and doing some supplementary strength training a couple of times a week in theory should show some form of progress come spring/summer right?

10 entry pass at my nearest wall (17 miles away) is still about £90 so its not much of a saving

Buy a finger board for home

also, what do you do at the wall, are you maximising your time there?

What are your actual goals? Just to "be better at climbing" doesn't help.

If It's trad that's your aim, you need to do a lot more of it as your profile suggests you are over strong for the grade. If your issue is that you don't climb much trad because your partners find belaying "boring" I'd find some new climbing partners! Where do you live? Can you join a local club?

I climb 3 times a week on average. Like you, it's mainly indoors in the winter but we get outdoors a lot when the weather is good enough. I think climbing often does help providing you get enough rest days in to recover.

More importantly though is what you do when you go climbing. If you want to get better you need to be pushing yourself, pretty much every session. It's not good going to the wall 5 times a week if all you ever do is punter about on stuff well within your grade between hanging out in the cafe.

If getting to the wall a lot is difficult due to expense then maybe consider supplementing some of your wall sessions with other training, such as finger boarding or maybe even build your own small training board. 

Looks like you're based in the east Midlands so indoor climbing will have to form core of your climbing / training therefore get a pass - what's the monthly/yearly cost?  Even at £50 (Depot in Manchester is less than £40) then 2/3 times per week gives per visit cost of not much more than a £5.

Agree with the above , you can get a lot out of climbing 3x per week and even 2x plus some other strength stuff (get a fingerboard) can be pretty effective.  With life and family commitments I've never climbed regularly more than 3x per week but this has allowed significant improvement up to a point.   At the same time after my daughter was born and a bit of time off I found improvement was pretty slow at 2x per week, increased to 3 as she got older and reached and to some extent surpassed what I'd achieved previously despite being in my early 40s.  

This year? id like to get up a 7a sport route in whatever form that may take. Id like to consolidate and become a better at VS/HVS trad leader and do some adventurous mountain routes such as alpine AD+ sort of things 

that's great thanks. I may have to investigate fingerboards to see if I can add a couple of sessions at home on that. il see if I can investigate some form of monthly pass also

Biggest difference made to my climbing is quality not quantity. 

I've had 3 different sets of lessons both group and private, Although I'm still climbing roughly the same grade, I'm doing it easier, faster and with less injury. 

I think everyone is different.

After climbing 6 times a week indoors and now down to twice per week, I've actually felt like my fingers are stronger each session.

It's the same with the gym, 2/3 times a week seems to be the sweetspot for gains.

Outdoor climbing is different imo and easier on the body, so less rest is needed.

This is the case for me too. 3 x 2-3hr sessions is the sweet spot for me - but that consists of 1-2 hrs of hard limit bouldering each session (or similar intensity) with whatever antagonist, core, supplementary training for the last hour. My body (particularly fingers) couldn't really handle much more to be honest, but with that I have been making steady gains for the past year. Bear in mind as others have said, I focus very much on quality of training and do not dawdle and get distracted during my sessions as my training time is limited.

I hope to add in non intense non climbing workouts perhaps on a rest day or two and I'm confident that will help me along without over stressing my body.

When I first started out I saw improvement climbing once a week for 2ish hours. This lasted for about a year. After that I moved to 2 sessions a week of 2 or so hours. I slowly gained improvements from this for about another year or two.

Climbing 3 times a week for between 1.5 and 2.5 hours has generally proved effective at generating slow improvement since then, though the key for me is avoiding injury. Mix up your sessions between doing lots of easier routes/boulders, and a smaller volume of stuff that's right at your limit. A mistake I've made in the past is always trying stuff at my limit and that has invariably led to getting injured.

I buy an annual wall pass. As long as I go more than once a week this pays back and in the scheme of things is roughly half the price of a gym.

I improved most rapidly when I raised the quality of my sessions rather than the quantity. 2 sessions a week got me from V7-V10 in a year (to my surprise). I wrote about it here:

https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/tricks_for_the_time-starved_cl...

Since then I've continued to improve, but believe routes require a higher volume of training than bouldering did (albeit at a lower intensity). So I've increased to 2-3 times weekly.

Unless you've got lots of time/money (or are climbing harder than 8b/V11) I think 3 sessions per week is plenty, *IF* they're really good sessions.