UKC

I’ve been climbing seriously for about 6 months now and I try to climb at the local gym 3/4 times a week. Hardest routes I’ve managed were graded v6 but that’s my limit. 

I’ve always been slim and strong for my weight but I’m definitely noticing a difference in the way my body looks. I’d like to start a body weight/calisthenics routine but don’t want to overdo it. What do you guys do training wise? Wouldn’t mind working on my flexibility/mobility too.

Eat raw chicken heads

Generally speaking, people on here will do nothing except go climbing.

There's a good reason for this: if you want to get better at climbing, then going climbing is by far the best way to achieve that. If you do 3 sessions a week, if you sacrifice 1 session to do gym work or whatever, you're just losing a session which would be more effectively spent at the wall (or better, on rock).

All this said, I currently have an elbow injury which I probably wouldn't have got if I'd been doing stretching and antagonist muscle exercises. I am very sceptical of non-climbing exercises making people actually better at climbing, below the elite level. But doing something like yoga in addition to all the climbing sessions (not instead of) may help prevent injury.

Given your limited climbing background I would target your antagonistic muscles if you want to do anything above just climbing.

I use a variety of calisthenic apps, one of the best I've found is YAYOG, You Are Your Own Gym. There are plenty out there to choose from. I'll only train if I can't get to the wall.

I would agree with what's posted above though, climbing is the best training for climbing! I'm lucky enough to be able to climb/boulder at least four evenings and sometimes five a week, it's made a huge improvement to my ability.

They enjoy climbing more than training, most climbers do. Isn't that a factor, maybe a more important factor, than it being the best way to improve? If you've only been climbing for 6 months then it's likely that just climbing a lot will lead to improvement, but that doesn't make it the best way. Not saying I'm qualified to advise on the optimal way, but I would guess something a bit more targeted at improving movement and skills would be better than just climbing.

Ignoring current elite level climbers. Haven't climbers always used non-climbing exercises to get better? The methods were crude but the massive improvement of standards in the 80's does seem to indicate it was working. And look at John Gill.

We're at cross purposes here - if it's movement and skills then to me that's "climbing" i.e. using holds on a wall, rather than "training" i.e. doing something else, other exercises. 

I thought standards went up when they started screwing resin holds to overhanging boards and climbing on them, rather than when they started doing dips and front levers etc. 

The distinction I'm making between "climbing" and "training" is to match the OP's question. I would normally refer to bouldering on a 30 degree board or doing laps as "training" (but it's still climbing!). 

Was agreeing to some extent, just expanding on the 'just go climbing a lot' mentality.

Partly boards yes, but looking at some of the vids and reading some of the books it included a lot more, campus boards, pull ups for example. And John Gill was strong from training to be a gymnast. He applied that strength to climbing and was miles ahead of current standards, at a time when most of his contemporaries mainly just climbed.

It might be worth getting hold of Dave Macleod's "9 out of 10 climbers ...".

I would trust his advice.

Luckily the campus board and finger board come under the category ‘climbing’

I think dedicated training on fingerboards, campus boards etc is useful at an elite level or at more moderate levels if training time is very limited and you can't just "go climbing" all the time. 

Me and my band of bouldering chums have all climbed Font 8A/+ and are regularly climbing 7C's. None of us uses fingerboards or campus boards to get better. We do climb on 45 and 30 degree boards for "training" twice a week but never do a set workout, we just make up problems and try and do them. If not we'll go to the Bowderstone for an evening session which is pretty much the same only on real rock.

BTW, I'd put "elite level" at about 8B+ and up. But a few years back I'd have probably said it was 8A (before I could climb that hard). I suppose it only shows some people can get to 8A without specific training, as for how much further we can go, we just don't know yet because in general we're all still improving.

But maybe we'd be even better (or have gotten better quicker) if we added in a fingerboard session each week or changed one of our random board sessions for a structured workout on the board (4x4's, systems training etc). I just don't know. What I do know though, is I can't be arsed with such focused training, I'd rather be climbing than hanging off mono's watching a clock all evening. I just like to climb and like to climb at my limit, I don't suppose it really matters where that limit is as long as I'm pushing it because that's what I enjoy.
 

My point was only that I think even non elite level climbers can improve their climbing from training that isn't climbing, not that you can't get better by climbing on a board, or even just climbing outside all the time. Obviously a lot of people can.

Maybe. It's finding a balance that works, and that's very personal. Age, genetics, amount of free time etc.

Very few people want to fingerboard all evening. I tend to do about 15 mins, then I climb for a couple of hours. The good things is I can feel stronger after a bit of fingerboarding because I'm well recruited. And mainly because it suited my personal circumstances this winter.

I guess if you don't enjoy the overall experience, then you won't stick to it. If I find something that works, and doesn't involve too much time away from actual climbing (max hangs I'm looking at you) then I find the improvement rewarding enough to keep at it. But when the weather changes (again) I might be outside until November.