How to Improve at Climbing

Article updated on 02/09/2026.

Every climber wants to improve, few know where to start. Progress in climbing is first of all a question of priorities and method.

The 5 pillars of progression

A climber who plateaus is almost always unbalanced across these 5 pillars. Identify your weak point, that’s where your gains will come fastest.

Pillar 1: technique, always first

In The Climbing Bible, Mobråten and Christophersen make it their first commandment. A climber who is physically strong and technically weak wastes energy on every move, and ends up stuck against a plateau that no hangboard session will unlock. Technical work plays out on 4 concrete fronts: footwork precision, hip placement, the ability to put as much weight as possible on your feet, pacing your effort and movement efficiency.

Technique is trained deliberately, not by passively racking up routes. You can, for example, do 15 to 20 minutes of technique work while warming up at the start of a session on easy climbs (2 to 4 grades below your max), focusing on one point at a time.

Pillar 2: finger strength

Mobråten and Christophersen are clear: finger strength relative to body weight is the most decisive physical factor in climbing. But they add a strict condition that often gets forgotten: only train it seriously once your technique is already solid. A beginner who gets on the hangboard before having good footwork gains 2 grades in 6 months, then stagnates for 4 years because they have hit their technical ceiling. Specific hangboard work becomes a real accelerator from 6c/7a, when strength genuinely is the limiter. It’s all detailed in the finger strength guide.

Pillar 3: core and body tension

The most visible gap in intermediate climbers shows up the moment they tip into an overhang or a roof. The feet cut, the hips drop, and everything goes into the arms. The cause isn’t a lack of arm strength, it’s a lack of core.

Pillar 4: the mental game

Fear of falling limits more climbers than a lack of strength does. Mobråten and Christophersen put the mental game on the same level as the physical (that’s their commandment 8). If you stop because you hesitate to commit above a bolt, that’s mental, you refuse to commit to a move because you’re anticipating the fall. For the people most blocked mentally by the fear of falling, the work can be built up very gradually: first learn to let go on top rope, then on a quickdraw with the rope tight, then climbing higher and higher above the draw and with a more dynamic belay. Visualisation helps too: picturing yourself falling with a smile, picturing yourself taking “good falls” …. Progress is slow but it lasts.

Pillar 5: tactics and route reading

Trying a project without reading it is wasting burns. Before every hard route it’s worth taking the time to read it from the ground: spotting the line, the hard sections and any rests or shake-outs …
On rock, watch your partners climb and note the beta that works. On boulders, try the key moves in isolation before linking them. Tactics will easily gain you 1 or 2 grades without changing anything about your physical condition.

Why you’re plateauing (and how to get out of it)

A plateau is almost always the sign of an imbalance. You pushed one pillar to the max for 2 years, the other 4 didn’t follow, and the whole system is stuck on the weakest one. Diagnose it honestly, by noting for each pillar where you really stand.

4 mistakes come up almost every time with climbers who stay at the same level for years:

1. Always climbing in the same place, in the same style. Same gym, same type of holds, same kind of moves. The body no longer needs to adapt. Changing gym 1 time a month, mixing overhang/slab/vertical, getting out on rock on unfamiliar styles, that’s the simplest way to restart adaptation.
2. Chasing strength without having sorted out technique. It’s the most expensive mistake, because you pay for it in years. You push your finger strength to the limit, your technical ceiling stays at 6c, and you end up injured without having improved.
3. Never varying the intensity. Always climbing at 80 %, never really hard, never really easy. Without a real peak, no adaptation to high intensity. And if the intensity never comes back down, recovery doesn’t happen either.
4. Mistaking fatigue for progress. Leaving every session wrecked is a sign of bad dosing. A good session leaves you tired that evening, fresh 2 days later.

The role of the hangboard in progression

The hangboard isolates finger strength under conditions no other method allows: load controlled to the kilo, consistent grip positions. You can know precisely that you have gained 4 kg on a 20 mm edge in half crimp over 8 weeks, a figure that’s impossible to get from climbing. That precision is what makes it a real training tool.

But the hangboard never replaces climbing itself. It trains one factor (finger strength), not the climbing. A climber who only hangboarded would build powerful fingers without knowing how to use them on a wall. The ratio to aim for: 70 % of volume on the wall, 30 % specific training (hangboard, core, mental). Past that, you unbalance things.

The hangboard (for maximum strength) becomes worthwhile from 6c/7a, when finger strength starts to cap your progress. Below that level, it can serve to get the tendons used to loading and speed up adaptation, but the work stays in sub-maximal hangs. To choose a model that suits your level and your space, I’ve detailed all the criteria in the guide to choosing a hangboard.

Frequently asked questions

How many sessions a week to really improve?

For an intermediate level (6b to 7a), 2 climbing sessions and 1 specific training session (hangboard or core) are plenty. Beyond that, you get into volumes most amateurs can’t absorb without wrecking their recovery. The real variable isn’t the number of sessions, it’s their quality and the spacing (48 to 72 hours between 2 hard sessions).

Do you need to get out on rock to improve, or is the gym enough?

The two bring different things. On rock the route reading is more complex, tactics often matter more and managing fear is more present. The gym allows repetition, controlled volume, deliberate technical work, training in bad weather. A pure gym climber plateaus on rock on fear and reading. The reverse exists too, but is less visible: from going round the same crags in the same style, you plateau physically without noticing. Mixing the two is the right compromise. Worth knowing: there is a real grade gap between the gym and the crag, and you’re better off knowing about it before doubting your level on your first 6c outdoors.

A personal coach, from what level?

Useful from 6b/6c if you have been plateauing for over a year despite training regularly. An outside eye will spot in one session technical flaws that have been there for years. Very useful from 8a if you don’t know how to structure your training on your own and you want efficient progress, because at that level the margins are thinner and strategy mistakes in training cost a lot. The best coach I know is Bastien at https://aporteededoigts.com/

How long does it take to reach 7a?

It varies with your rhythm, your sporting background and your build. For someone starting as an adult, with no particular sporting background, at 2 sessions a week: reckon on 3 to 6 years. Faster with a gymnastics background or another agility sport, slower if you start after 40. 7a remains a symbolic milestone, one that takes several years of investment.

Going further… keep reading