6 Tips that Blew Up My Climbing Progression

What advice has been most influential on your climbing progression?

I felt like I got up to 5.12b fairly quick. Just under a year to get there. I’ve had several injuries since then, and I feel like I’m a worse climber than I was 2 years ago. I have better technique for sure, but I feel like a weakling tbh 😢

Amazing content! Thank you

+1 to redefining failure. That's been especially useful to me with sport climbing, where it can often be a challenge to actually pull until failure and take. Going into a session at the gym or outside with the goal of not taking, rather than sending is incredibly powerful. Certainly, this should be balanced against good tactics, but if you know the beta, but yell take "because it didn't feel quite right", that is failure, but if you pull till you pop with honest, that's success. You can go home with head held high even you don't send a thing doing this.

With bouldering, a tip that really helped me (I think from Dave McLeod's books) was to try to imagine how moves will feel (i.e., tension required, is it in balance, etc) when you read a route. After you fall off or send, then re-asses if the moves felt how you thought they would. Maybe you used different beta than how you initially read the route. Try to figure out why. I think consistently doing this really helped my skill development.

Id be interested in a video on the effectiveness of caffeine as a climbing tool. I see so many energy drinks, coffees, pre workout drinks at the climbing gym and i wonder how much 200-300+ mg of caffeine is actually helping preformance and mental awareness. Just a thought.

I think this is one of the best videos i have seen, thank you!

since you say your climbing progression blew up: what exactly happened? i would like a video about your climbing history and developement. like, does "blew up" mena you went from V5 to V7, oder from V7 to V11? there is much room for interpretation

Why not just use HR/BP? Measure resting before workout. Immediately after a route. Then after 3 minutes or so. If you're not recovering after 3-5 minutes, you are probably overtrained. Or max max efforts 10 minutes.

I hope you stay pure, i see more and more product-advertisements in your video,s 😢

Damn, I tried the heel hook exercise and my hamstring started cramping quite quickly! That's one I'll be using in my training!

I love this. I used to watch videos like this from popular weight lifting channels and always found the tips kind of uninspired. Things like: "eat well", "get enough sleep", etc. These tips are actually things I wouldn't have thought about, thanks guys!

Hi @Hooper’s Beta,

I love your scientific climbing videos. It helped me so much getting a better understanding about the little details, how our body works and how to safely progress.

Is there any simple understandable books you’d recommend reading that covers your theories?

I am an intermediate 6c climber with not much knowledge on physiology

I highly appreciate any tips :)

Thanks for the last tip and podcast Emile

Heel Hook is 90% of my climbing :D I've been training my Toe Hook for two years and it made a difference:)

Hell yes, SBS! Also, the Barbell Medicine podcast has a cool episode on "progressive overload vs progressive loading' Where one idea tends to work out as 'add more weight to the bar every week' and the other tries to only add weight when you have adapted to the previous stimulus, or your body is primed for a higher load. Not the easiest thing to describe in two sentences, but a good podcast anyway.

Hey @Hooper's Beta, Great video as alwaysJust want to say how thankful I am to have come across your channel!😊I'm relatively new to climbing ( 3 ish months) and really appreciate the free advice videos you produce. Genuinely appreciate the time and effort and how much care goes into them. ( Also Hello from Ireland ☘: D)

So on point.

i hurt ....something, in my hamstring/butt, while heel hooking and ive been kind of scared to pull hard with a heel ever since.

I love this channel so so so so much

I have the heel hook problem but with toe hooks, I just can't hold them at any angle that isn't perfect. I don't really know an exercise to improve them either.

Awesome video and 🙏. Love The Wall. Surprised I’m doing 4 (heel hooks, redefine failure, different gyms (just did 10 gyms in 12 days/2states), and timer. I have a crane gauge, but never use so will try the upgraded one in link. Thank for informative and functional improvements.🤘

3 sponsors in 13 min?

For a moment I thought the cameraman was Emil Abrahamsson. Plot twist

whats with the nails

I would like to give away just three advices, as an intermediate climber:

1) If you are prone to finger injuries, tape your fingers. In particular use the cross technique and cross the knuckles with the tape. This was a life saver for me. I learned this tip on this channel. Before I was just taping around the pulley, and it didn't help. I do only on my middle fingers, because there is where I got injured. It helped me with the healing process, and I recover in a matter of a day. Yesterday I climbed and today I could have climbed again. Before I needed to rest at least 2 days, sometimes 3 days between a session and the other. Now I can climb every other day.

2) Work on projects. This also is helping me to improve. When I find a boulder that I can't easily send but I particularly like, I work on it till I send it. I dedicate most of the time to that boulder, and I work on all the sections separately, and then I connect everything. It's an amazing satisfaction sending a project that is at your limit or even beyond your limits. You have to work on your balance, feet positioning, and maybe increase your finger strength. Work on it. The most satisfying boulders are not the ones you flash, but the ones you work hard to send.

3) Climb with people who are better than you at climbing. You will learn from them quickly. They don't need to be way much stronger, just better than you. If you are a v5 climber, try to climb with someone that can do V6. He will mostly work on your same boulders, and you will have the opportunity to try harder problems that you would not try otherwise. It is great to help each other with betas.

Trust "The Science". Lol

All great tips, I think one practice which helped me grow as a climber when I was newer to it was to read EVERY single route I climbed for a while. Even easier ones. This practice helped develop my ability to catch important details on climbs, and most importantly, to imagine different beta paths which may work. The ability to rethink how to approach climbs is huge when projecting for me, and also the ability to read routes really helps to get the most out of each attempt. I think climbers who lack this ability tend to waste a lot of energy figuring beta out, and also tend to fail at peak level climbs more, as they have a hard time finding more efficient solutions.

Wait, blow up is a good thing?

Could you do a video on how fast different people can expect to progress finger strength or pulling strength? Or how we can predict how fast we will progress based on past performance on exercises.

My advice...see a physio before you need one...I am not a physio!

What’s a good range of sets and reps for the externally rotated single leg bridge? 3sets of 8-10reps 1-2x/wk?

Also. How is that blue nail polish not immediately scratched up?!

Great content as ever, thanks guys 😃

No matter the plan, routine, intensity, ect, the best one is always the one YOU can actually do and be consistent with. Never underestimate mental willpower. Treat it like a muscle, if you try to do too much too quickly, even if your body can physically take it, you can also mentally burn out and the plan will fail. Think about a crash diet, going all out and reducing calorie intake to crazy amounts never lasts long because people can't keep it up. It is the same with training, if you aren't a pro, or on steroids, no one with minimal training experience can jump in to 6 workouts a week with 2 additional side sessions without getting burned out.

TLDR, use progressive overload on your training plan itself, start off by only doing 2-3 things per week for an hour to an hour an a half, then gradually increase things/sessions and time when you are convinced you can actually be consistent.

One emphasis with the deload is the additional training able to be performed in a mesocycle without needing full recovery far outweighs the loss of training sessions during the deload phase. Every session of sufficient stimulus will have a longer term cost than the immediate energy concerns, and if you recovered enough to never need to deload you might train a session to a session and a half each week. However, if you trained four times a week, then some lasting fatigue and damage will accrue session to session, and the deload phase is necessary to reset. You are not losing any time but maximizing time.

Climb at different gyms? Memberships are like $80 on the low end, and day passes are like $25. I like the tip, but it’s not sustainable unless you’re affluent. Especially SoCal.

Here are my tips
1. Mediate before practise 5-15 minutes, just sit watch look breath on a spot down in front of you.
2. make practise uncontrived and playful stay away from to much repetition and spreadsheets.
3. Make climbing in to a Yoga not a sport, integrating body and mind with devine
4. Dont get caught in the trap of outer visual appearance, it seems like this gym culture has moved in to the climbing gyms these days. this creates average climbers which could have been great

Hoopers Beta just upload new video.. i will watch it.. I'm a simple man
Thank you!

Would be interested in a more detailed video breaking down how to use a force gauge not only for warmup awareness but also for tracking training/progression. It seems like the Lattice team does a lot of this testing with force gauges but it seems too daunting to get into, especially at a $150 price point when you're not sure what you're doing.

Loved the video! Definitely gonna try heel hook excercises!

Re: Setting a timer. I would love a full video on rest. Is 10 minutes actually full recovery for a limit boulder project? Is there diminishing returns to rest, like if I rest for 20 minutes will my muscles get "cold"? Is the "rest one minute per hard move" broscience?

I deload every week for a week. Works :)

awesome dude, nothing better than a new hooper beta video right before having a triple espresso and starting my campus board session on my rest day from climbing

Thanks for the really informative video! The editing is great

Great video!

Hooper's back! Love the vids