You need to continuously break meaningful records if you want to reach your next climbing level. Let's explore each element of that statement.Continuously
You should be able to break your records at will. If this is not possible or happening, it is an indicator of suboptimal training. You need to change what you are doing if you are currently at a plateau but want to get better.
Breaking
Your should be setting new personal records in training. Even before I enter the gym, I have the goal to set a new specific record. Here are my campus and hangboard logs from a previous cycle. I have the dates when I broke my previous records, in addition to recording each session.
Meaningful
The records should be personally relevant to your limiters and goals. My goal is to send everyday, so I focus on refining my tactics and maintaining stamina. Your meaningful records might be different. It might be maximum number of pull-ups in a set (most likely your definition of "meaningful" should have nothing to do with pull-ups).
Records
You should have specific, objective benchmarks. One of my favorites benchmarks is the number of climbs I can send in a session at 3 grades easier than my current onsight level. That is my preferred indicator for stamina. Another one of my benchmarks is the number of tries to send a climb 3 grades harder than my current onsight level. That tells me how my sharp my redpoint tactics are relative to my onsight ability.
