Depending on your situation and the type of training readily available to you, The Self Coached Climber would be the best place to look for a regiment that can help you progress on rope. 4x4's, laps, etc are probably the way to go.

Disclaimer: I'm by no means an expert, as i'm in the same boat as you, but i do have the book and it does seem that given the time and opportunity the training programs suggested in there would pay dividends.

i was going to be that someone would tell you to read the SCC, and that someone else would tell you to do 4x4's and BAM, here they are in the same paragraph!

"endurance" is basically being able to do moves below your limit for longer before you get pumped - think longer easier routes, or being able to climb through the last few bolts after the crux.

"power endurance" also referred to as stamina is basically being able to do more moves at your limit before you get pumped.

your situation, as noted, could be due to a multitude of factors. you need to sort out what is holding you back before you can really train for it.

STRENGTH-ENDURANCE

Our usage Strength-Endurance is defined as the ability to sustain high-intensity effort. This is often used synonymously with the term “power-endurance.”

STAMINA

We use the term stamina to describle the fitness required to do lots of climbing in a day, or over a period of several days. We make a distinction here between stamina and endurance, using endurance for describing single-ptich fitness.

“Tolerance” is the ability to sustain a high-level of strength for several moves on a climb. This quality is known by many names, including power-endurance, endurance, and strength-endurance. The latter of these terms is the best and most descriptive, but can be a bit confusing. Spanish climber and coach Jose Luis Ballesteros first turned me on to the term tolerance, and I find it has the right “feel” to it. In his words, “Tolerance is the ability of the whole body to withstand the demands of a strenuous route, one that lacks rests.” I’ll use tolerance and strength-endurance interchangeably. The term power-endurance needs to go in the trash with your old hexes.

Jooler,

Your situation is a common one. The tactical, cognitive, emotional, and fitness demands of bouldering and route climbing are so different, we should not expect that a climber who puts most of his time into straight bouldering will be able to climb routes well. If you mostly boulder then in terms of fitness you are almost certainly lacking in both local aerobic endurance and local anaerobic endurance.

There are a number of ways to train both of these. 4X4s were mentioned earlier but if you don't have any experience doing them I would start with doing intervals on routes rather than just jumping in to doing the highest intensity workout there is. For intervals on routes you want to do 4 - 6 laps on a route that takes 3 or more minutes for 1 lap. (this can be hard to find espcially in a gym, so you many not be able to find routes long enough. in that case just use what you have.) The ideal route is continuous and doesn't really have a crux. Your rest between intervals should be slightly less than your lap time. So if your lap time is 3:00 then try resting for 2:40. It takes experimentation to figure out the proper grade, and rest period. Try it on a 5.10a and see how that feels for you. Make adjustment from there.

I would also do some ARCing on routes as well. Both of these activities will help your become more accustomed to routes while providing targeted fitness training.

From Steve Bechtel:


Self-Coached Climber does the same.

Here's some more from Steve, which pertains to terminology used in this thread:

Interesting, thanks.

I don't know about using the word "tolerance"--very meaningless imo, in a way. Not likely to catch on. No exercise scientists use such a word to describe similar metabolic challenges in other sports.

I don't think "power-endurance" needs to be thrown out, but I DO think strength-endurance is much more in line with what climbers are REALLY talking about and training for in most situations. Power-endurance is a term that means something real, but is probably encountered far less in climbing than most people realize.

I find it very irksome, however, that climbers think it means the same thing as strength-endurance. Strength are power are absolutely not the same.

My bouldering and route climbing are not remotely on par with each other.