Looking for recommendations to break into v7 and v8.

So up until recently, I felt I had been experiencing a plateau in my climbing ability, and recently I found myself flashing v5s consistently, and flashing/redpointing a couple of 5.12s. Does anyone have any recommendations to prohibit injury, while climbing at my limit 4-5 times a week? Thanks!

How old are you? This was me like a year ago. I just bouldered hard for like 6-8 months during my wife’s pregnancy and I feel like 7s are very doable now and 8s should go

If you are training high end strength, you are looking at 2-3, not 4-5 times a week. 

The key for high intensity is focused intention built up over time, not high weekly volume. If you think you're going 110% 4-5 times a week either you'll get sick/injured in a few weeks and/or you're holding something back.

I find I can only give 110% for two short sessions a week. The other two are a bit higher volume in the 40%-80% range depending on my goals. Switching climbing styles especially on back to back days helps as well.

I can squeeze in a 3rd by minimizing extra training lowering stress/energy in other parts of my life, but that usually only happens during peak performance phases with low with stress or climbing trips. 

Some pro boulderers, sport climbers and comp climbers work near their limit 4-5 times per week but their life style is like an endless climbing trip and they leave something left in the tank stopping early around 1/2 of their normal training volume. Their 80% level is already double digits, so they can climb hard (for us) problems for longer staying below their max limit.

Nate Morris wrote:

climbing at my limit 4-5 times a week

Pretty much everyone will tell you not to do this. Everyone. This is how you will get injured. You are likely currently overtraining (which isn't training at all), are in a recovery hole (are losing strength) and need to deload (strength is made through rest etc.) I'm assuming you're young and haven't been hit with any overuse injuries yet but they will come eventually - be careful. 

This makes me assume you aren't using any structured training plan. So my second bit of advice would be to look into those. These will likely point you to cycling your training so you can avoid the above.

Agree with all the above comments. I’ve found that 2-3 sessions per week is the sweet spot for intense sessions focused on strength. Other things to consider that aren’t mentioned yet:

flexibitlity is a limiting factor at those grades, especially for men. Hip flexibility specifically.

Lockoff strength becomes more important at those grades. Try hover drills on the wall or pull-up bar training like frenchies and archers

Posterior chain strength will help on overhanging stuff at your limit and can be trained without fatiguing your fingers too much. Deadlifts or kettlebell swings once a week or every 10 days could be a good idea

Climb less, try hard, be intentional, eat lots of protein, and ask why. Maybe lift some weights. 

Bryan wrote:

Climb less, try hard, be intentional, eat lots of protein, and ask why. Maybe lift some weights. 

This^

Bryan wrote:

Climb less, try hard, be intentional, eat lots of protein, and ask why. Maybe lift some weights. 

Agree.

Also, just put in some time trying V7s. If OP is consistently flashing V5, the should have the baseline ability already to send a V7 with a bit of time and effort. Just need to find a problem you like, put in some time, and probably develop some projecting skills. This will also be beneficial to your climbing development, trying harder moves, rather than just sticking to you flash grade. Best benefit is probably from short term projecting though (1-3 sessions to send), rather than going straight into a mega project. 

There's some good advice here already. To give a different flavor of advice:

• Use a rest timer, and rest ~1m per move done on the previous attempt up to about 5m. Hard attempts require a lot of rest, and virtually every psyched climber has a tendency to under-rest.
• Start taking and reviewing notes on your sessions. For bouldering, I highly recommend tracking the grade and number of moves done on each attempt of a problem. The sum of the products of those two (the "workload" calculation in most traditional training apps) is a reasonable indicator of the session's volume. If you use a traditional (non-climbing) training app, this also makes it really easy to bake in the rest timer—log the climb as a traditional exercise where Weight = grade and Reps = # moves. 
• Pay attention to when your power starts to drop, and get in the habit of stopping before then. This is where tracking becomes important. You cannot train strength/power when tired, period, so don't even try.

If you're flashing V5 (not seeing that on your ticklist?) then I would think V8 is well within range, unless those V5s are extremely polarized in terms of style (e.g. big moves between jugs).