Your Coach Doesn’t Know How to Pivot

Why You’re Burnt Out, Broken, and Still Being Told to Push Through It—Or Worse, Met with Indifference by your coach.

Your shoulder's been aching for two weeks. Your deadlift speed has dropped off a cliff. Your back flares up every time you squat. Your elbows are lit up like a Christmas tree, and your warm-ups feel heavier than your old 1RM.

You tell your coach.

You expect a plan.

You expect solutions.

Instead, you get one of two things:

“Stick to the plan—it’s just a bit of fatigue.” or radio silence—a shrug emoji, a blank stare, or an auto-generated RPE cap with no real adjustment.

And so you keep going. You brace harder. You grind more. You start rolling out between sets. You switch to heavier sleeves. You pray you’ll just “get through this block.”

But deep down, you know: the plan has stopped working.

And worse than that?

Your coach doesn’t know how to pivot.

You can spot it instantly once you know what to look for. The second an athlete starts showing signs of breakdown—joint pain, CNS fatigue, declining performance, psychological burnout—the wrong coaches double down.

They can’t switch the movement. They can’t shift the focus. They can’t modify the structure.

Because they were never taught how. Or their entire “system” is just a repackaged spreadsheet that can’t adapt to real life.

They don’t understand autoregulation—beyond slapping an RPE number onto a lift. They don’t understand the role of intelligent variation—beyond alternating high bar and low bar. They don’t understand what to do when specificity stops helping and starts hurting.

They’ve memorised a program. They haven’t learned a system.

And so instead of pivoting? They push. They ignore. They blame. Or they ghost.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t about being soft.

It’s about being smart. It’s about knowing when a lifter needs to shift the movement pattern, deload the joint, or reroute the stress elsewhere.

It’s about seeing warning signs before they become real injuries. It’s about knowing why pain is showing up—not just how to work around it temporarily. It’s about having a broad enough exercise pool, enough experience with different lifters, and enough understanding of physiology, psychology, and performance to pivot without panicking.

But most coaches? They were never trained in this. They were trained to follow a flowchart. To repeat the plan. To treat performance dips as effort problems, not adaptation issues.

If the lifter breaks down, the answer is:

“You need to push harder.”
“You’re under-recovered.”
“You just need a week off.”
Or worse: “Just run this next block, it’ll fix itself.”

And if it doesn’t? That’s when the cycle begins. More specificity. More top sets. More stimulants. More peptides. More injuries.

Until the lifter gets pulled from comp—or walks away from the sport entirely.

The truth?

If your coach can’t train around pain, you don’t have a coach. You have a scheduler.

And if they’re indifferent when your progress halts or your joints start screaming, you’re not in a coaching relationship—you’re in a subscription service.

You deserve more than that.

You deserve a system that adapts. A plan that evolves. A coach that actually coaches.

You deserve someone who knows how—and when—to pivot.

💀 The Problem: Specificity Without Adaptation

How Many Dweeby Skinny Powerlifters Have you seen but 7.5kg on their Bench PB in 5 years while benching 4 times a week.

Let’s get something clear: specificity is a foundational training principle. You want to get better at squatting? You’ll need to squat. You want to win your next log press event? You’re going to have to train the log.

But specificity without adaptation? That’s just overuse with a certificate.

It starts with good intentions. Week after week of comp lifts. Dialled-in movement cues. Bar speed tracking. Top sets at RPE 8.

And it works—until it doesn’t.

Because the truth is, no matter how well the program is written, your body doesn’t respond to exercises. It responds to stress. And when that stress is constant, unchanging, and aimed at the same tissues, angles, and joints week after week?

The plan stops being progressive. It starts becoming destructive.

You see it all the time in strength sports:

Squat three+ times a week with the same bar, same stance, same or similar tempo? Welcome to patellar tendinopathy.
Heavy pressing four times a week, always from the same fixed bar path? Enjoy your shoulder impingement.
Deadlifts every other day, or every single friday, because that’s what the spreadsheet says? Say hello to lumbar fatigue, and goodbye to bar speed.

No GPP. No variation. No rotation of stress. Just... more of the same.

And the worst part? Coaches cling to “the plan” even as it starts breaking their athletes.

Instead of recognising early warning signs, they double down. They increase volume. They prescribe “recovery protocols.” They tell lifters to “stick it out” because the numbers will come back.

But they don’t.

Because the plan doesn’t account for reality. It doesn’t account for the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS).

The whole model is simple:

Stress → Recovery → Adaptation.

But most coaching today? It looks more like this:

Stress → Stress → Stress → Pain → Ibuprofen.

When things start falling apart, this is what usually happens:

Some lifters cope by pulling out of comps—or get pulled by their coaches who don’t know what else to do. Others? They go the pharmaceutical route. They up the dose, throw in peptides, and pray their connective tissue holds out long enough to survive another prep cycle.

But let’s not pretend that’s high performance. That’s not progression. That’s survival.

It’s a desperate attempt to drug their way through bad programming. Because the structure didn’t allow for pivoting. Because the coach couldn’t adapt the training to the athlete. Because specificity became dogma instead of a tool.

“I coached a lifter who came to me after being pulled from three competitions in a row due to recurring bicep tendonitis. Her old coach’s solution? More rest, more ibuprofen, and eventually just scratching the meets—never once thinking to adjust grip, bar path, or event work to train around it. The injury wasn’t the issue—the lack of creativity was.”

Specificity only works when it’s part of a bigger system—a system that knows when to back off, when to change the stimulus, when to chase recovery as hard as you chase numbers.

Without that?

You’re not chasing PRs. You’re chasing the moment your joints give out.

🧠 The Real Reason: They Don’t Understand Autoregulation

Here’s the uncomfortable truth most coaches won’t admit:

They don’t actually know how to autoregulate.

They might know how to say the word. They might even know how to plug RPEs into a spreadsheet. But real autoregulation? The kind that keeps athletes progressing, injury-free, and on the platform?

They’ve got no idea.

Because autoregulation isn’t just “add a rest day” or “drop 5% off your top set.” It’s not just adjusting load based on how hard something felt. It’s not just capping an AMRAP because the athlete says they’re tired.

It’s a system for:

Knowing what variation to plug in when a lifter’s body starts talking back.
Rotating exercises to avoid overuse before it becomes injury.
Adapting movement selection and loading strategy and intent—based on feedback, pattern breakdown, fatigue, pain signals, and psychological state.

That takes experience. It takes education. It takes actually coaching someone.

But if your coach only knows comp lifts and maybe a paused version of that same lift? You’re already behind.

Let’s put it simply:

If their solution to a sore back is to swap high bar for low bar, If their fix for sore knees is to deload for a week and repeat the same thing, If their idea of rotation is choosing between conventional and sumo deadlifts?

They don’t know how to pivot. They just know how to stall the problem.

You don’t need to know the exact studies on velocity loss thresholds, but you do need to know how to move stress off irritated joints without derailing training entirely. You need to understand biomechanics well enough to see when a lifter is compensating. You need to be confident enough to break from “the plan” in favour of long-term progress.

And if you’re hiding behind data instead of addressing real breakdown?

“What good is data if your lifter’s wrecked and still doing pin squats at RPE 9 because ‘it worked in the study’?”

Autoregulation doesn’t mean you train soft. It means you train smart.

It means you have more than three tools in the toolbox. It means you build a movement pool that fits the lifter—not just the program. It means you adjust based on actual adaptation, not wishful thinking or textbook fatigue timelines.

A good coach can make a call that keeps you progressing when things get messy.

A bad coach? They’ll have you chasing comp lifts into the ground, wondering why your elbows won’t let you bench anymore.

Autoregulation is the art of keeping the mission the same—while changing the method. That’s what separates coaches from programmers. That’s what keeps lifters healthy, adaptable, and dangerous on comp day.

Without it?

You’re just following instructions while your body falls apart one set at a time.

🧱 How to Actually Pivot

Let’s say you’ve recognised the warning signs. Your body’s giving you feedback. Things hurt. You’re slowing down. Maybe you're not broken yet—but you're heading that way.

What do you do?

This is where real coaching shows up.

This is where “pivoting” becomes more than a buzzword—and turns into a skillset. A system. A method for keeping training productive even when things aren't perfect.

Here’s how to do it right.

🛠️ A. Use Exercise Variation to Shift the Stress

If something’s hurting—or starting to break down—you don’t always need to rest. You need to re-route the stress.

Your comp squat lighting up your hips or low back? → Swap in an SSB box squat, a belt squat, or a Zercher.

Flat bench irritating your shoulders? → Plug in incline press, boards, floor press, or a cambered bar.

Pressing from a fixed rack grinding your elbows? → Bring in a football bar, dumbbells, or even sled pressing.

This isn’t just “switch it up.” It’s using tools intentionally to protect the system without losing the stimulus.

The movement changes. The stress shifts. But the work continues.

🧠 B. Diagnose the Weak Point

Pain isn’t always the problem. Often, it’s the symptom of something else not doing its job.

So instead of just asking, “What hurts?” Start asking:

“What’s not pulling its weight?”

If your knees hurt during squats, but your glutes and hamstrings are weak, that’s not a knee problem. That’s a posterior chain failure.

If your back tweaks every time you deadlift, but your hamstrings aren’t firing, you don’t need a rest day—you need to train your hamstrings.

Autoregulation without diagnosis is just educated guessing.

Identify the weak link—and target it.

Don't just lower volume. Don't just cut intensity. Fix the f*cking issue.

Fix Your Weaknesses: A Conjugate Guide to Building Unstoppable Strength

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🪓 C. Address Events Without Aggravation

Strongman is a battlefield for the body. Log press, yoke walks, stones—they’ll break you if you let them.

But here's the secret: You don’t need the exact implement to train for the event every single time.

Log press hurting your wrists or shoulders? → Press from pins sometimes. Press a football bar. Use incline. Build the overhead with a better tool.

Can’t train stones today? → Sandbag over bar. Zercher carries. Suitcase deadlifts.

Can’t run yoke for a couple weeks? → March with a safety bar. Carry dumbbells. Drag a sled.

Every event is just a test of certain qualities. You don’t need the exact thing—you need the right adaptation.

This is exactly why we wrote the Strongman Without Implements series. It’s why we built The Conjugate Strongman Ebook. Because if you can’t train around the problem, you don’t have a system. You have a liability.

Conjugate for Strongman 12 Week EBook Program 2.0

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🧭 D. Autoregulate With a Framework

Most lifters try to pivot when it’s already too late.

That’s not autoregulation—that’s crisis management.

You need rules, not reactions. You need fallback options, not last-minute guesses.

Example frameworks:

If ___ hurts, switch to ___. “If comp deadlift aggravates the hip → switch to trap bar or SSB good mornings.”
If performance drops for 2 weeks in a row → rotate the movement.
If RPE spikes with no change in bar speed → deload OR change intent (speed focus, tempo, etc.).

This is what feedback loops look like. It’s not emotional. It’s structured. It’s responsive.

It means you can stay in the game. Keep progressing. Keep getting better—even when things aren’t ideal.

Because let’s face it:

If your coach can’t train around pain, you don’t have a coach. You have a scheduler.

“One lifter I worked with had a shoulder injury that should have been manageable. But her coach wouldn’t change a thing—just kept her on submaximal bench and squat work for over a year, terrified to deviate from comp lifts. She didn’t just stall—she regressed, mentally and physically. All she needed was variation and a plan to work around it. An SSB & Swiss Bar were game changers”

⚙️ You Don’t Need a Program—You Need a System

Here’s the punchline no one wants to hear:

Programs break under pressure. Systems adapt.

A program gives you a plan. A system gives you answers when the plan stops working.

Most lifters don’t fall off because they were lazy, inconsistent, or “just didn’t want it enough.” They fall off because they got hurt, burnt out, or confused—and had no idea what to do next.

Their coach ghosted them. The spreadsheet had no contingency. The block they were following didn’t account for the fact that life happens, bodies change, and stress accumulates.

So they stagnated. They pulled out of comp. Or worse—they doubled down, trained through the pain, and made things worse.

A system doesn’t just get you strong when things are going well. It keeps you in the fight when everything’s going sideways.

A system includes:

Autoregulation that actually works (not just “drop 5%”)
Exercise variation with purpose, not novelty
Movement rotation based on real feedback
GPP and restoration work that keeps the engine running
Weak point analysis that goes deeper than “do more hamstring curls”
Mental and emotional resilience, built through flexibility—not fragility

That’s what we build with Conjugate. That’s what’s missing in most popular “evidence-based” templates. That’s why your bench still hurts even after three deloads and six weeks of tempo work.

“Most lifters don’t need motivation. They need a system that can survive stress, fatigue, injury, and chaos—and still produce progress.”

That’s what this is all about. Not sexy programming. Not shiny PDFs. Systems that hold up under pressure, and coaching that actually adapts.

Because if you don’t have a system?

You’ll keep repeating the same cycle.
You’ll keep chasing numbers while your body breaks down.
You’ll keep getting told to “trust the process” by someone who doesn’t even know what process you’re in anymore.

So no, you don’t need another program. You need a system.

One that adapts. One that pivots. One that keeps you strong long enough to actually hit the numbers you’re chasing.

And if your current setup can’t do that?

It’s time to switch.

Pivot or Perish

If you’ve read this far, you already know the truth:

The plan breaks down.
The pain creeps in.
The lifter stalls.
And most coaches? They don’t know what to do next.

They hide behind spreadsheets. They push harder instead of smarter. They offer indifference when leadership is needed most.

But now you know better.

You know what pivoting really means—variation, diagnosis, autoregulation, system-level thinking.

You know that when a coach fails to adapt, the lifter pays the price.

And you know that pain, burnout, and plateaus aren’t rites of passage—they’re warning signs.

🚨 Coaches:

Learn how to pivot—or watch your lifters walk away. They’ll find someone who can actually help. Someone who doesn’t crumble the second things get messy. Someone who doesn’t confuse “hardcore” with “helpless.”

You either evolve—or you become another cautionary tale with good intentions and no results.

🔥 Athletes:

Stop accepting pain, boredom, and indifference as part of the plan. You deserve better than a coach who treats injuries like excuses. Better than another 12-week “science-based” spreadsheet with no backup plan. Better than being told to “trust the process” while your performance tanks and your joints beg for mercy.

You don’t need another program. You need a system.

🧠 Want to learn how to pivot, autoregulate, and keep progressing?

These are the exact tools I built for athletes and coaches who want more than excuses:

🔗 Fix Your Weaknesses A Conjugate-based guide to diagnosing and correcting the real reasons lifts fail.
🔗 From Training to the Podium Strongman-specific peaking systems that adapt to fatigue, injuries, and comp chaos.
🔗 The Full Conjugate System 12 months of intelligent, flexible, high-performance programming with room to pivot.
🔗 Coaching & Mentoring If you want the system, the experience, and the accountability—I’ll teach you how to build it from the ground up.