Bouncing Back: What to Do After a Disappointing Competition Performance in Strongman, Powerlifting, and Weightlifting
Introduction: The Gut Punch of Competition Failure
There is no worse feeling for a strength athlete than stepping off the platform, out of the strongman arena, or back from the barbell knowing you have underperformed. Whether it’s bombing out, failing lifts you should have made, getting crushed on an event you thought you had locked down, or simply not placing as well as you expected, competition failure is an emotional wrecking ball.
After all, you’ve invested months, maybe years, of effort into this moment. You’ve sacrificed time, energy, and social life for the pursuit of peak performance. You were ready—or so you thought. But now you’re left asking, what went wrong? Was it bad programming, poor peaking, technical issues, mental breakdown, coaching errors, picking the wrong competition, or just bad luck?
The good news? Every lifter and strength athlete will experience this at some point. The best in the world have faced crushing defeats and came back stronger because of them. Your response to failure, not the failure itself, determines your future success.
This article will cover:
✅ Why your competition went wrong – From bad peaking, injuries, and coaching mistakes to self-doubt, poor warm-ups, event selection, and nutrition errors.
✅ How to diagnose the issue – Using our competition failure pyramid to break down whether it was physical, technical, mental, or strategic.
✅ What to do immediately after competition – Managing recovery, appraising your weaknesses, and getting your head right.
✅ Short, medium, and long-term plans for rebuilding – From immediate recovery to long-term training blocks.
✅ When and how to assess your coaching situation – Should you stick with your current coach or move on?
✅ Lessons from elite-level competitors – Strongman, powerlifters, and weightlifters who rebuilt after failure.
✅ Where to go next – Should you compete again soon or take a long off-season?
✅ Why tying your self-worth to competition results is dangerous in the long term.
By the end, you’ll not only have a plan for rebuilding but a framework for turning failure into fuel for future success. Let’s focus on Bouncing Back: What to Do After a Disappointing Competition Performance and break it all down.
Part 1: Diagnosing the Problem – Why Didn’t It Go to Plan?
When you fail to perform in competition, it’s rarely just one thing that went wrong. More often than not, it’s a combination of physical, technical, psychological, and strategic errors.
To diagnose competition failure, we use a Competition Performance Pyramid, adapted from strength diagnostics used by elite powerlifters, strongman athletes, and weightlifters.
The Competition Failure Pyramid
At the base of the pyramid are physical limitations, followed by technical execution, mental game, and competition strategy. Issues lower down the pyramid are more fundamental and more difficult to correct, whereas higher-up issues can often be fixed with better planning and mental approach.
1. Physical Limitations (Foundation Level)
Before looking at anything else, ask yourself:
➡️ Was I strong enough to perform the lifts/events successfully?
If you were simply outmuscled or outperformed in raw strength, then the issue isn’t mental or technical—it’s physical. If your squat, deadlift, press, or grip strength wasn’t at the level required, no amount of psychological preparation would have helped. This highlights gaps in your long-term strength development and programming.
➡️ Did I have the endurance or work capacity required?
If you found yourself gasping for air during medleys, struggling to finish a series of lifts, or hitting a wall during longer events, your conditioning was insufficient. Strength endurance is just as important as max strength in strongman and functional powerlifting.
➡️ Was I dealing with an injury or accumulated fatigue?
If you entered the competition with nagging pain, joint issues, or chronic fatigue, that played a massive role in your underperformance. Competing at less than 100% can skew your results and should be accounted for in future competition prep.
➡️ Was my nutrition, supplement, and recovery strategy sufficient to support my performance?
You can’t perform at peak levels if you’ve been under-fuelling, neglecting hydration, or not recovering properly between heavy training blocks. Were you eating enough? Were your protein, carb, and hydration levels dialled in? These aspects separate those who peak perfectly from those who fall flat.
2. Technical Breakdown
You were strong enough, but did you move efficiently?
➡️ Did you miss lifts because of technical breakdowns?
If you failed lifts that you routinely hit in training, your technical execution might have faltered under competition stress. This often happens when an athlete lacks high-intensity, competition-specific practice.
➡️ Were you inconsistent with execution between training and competition?
A common issue is lifters who train too loosely and lack precise control over their technique, leading to inconsistency on meet day.
➡️ Was your bar path off? Was your movement pattern faulty?
Something as small as a slight deviation in bar path can be the difference between a white light and a missed lift. If you aren’t executing your technique with robotic precision, it will show up under pressure.
3. Psychological & Mental Preparation
➡️ Did you feel excessive stress, anxiety, or mental fog?
If nerves got the best of you, it may be a sign that you need more exposure to high-pressure situations in training.
➡️ Were you too hyped up or not hyped up enough?
Some lifters over-amp themselves and burn out early, while others fail to get into the competitive mindset. Finding the right balance is key.
➡️ Did self-doubt or mental fatigue creep in?
Confidence is built in training. If you doubted yourself before stepping onto the platform, you may not have reinforced your mental toughness in prep.
4. Competition Strategy & Planning
➡️ Did you choose the wrong competition for your current level?
Entering a meet or strongman show that was far beyond your readiness level could mean you were simply outclassed.
➡️ Did you time warm-ups incorrectly?
Warming up too early and cooling down or rushing warm-ups and feeling stiff can sabotage your entire performance.
➡️ Did you mismanage your competition-day nutrition, hydration, or sleep?
If you weren’t properly fuelled or rested, your energy levels and recovery capacity took a major hit.
🔴 Common mistakes when selecting a competition:
❌ Jumping into high-level competitions before you're ready, resulting in discouragement rather than progress.
❌ Underestimating the demands of specific events in strongman or high-level powerlifting meets.
❌ Overestimating your ability to perform under pressure, leading to stress-induced performance drops.
❌ Not training to the standards of the competition you are entering, such as squatting high in training or not practicing commands or familiarising yourself with specific kit or rule sets.
A competition should be just above your current level to challenge you but not so far out of reach that it destroys confidence.
Part 2: What to Do Immediately After Competition – Appraising & Recovering
Once you know why you failed, the next step is recovery and re-assessment.
Immediate Post-Competition Recovery
Once the competition is over, it’s time to move from disappointment to action. Your first priority is recovery—both physically and mentally—so that you can approach the process of reflection and improvement with a clear head. This means taking immediate steps to restore your body, process the experience, and evaluate your performance from a rational perspective.
Immediate Post-Competition Recovery
✅ Physical Recovery – Prioritise sleep, food, and active recovery work. Your body has just gone through extreme stress. Whether it was a full-day strongman competition, a gruelling weightlifting meet, or a high-stakes powerlifting event, your nervous system, joints, and muscles are depleted. Your first step is replenishment.
Sleep: Aim for at least 8-10 hours of high-quality sleep for the next few days. Your nervous system and muscles recover most efficiently during deep sleep cycles. Poor sleep will prolong soreness, delay muscular repair, and leave you feeling mentally sluggish.
Nutrition: Post-competition, your body is in a depleted state. Ensure you are eating enough high-quality proteins for tissue repair (chicken, beef, eggs, fish), carbohydrates to restore glycogen (rice, potatoes, fruits), and healthy fats for hormone regulation (avocado, nuts, oils). Don't suddenly slash calories or try to diet—now is the time to nourish your body, not starve it.
Hydration: Many athletes forget how much fluid loss occurs during competition. Electrolytes, water, and even intra-workout carb drinks can be helpful in restoring hydration levels, reducing muscle cramping, and improving recovery.
Active Recovery: The worst thing you can do is sit still for days. Gentle movement—such as walking, sled drags, light mobility work, swimming, or yoga—can promote circulation, reduce soreness, and prevent stiffness. Contrast therapy (alternating hot and cold showers, sauna use, or ice baths) can help with inflammation and soreness.
✅ Mental Reset – Take time off. Let emotions settle before making drastic decisions. Immediately after a disappointing performance, emotions run high. You may feel anger, frustration, embarrassment, or even despair. This is normal, but it's critical not to let these emotions dictate your next steps.
Step away from social media for a few days if you're feeling overly emotional about your performance. You don't need external validation (or criticism) clouding your judgment.
Take time to decompress before making major decisions about training changes, coaching adjustments, or competitive goals. Rushed decisions, especially while emotional, often lead to overcorrections or impulsive choices that don't actually serve your long-term progress.
Remind yourself that failure is a learning experience. Even the best lifters in the world have lost competitions or bombed out. What separates them from everyone else is how they responded.
✅ Objective Assessment – What went wrong, and what went right? Once emotions settle, it’s time to take a cold, hard look at your performance.
Write down everything that happened, good and bad. Did you hit PRs in any events? Were certain lifts moving better than expected? Did you fall apart on certain technical aspects?
Separate emotions from facts. You may feel like you performed terribly, but objectively, was that the case? Did you hit some PRs but just not place as well as you’d hoped?
Look at external factors. How was the competition setup? Were there judging inconsistencies? Was there unexpected equipment variation? Sometimes, external elements influence performance more than you realise.
Short-Term Steps: The First Few Weeks
After handling immediate recovery, you need to set the foundation for moving forward. These next few weeks should focus on rebalancing your training, addressing weaknesses, and determining your next move.
1️⃣ Deload and Heal – Prioritise mobility, joint health, and light movement.
Do NOT rush back into heavy training. Even if you feel like you have energy, your body has accumulated weeks (or months) of fatigue leading into the competition. Your connective tissues, joints, and nervous system need time to reset.
Spend a week or two doing light movement work. Focus on mobility drills, higher rep bodybuilding-style work, and movement patterns that feel good. This is the time to rebuild imbalances, reinforce structural integrity, and let your body breathe.
If you picked up an injury, now is the time to get it assessed. Don't ignore small issues that could turn into major ones. Book in with a physiotherapist, soft tissue specialist, or sports doctor if needed.
2️⃣ Analyse Performance – Watch your lifts/events with a coach or training partner.
Review your competition footage critically. Watch what went wrong and look at patterns across different events or lifts.
Compare your training lifts to competition performance. Were you executing differently under pressure? Did you miss lifts due to technical breakdown, nerves, or fatigue?
Break it down into specific areas for improvement. Instead of saying, "I suck at deadlifting," ask: "Was my lockout weak? Was my bar speed slow? Did I mismanage my setup?" The more specific you get, the more actionable your adjustments will be.
3️⃣ Decide on the Next Goal – Short turnaround for another comp or longer rebuilding phase?
Do you need to compete again soon to redeem yourself? Sometimes, the best way to get over a bad performance is to get back on the horse. If you feel mentally and physically ready, entering another competition in 8-12 weeks might be a good call.
Would a longer off-season be more beneficial? If you felt significantly weaker or outclassed, it may be time to focus on an extended building phase before stepping back on the platform.
Be honest with yourself. If you were truly outmatched or unprepared, more training time will serve you better than rushing into another competition.
Part 3: The Medium & Long-Term Approach to Rebuilding
Once you've recovered and reflected, it’s time to start rebuilding stronger than before. This stage involves addressing the root causes of your underperformance and setting up a new plan for improvement.
Medium-Term (1-3 Months)
📌 Fix Technical Issues – Identify form breakdown and build efficiency.
If technique was an issue, prioritize positional strength and skill work. Drills, tempo variations, and submaximal work can refine movement patterns.
If bar speed was an issue, incorporate speed work. Dynamic effort training with bands, chains, or explosive intent can improve force output.
If stability was an issue, incorporate more unilateral and stability work. Single-leg movements, belt squats, or pause variations can correct imbalances.
📌 Recover & Restore Work Capacity – Address fatigue, imbalances, and weaknesses.
Rebuild conditioning. If your endurance suffered in strongman events, add sled drags, yoke carries, or loaded carries to improve work capacity.
Strengthen weak muscle groups. Identify lagging areas (e.g., glutes, hamstrings, upper back) and train them with targeted volume.
Improve recovery protocols. If you constantly felt under-recovered, evaluate sleep, nutrition, and stress management.
📌 Start a Structured Off-Season Plan – Strength, size, or endurance focus?
Decide on your main priority. Are you building raw strength, adding muscle mass, or improving event-specific endurance?
Select a training framework. Conjugate, block periodisation, or linear progression—each has pros and cons based on your needs.
Plan progression systematically. Avoid random training. Each phase should build toward the next competition.
Long-Term (3-6+ Months)
📌 Rebuild Strength & Confidence – Train to exceed previous PRs in a sustainable way.
📌 Test Under Competition Conditions – Mock meets, comp-style sessions.
📌 Plan the Next Competition Carefully – Choose a comp that fits your strengths & timeline.
Part 4: Should You Leave Your Coach?
A bad competition performance does not always mean bad coaching. Sometimes, the issue lies in execution, mental preparation, or even factors outside of training, like nutrition, sleep, or stress management. However, there are cases where a poor competition result is a direct reflection of poor coaching. The key is to determine whether your coach is actively contributing to your progress or holding you back.
🔴 Signs You Should Leave Your Coach:
❌ Your Peak Was Completely Off – If your program left you feeling flat, weak, or exhausted, that’s a red flag.
A well-structured peak should leave you feeling primed, explosive, and ready to hit PRs. If you felt sluggish, drained, or under-recovered, it’s a sign that your programming was mismanaged. This could mean too much volume too close to competition, an improper taper, or an overall failure to align training stress with recovery. A bad peak can cost you months of progress. While mistakes happen, a good coach should be able to adjust based on feedback and data. If you’ve experienced multiple poor peaks with no improvement, it’s time to reconsider your coaching situation.
❌ Zero Adjustments Were Made – Good coaches pivot based on your performance.
No training plan is perfect, and an effective coach should be willing to make real-time adjustments when necessary. If your program wasn’t working leading up to competition—whether you were constantly fatigued, missing lifts in training, or struggling with technique—did your coach step in to make modifications? If they ignored warning signs and continued pushing you down the wrong path, that’s a major red flag. Coaching is about adaptability; a rigid coach who refuses to acknowledge issues and make changes is a liability to your progress.
❌ Lack of Communication – Did your coach even acknowledge your struggles?
A coach-athlete relationship thrives on communication. If your coach failed to check in with you, disregarded your concerns, or ghosted you when things weren’t going well, that’s a clear problem. Coaching isn’t just about programming—it’s about mentorship, guidance, and ensuring the athlete is both physically and mentally prepared. If you had doubts about your performance leading up to competition and your coach brushed them off or gave generic responses like “just trust the process,” that’s not good enough. A great coach listens, assesses, and provides concrete solutions.
❌ You Aren’t Improving – If progress has stalled for months, it may be time to move on.
Not every training block leads to huge PRs, but over the course of months or years, you should see measurable improvements. If you’ve been stuck at the same numbers for a long time with no signs of breaking through, it’s worth evaluating whether your training is effective. Stagnation can be due to a variety of factors, but if your coach isn’t addressing weaknesses, adjusting your training variables, or actively troubleshooting your plateaus, they might not be the right fit for you. Long-term success in strength sports requires constant evolution, and a coach who isn’t helping you evolve is ultimately holding you back.
🟢 Signs You Should Stay & Trust the Process:
✅ Your Coach Takes Responsibility & Adjusts for Next Time.
A good coach understands that not every competition will go perfectly and is willing to take accountability for their role in the outcome. If your coach has identified what went wrong, taken notes, and adjusted your training strategy moving forward, that’s a positive sign. The best coaches aren’t defensive; they analyze the data, recognize mistakes, and improve both their own methods and your future performance.
✅ Your Failure Was Due to Execution, Not Programming.
If you were physically and technically prepared but made mistakes on the day—such as missing attempts due to mental lapses, poor attempt selection, or getting too hyped up or too passive—that’s on execution, not necessarily on your coach. A great program won’t save you if your performance was compromised by nerves, stress, or competition-day mismanagement. If your training cycle went well but you failed to bring your best self to the platform or field, leaving your coach may not be the solution. Instead, you may need to work on your competition mindset, attempt selection strategy, and stress management.
✅ Your Training Leading Up to Competition Was Strong.
If your training block was productive, you hit PRs in the gym, and everything pointed toward a great competition day, but things still went wrong, it’s worth sticking with your coach. Sometimes, external factors—poor sleep, travel fatigue, nutrition mishaps, or just an off day—can derail performance. If you genuinely felt strong and prepared going into the meet or show, and the failure wasn’t a direct result of poor programming, then your coach likely still has the right approach for you.
Making the Right Decision
Deciding whether to stay with or leave a coach is a major decision that should not be made purely in the heat of disappointment. Take time to assess the situation rationally. If your coach is communicative, adaptable, and invested in your progress, one bad competition doesn’t mean they aren’t the right fit. However, if they repeatedly ignore red flags, fail to adjust, or leave you stagnating, it might be time to explore other options.
Part 5: The Dangers of Tying Your Self-Worth to Competition Results
A huge mistake many strength athletes make is tying their entire identity, self-worth, and emotional well-being to competition performance. This is a dangerous long-term strategy.
You are not just an athlete. Your value is not defined by numbers on a leaderboard, a total on a platform, or an event placing.
If your entire self-image is built around winning or hitting PRs, failure can feel like an existential crisis. This is a recipe for:
⚠️ Extreme emotional highs and lows – Feeling invincible after wins but deeply depressed after losses.
⚠️ Burnout and disillusionment – Losing passion for the sport because it no longer feels rewarding unless you win.
⚠️ Avoidance of competition – Fear of failure leads to avoidance of taking risks or competing at all.
How to Reframe Competition in a Healthy Way
✅ View competition as a testing ground, not a final judgment.
✅ Focus on improving your process, not just the outcome.
✅ Develop other aspects of your identity – Strength sports are part of who you are, not the only thing you are.
✅ Detach self-worth from wins and losses – Learn to value growth, learning, and resilience over trophies.
The best athletes are emotionally invested but not emotionally enslaved by their performance. If you can enjoy the process of getting better, not just the high of winning, you'll have a much longer and healthier career.
Turning Failure Into Future Success
A disappointing competition can feel crushing. It can leave you questioning your abilities, your preparation, and even your place in the sport. But one bad day on the platform, in the strongman arena, or on the weightlifting stage does not define you as an athlete. Every great competitor—without exception—has faced setbacks, failures, and moments of doubt. The difference between those who stagnate and those who come back stronger lies not in avoiding failure but in how they respond to it.
Failure is only final if you refuse to learn from it. The strongest athletes in the world didn’t get there by winning every competition—they got there by learning from their mistakes, refining their approach, and making better decisions moving forward. The real test isn’t whether or not you failed; it’s what you do next.
The Four-Step Process to Rebuilding After a Competition Setback
✅ Learn From Your Mistakes – The most important step is to conduct an honest assessment. What went wrong? Was it a failure in training, a miscalculation in competition-day strategy, a mental lapse, or an external factor outside of your control? Identifying the root cause of your performance allows you to make real improvements rather than just guessing at solutions.
✅ Recover, Reset, and Reprogram – Physically, you need to allow your body to recover from the strain of competition. But mentally, you also need to reset. A bad day doesn’t mean you need a total overhaul, but it does mean you should reassess and tweak your approach where necessary. This is the perfect time to realign your goals, adjust your programming, and ensure that your next training cycle is designed to address your weaknesses.
✅ Rebuild in a Structured Way – The best comeback plans aren’t built on emotion; they’re built on strategy. Whether you need to refine your technique, develop more raw strength, build endurance, or sharpen your competition mindset, your next phase of training should have a clear focus. Jumping back into the same routine without reflection will only set you up for another setback.
✅ Make Smarter Competitive Decisions – Your next competition should be a step forward, not a reaction to failure. Rushing into another meet or show to "redeem yourself" without proper preparation is a mistake. Choose your next competition wisely—based on your strengths, your training timeline, and your readiness. The best athletes don’t just compete; they compete with purpose.
The Next Step: How to Make Sure Your Next Competition is Your Strongest Yet
If you’re struggling to coach yourself through this process or unsure of how to structure your training moving forward, now is the time to seek guidance. If your last competition exposed weaknesses in your programming, recovery, or competition strategy, then making adjustments isn’t optional— it’s necessary.
🔹 If you’re not happy coaching yourself, or you’re looking to refine your approach, I can help. Whether you need a fresh perspective, an optimised training system, or a structured plan that ensures your next competition is a success, I’ve worked with lifters at every level to rebuild, refine, and come back stronger.
This sport rewards those who train smarter, not just harder. Apply for coaching today, and let’s build a system that works for you—so your next competition is your best yet.
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