Starter sheet · programming
Read the fault, then program the fix
Watch the lift or the run, name the one thing that limits the athlete, program one variation and retest. The loop works in any sport. The full pack has the fault tables for five.
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Get the diagnosis sheet
Use it for one athlete and one limiter. Record the same way twice, name what holds them back, change one thing and write down the day you retest. Type your email and the PDF opens right here.
Where it hurts
You can see something is off: a bar that loops away from the body, a bench that stalls off the chest, a seventh kilometre a minute slower than the first. The hard part comes next. Five drills fit the fault, you add them all, and six weeks later you cannot tell which one worked.
How it gets fixed
Diagnose the athlete first, then program the fix. The diagnosis sheet is the loop for any sport: record the same way twice, name the one limiter, change one thing and set the day you retest. The full pack adds a table each for weightlifting, powerlifting, running, Hyrox and CrossFit that links what you see to the causes coaches commonly suspect and the variations to program, with a starting dose, a worked example and a retest. Confirm every cause by watching. If an athlete reports pain, that is not a programming question: refer them to a qualified professional.
The app does not read the fault: that stays with you. What it shows is the week you build for the fix. Live weekly volume (kg versus last week), intensity on main lifts and movement balance sit beside the week you are writing, so you see what a new variation did to it. Copy the week forward with progression rules to hold the dose, and import programs from Excel, CSV, PDF or a photo if they live in a sheet.
In Strength Academy you build the variation in the week builder, write loads as a percentage and your athletes see their own kilos. Work within your scope of practice: nothing here is injury advice.
Try it now
One fault, one variation, one retest
Illustrative example, not a client. All numbers are invented. A powerlifter benches 100 kg. This is the loop for that one athlete.
- Record: on three of the last five heavy singles the bar slowed two or three centimetres off the chest, filmed from the side at the same angle.
- Find the limiter: strength off the chest. Check the setup first: upper back tight, feet planted. Both check out.
- Pick one or two variations: pause bench, 3x3 at 80% (80 kg), and Spoto press, 3x5 at 72.5% (72.5 kg). Pause bench goes in on Monday in place of the volume bench, and Spoto press on Thursday.
- Prescribe: five weeks. Add 2.5 kg only when every set was done at RPE 8 or lower. The competition bench stays in at least once a week.
- Retest: a single at 95 kg, filmed from the same angle. If the bar now slows higher in the range, the diagnosis was right and the next limiter is the new one.
The usual mistake: stacking five drills on one fault and taking the competition lift out of the week. A fault is fixed in the lift, so the lift stays in. For a runner or a Hyrox athlete the loop is the same: the record is splits and times instead of video.
Prefer to try it first?
Try the Program AuditA few taps, no email
Which fault should you program first?
A few taps with Emma. Find the kind of limiter you are reading right now.
Hi, I’m Emma, co-founder of Strength Academy. Answer as best you can.
4 quick rounds
Open next
- The 12-Block Starter Library
Beginner intro, return after a break, strength, hypertrophy, powerlifting peak, weightlifting, in-season, off-season, run plus lift, Hyrox, group class and a deload and test week. Weeks, days, % of 1RM and RPE, written out.