Steve Magness says a bad workout is a decision, not a failure. Here's how to coach the in-session judgment call.
When a session goes badly, most people default to one of two lazy answers: grind through it, or bail. Steve Magness - a performance coach and author - argues for the harder, better move: diagnose why it's going wrong, then adjust. This breakdown covers his in-session judgment in our own words, adds our take for coaching it when you're not in the room, and turns it into a decision guide you can hand a client.
By Markus Evers · September 2026 · a Coachway video breakdown
the short version
Magness's case is that when a workout is going badly, blindly pushing through and blindly quitting are both lazy defaults - the coaching skill is to diagnose why (under-recovery, a one-off bad day, a mental wall, or genuinely too-hard programming) and respond to the cause: adjust, cut, or continue. The one thing a coach should do about it: stop treating the plan as sacred and start reading why a session is off, then make the judgment call - most often modifying the session rather than grinding it out or abandoning it.
Steve Magness - What to Do When a Workout Goes Bad
Source: Steve Magness on YouTube - "What to Do When a Workout Goes Bad". Watch on YouTube. We embed the public video and summarise it in our own words; the video, title and channel belong to Steve Magness, and nothing here implies his endorsement of Coachway.
Who is Steve Magness, and why coaches watch
Steve Magness is a performance coach, sports scientist and author known for his work with elite endurance athletes and for books like Peak Performance, Do Hard Things and The Science of Running. His focus is the intersection of physiology and psychology - how athletes actually perform and hold up under pressure - and he writes and speaks about the judgment side of coaching that rarely makes it into training plans. Coaches watch him because in-the-moment decision-making is one of the least-taught, most-important coaching skills, and he articulates it clearly. This look at what to do when a session goes wrong is a clean example, which is the lens this page is written for.
What Magness actually argues (our summary)
This is our summary of the ideas in the video, in our own words - not a transcript. Watch the original for his exact framing and examples.
- 1
The plan isn't sacred. A workout going badly is information - blindly pushing through and blindly quitting are both lazy defaults.
- 2
Diagnose why it's bad. Under-recovery, life stress, a one-off off day, a mental wall, or too-hard programming each call for a different response.
- 3
Adjust, don't grind or bail. The right move is usually to modify - cut volume, drop intensity, change the session's goal - not the binary of push-or-quit.
- 4
Discomfort isn't always a warning. Some sessions should be hard; the skill is knowing when hard is productive versus when it's a signal to back off.
- 5
It's a judgment skill. Reading the athlete and the day and deciding is the coaching - a plan followed robotically isn't.
Coachway's take
We think this is one of the clearest markers of an experienced coach versus a new one. New coaches follow the plan because the plan feels like the job; experienced coaches treat the plan as a hypothesis and adjust it against what's actually in front of them. The insight that "push through" and "stop" are both lazy - that the real work is diagnosing why - is exactly right, and it applies far beyond endurance: every coach faces a client having a bad session and has to decide what it means.
The nuance we'd add is that the diagnosis is a probability, not a certainty. You won't always know whether a rough session is under-recovery, a bad day or a mental wall - but you can weigh sleep, recent load, life stress and the athlete's history to make a good-enough call, and then watch what happens. Treating it as a read to be updated, rather than a verdict, keeps you from over-reacting to a single session in either direction.
For online coaching, the twist is that you're not there to make the call live - so the skill has to be transferred to the client. That means giving them simple, pre-agreed decision rules for the common cases, and using the check-in to debrief the ones they got wrong. Over time the client learns to read their own sessions, and your job shifts to refining their judgment rather than making every call for them. Remote coaching can't be in the session, but it can teach what to do in one.
So our version of his approach is: treat the plan as a guide, teach the client to diagnose why a session is off, give them simple in-the-moment decision rules for the common causes, default to adjusting rather than grinding or bailing, and debrief the calls at check-in so their judgment improves.
Give the decision rules, debrief the calls
Coaching in-session judgment remotely means handing the client the decision and then reviewing it - both live in the platform. You write the simple decision rules into the session in the workout builder - "if the first efforts feel far harder than the numbers and you slept badly, cut to X; if it's just nerves and the paces are on, hold" - so the client has guidance in the moment instead of a plan they either grind or abandon. Then how it actually went, and why it felt bad, comes back through check-ins, so you can debrief the call and refine their judgment over time. The judgment is Magness's; the platform is how you transfer it to a client you're not training in person.
For the diagnosis and autoregulation around it, the companion breakdowns on Andy Galpin on finding the limiter and Calgary Barbell on autoregulating volume cover reading signals and adjusting load.
The workout-going-bad decision guide (hand it to the client)
A short guide for what to do when a session is going badly, based on the likely cause. Give it to the client as their in-the-moment reference, and debrief the calls at check-in.
Bad-workout decision guide
| The signal | Likely cause | Do |
|---|---|---|
| Slept badly, stressed, flat all day | Under-recovery | Cut volume/intensity; bank an easy win |
| Off with no wider pattern | A one-off bad day | Adjust down a notch; try to salvage it |
| Backing off before the body is done | A mental wall | Nudge to continue if paces are actually on |
| Consistently too hard to complete | Programming too aggressive | Change the plan, not just the session |
| Pain / something feels wrong | A warning sign | Stop; reassess (refer if needed) |
How to use it: when a session is going badly, read the signal, guess the likely cause from context (sleep, recent load, life stress, history), and pick the response - usually adjust rather than grind or bail. Report what happened and why at check-in so your coach can refine the calls. Pain or anything that feels wrong is a stop-and-reassess, not a push-through.
BAD-WORKOUT DECISION GUIDE (via Coachway) - a bad session is a DECISION, not a failure; diagnose why, then adjust - SLEPT BADLY / STRESSED / FLAT ALL DAY -> likely: under-recovery -> cut volume/intensity; bank an easy win - OFF WITH NO WIDER PATTERN -> likely: a one-off bad day -> adjust down a notch; try to salvage it - BACKING OFF BEFORE THE BODY IS DONE -> likely: a mental wall -> nudge to continue IF paces are actually on - CONSISTENTLY TOO HARD TO COMPLETE -> likely: programming too hard -> change the PLAN, not just the session - PAIN / SOMETHING FEELS WRONG -> likely: a warning sign -> STOP; reassess (refer if needed) HOW TO USE: When a session is going badly, read the signal, guess the likely cause from context (sleep, recent load, life stress, history), and pick the response - usually ADJUST rather than grind or bail. Report what happened and WHY at check-in so the coach can refine the calls. "Push through" and "quit" are both lazy defaults; the coaching is in the diagnosis. Pain or anything that feels wrong is stop-and-reassess, not push-through.
Adjusting a bad workout - FAQ
Should a client always push through a bad workout?
No - and blindly quitting isn't right either. Both are lazy defaults that skip the actual coaching decision. A workout going badly is information, and the right response depends on why it's going badly: an under-recovered client grinding through a hard session digs a deeper hole, while a client hitting a mental wall on a session they could do sometimes benefits from pushing a little. The skill Magness is pointing at is reading the situation and making a judgment - adjust, cut, or continue based on the cause - rather than applying one rule ('never quit' or 'listen to your body and stop') to every bad day.
How do you tell a bad day from under-recovery from a mental block?
By looking at the context and the pattern, not just the feeling in the moment. Under-recovery usually comes with signs that predate the session - poor sleep, a stressful stretch, accumulated fatigue, sliding performance over days - and tends to show as the body simply not producing output. A one-off bad day is exactly that: an off session with no wider pattern, where a small adjustment often turns it around. A mental block tends to be situational - the athlete backs off before the body is actually done, often on a session that intimidates them. You won't always be sure, but weighing recent load, sleep, life stress and the athlete's history gets you a good-enough read to decide.
How do you coach in-session judgment when you are not in the session?
You move the judgment to two places: pre-agreed decision rules and the check-in review. Because you can't call it live for a remote client, you give them simple rules - 'if the first efforts feel far harder than the numbers say and you slept badly, cut the session to X'; 'if it's just nerves and the paces are actually on, hold the plan' - so they can make a decent call in the moment. Then you debrief at check-in: what happened, why did it feel bad, what did they do, was it right. Over time the client internalises the judgment, and you refine the rules. Remote coaching can't be there for the decision, but it can teach the decision.
Doesn’t adjusting the plan undermine consistency?
Only if you confuse consistency with rigidity. Consistency is showing up and doing appropriate work over the long run; robotically executing a plan that no longer fits the day is how clients get hurt, burnt out, or demoralised - which destroys consistency. Smart adjustment is what protects it: modify a session so the client can complete something productive and come back tomorrow, rather than grinding out a disaster or bailing entirely and feeling like a failure. The coaches who keep athletes healthy and progressing for years are constantly making small in-session adjustments; the plan is a guide, not a contract.
More coaching-judgment breakdowns
- · Andy Galpin on finding the limiter - diagnosing what's actually holding a client back.
- · Calgary Barbell on autoregulating volume - adjusting load off the client's response.
- · The full library: fitness creator coaching breakdowns.
Coach the judgment, not just the plan
all guidesAndy Galpin on Reaching Fitness Goals (Coach Breakdown)
Dr. Andy Galpin's physiology-first approach to reaching fitness goals, broken down for coaches: diagnose the real limiter for each client - the lagging muscle, the adherence gap, the schedule - before you add work.
Read the guideCalgary Barbell on Autoregulating Training Volume (Coach Breakdown)
Bryce Krawczyk (Calgary Barbell) on autoregulating volume, broken down for coaches: add sets only when a client is progressing and recovering, pull back when the signals turn, using RPE as the live read.
Read the guideBrett Bartholomew on Coaching Communication (Coach Breakdown)
Brett Bartholomew on lowering a client's defensiveness before feedback, broken down for coaches: open with a permission or framing question so the correction lands - a trainable skill that matters even more in async online coaching.
Read the guideFree tools for this: Calorie Deficit Calculator · Macro Calculator · One-Rep-Max Calculator
Transfer the judgment to the client
You can't call a bad session live for a remote client - so you give them decision rules and debrief the calls. In Coachway you write the rules into the session and review what happened in check-ins, refining their judgment over time. Start your 14-day free trial and coach decisions, not just plans.
