Plateaus will happen, and part of the journey is figuring out how to break through them. It usually comes down to one of two possibilities: pushing yourself too hard, or not hard enough.

What does it mean to be pushing too hard? Your body needs to recover from the workouts and grow bigger/stronger. This means needing adequate food/sleep/rest and low stress. All of these variables affect each other. If you eat less, sleep less, or have a generally more stressful life, you’ll have to go easier on your workouts to compensate. I understand that you don’t have full control over your diet, and that’s fine. We make do with what we have, and you still have control over your workouts. Some options to consider:

• Do a deload, where you go very easy (e.g. 50% of your max) for a week, then return to your usual workout. You can also accomplish something similar by dropping your training max and working your way back up by progressing the same way you normally do.
• Switch to a program with a slower progression. If you usually up the weights once a week, consider a program that does it once every 2/3/4 weeks.

What about not pushing hard enough? For that, you need to get a feel for what it’s like to push hard. Renaissance Periodization’s YouTube channel had a bunch of these “Training muscle X with person Y” videos, and they tend to be very good demonstrations of what it looks like to push hard. Keep in mind that workouts like these should be the minority of your overall workout plan if they’re even there at all, but it’s good to know what to aim for when you do have those days scheduled.

I’m my opinion, focusing on strength training is a good idea when everything else is suboptimal. A lot of gains can be made on the powerlifting movements by just practicing and optimizing your technique.