It can be tough being a student-athlete. Everyone says school comes first, but let’s be honest: being an athlete first can sometimes be more tempting and even more demanding. School can be overwhelming, and competitive sports can be overwhelming. School + competitive sports almost always is overwhelming. It is hard to give your absolute best effort to both, and often, sacrifices need to be made.

Especially during the season, athletes do not have time for extended practices, workouts, cramming study sessions, and fitting in the whole eating and sleeping thing. In times of this, athletes and coaches need good bang for your buck strategies to maximize their time. This includes studying, practicing, and working out. I’m just a silly personal trainer by trade; I can’t tell you how to study well. But I CAN tell you how to make the most out of little to no time for the weight room. Let’s talk about it.

Do Young Athletes Really Need Different Programming?

Nobody questions that every sport is different. Every sport has different demands, and every body has specific, different needs. When there is ample time, those things should be addressed. When there isn’t much time, the basics need to be covered. That’s good advice beyond the weight room: do the important stuff first as a priority.

Every good training and lifting program has the finer sport and personal details thought through. But when there isn’t time, we need to understand that every athlete in every sport benefits from strong, powerful legs. Nothing provides an athlete a better and broader benefit than enhancing the squat pattern. So traditionally, with that line of thinking, squats should be the one exercise. It’s a good thought, but we can do better. Almost all sports (and general human movement) are done on one leg at a time. We are reciprocal beings, meaning we propel one leg at a time. We do not hop like kangaroos.

The One Exercise All Athletes Should Do

This exercise is so good, it has like ten names. The rear foot is an elevated squat, or RFE, as I call it. It’s also called Bulgarian Split Squat, Split Squat, Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat. We’re calling it RFEs for simplicity.

Here’s a video demonstration with great detail of proper form/technique

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiLF_pF3EJM&t=12s

It’s the perfect bang for your buck exercise for pretty much all athletes. Unilateral (one leg) strength, power, mobility, stability, balance. You can’t ask for more in an exercise. Side benefit, if you are holding onto an appreciable amount of weight, this will also test your grip strength and posture, and you also hold a bit of a row while doing it. RFEs cover a lot of bases relevant to all athletics.

Programming

So, how should one program RFEs? Obviously, it depends on the athlete and how strong they are. But in general

• In-season training: keep it low volume. Up to 5 sets 1-5 reps each leg, though 2-3 sets is ideal if you’re pushing heavy weight.
• Off-season: time to build, push the volume if you have time: 3-5 sets each of 5-12 reps each.
• Pre-season: time to reduce the volume and go heavier. Assuming you worked on this the offseason, workload should vary a lot, depending how good you are with this lift. It should be less and less volume, but more and more weight as the season approaches.

This is the one lift all athletes should do if they literally only have time to prioritize and train one thing. However, all lifting still needs a proper warmup. I would love to say this is a 5 minute workout, but you really should still carve out 20-30 minutes. When choosing weight or volume, it’s the intensity and technique that really matter. This is not an exercise you can afford to ego lift with. Proper warmup, proper technique is absolutely required.

If you have no time for even a warmup, one max rep set on each leg is a great way to kill 5 minutes and get a solid workout in.

If You Can Do One or Two More

Overhead athletes have a unique sports demand. Upper extremity injuries are unfortunately common in baseball, softball, swimming, etc. Single-arm rows are the bee’s knees when it comes to arm care. It’s also great for grip strength, core development, and coordinating the upper and lower body for force transfer. I personally think using a cable machine is best, but 3 point rows with dumbells are fine too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zBPknRjJGU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rvAW1P0KCk

And if you can do one more exercise, it’s hard to beat the good old plank. Core stability is useful in every sport and all movements in life.

Do these exercises and stay profitcient in them. They will serve you well both as an athlete, and a washed up wannabe MLB pitcher like me.