Building the Foundation: Youth Athlete Protocol

Recently, my active younger brother reached out and asked me to build him a workout program. He's heading into high school and plays a heavy rotation of sports: football, basketball, and baseball. As someone who is borderline fanatical about researching health and fitness, I will take any opportunity to exercise that knowledge. When he requested this, I was pumped — not just to build the current plan, but to track his future progress.

I'm sharing the framework of this plan here to show just how simple it can be to get into working out, and how basically any fundamental movement can be effective. If he gives me the green light, I'll keep the blog updated with his data, but I'll leave that up to him.

"Train to perform on the field, not just to sweat in the gym."

The 3-Day Athlete Split

Because multiple sports already play a massive part in his daily regimen — and will inherently do a lot of the "heavy lifting" for his conditioning — I went relatively easy on the volume. The protocol is separated into 3 main days, with active rest (practices, games, or light mobility) spread in between on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and a full rest day on Sunday.

• Day 1: Legs & Core Monday Building the base. Leg drive is the foundation for almost every sport, and the core acts as the stabilizer. Think goblet squats, Romanian deadlifts, reverse lunges, hip bridges, and calf raises — all kept light and clean.
• Day 2: Upper Body & Core Wednesday Developing push/pull strength. You'll notice core is on both lifting days. The core is the most important part of an athlete's body — it drastically reduces injury risk and is the central engine for generating explosive power all around.
• Day 3: Speed & Explosiveness Friday This day features broad athletic movements — plyometrics, sprints, and agility drills like box jumps, broad jumps, lateral bounds, the 5-10-5 shuttle, and the T-drill. Including it breaks up the heavy lifting days and bridges the gap between gym strength and on-field performance.

Keep It Simple, Keep It Safe

I kept the actual lifts deliberately simple. At this stage, a young athlete shouldn't have to worry about getting hurt under a barbell. Right now, it's all about learning biomechanics and adapting to the gym environment safely — no heavy back squats or bench press without an adult watching his form. Everything in the plan can be done safely with dumbbells, bodyweight, and household setups.

My instructions to him outside the gym were just as straightforward: log every single workout's reps and weight, aim to add one rep or five pounds every week or two, keep me updated on the progress, and consume as much protein as our parents are willing to cook.

I am excited to see how this plays out over the initial 8 weeks I want him on this plan. From there, once he builds a rock-solid foundation and becomes more comfortable with the iron, we can transition him to something more advanced.