{"id":131333,"date":"2025-09-12T03:25:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T03:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/131333\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T03:25:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T03:25:15","slug":"i-tried-a-30-minute-athletic-training-workout-for-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/131333\/","title":{"rendered":"I Tried a 30-Minute Athletic Training Workout for Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

I STILL THINK of myself as an athlete. I played just about every sport growing up, and trained at a high level through college in a brief professional career. But no matter how much my brain believes I’m still the explosive competitor I was in my younger days, I’m not. Yes, I’m stronger than I’ve ever been (I recently hit my goal of deadlifting 500 pounds)\u2014but my 40 time is sundial-slow these days, and I struggle to dunk a basketball when I make my annual attempt. <\/p>\n

It’s the output that’s the issue. If all those slow and heavy lifts were getting me to a faster 40 time, I\u2019d keep on training the same way. The solution to that often isn’t time-efficient. Guys train for months to get faster on the football field, and these days, I can’t do that. And much like so many who want to level up their weekend rec league performances, I often train with limited space and equipment. <\/p>\n

Thankfully you don’t actually need hours upon hours in the gym to add speed and leaping ability\u2014but you do need to make your time in the gym count. You’ll find a four-days-a-week workout program in our new Ultimate Athlete training package<\/a> here at MH, which is available exclusively to Men’s Health MVP members. And I got an introduction (or reintroduction) into how those workouts might look and feel from Dr. Pat Davidson<\/a>, an exercise physiologist and strength training coach who often trains like an athlete. Somehow, he compressed a ton of training into 30 minutes of our latest Blitz workout.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to get a whole workout in a bottle,\u201d Davidson says of the session. The focus is on movement with speed, fluidity, and agility, and it can be accomplished in a small space with minimal equipment and time. Here\u2019s how it went. <\/p>\n

\"Play\"hellThe WorkoutPLYOS:<\/p>\n

20 seconds on \/ 20 off for 2 rounds<\/p>\n

2-Foot PogoSwitch StepDeep Squat YieldSplit Squat Deep Yield (L+R)TETHERED RUNNING DRILLS:<\/p>\n

10 seconds on \/ 20 off. First 2 rounds with a kettlebell, 2 rounds without<\/p>\n

ATHLETIC STANCE DRILLS:<\/p>\n

2 rounds<\/p>\n

Cable Paloff Press (L+R, 10 reps)Fake Med Ball Throws (Chest Height, 20 seconds)Fake Med Ball Throws (Overhead, 20 seconds)Lateral Reach and Roll (L+R, 10 reps)LATERAL JUMPING: <\/p>\n

(1 round, 2 if you have time)<\/p>\n

Bound (10 reps)Hops (L+R, 10 reps)LESSON 1:Don\u2019t Worry About What You Look Like<\/p>\n

RIGHT AWAY, DAVIDSON had me hopping up and down on both feet like an overeager kid at recess. Even the name of the exercise was a bit silly: pogos. Part of me was thinking, When does the workout actually start? <\/p>\n

Quickly, I realized I needed to change my mindset and remember a simple fact: This workout wasn’t meant to be a flex. There would be no PRs set, and no instant gratification from drills, no post-curls biceps pump. The results of this workout would show up when I hit the track, court, or field to sprint, leap, and change direction. <\/p>\n

That remained the case through the workout. From marching and running in place tethered to a resistance band to shaking a med ball over my head with my legs split out like wickets, I knew I looked odd compared to what most people expect to see in the gym\u2014this was not chill, and it might wind up on someone\u2019s TikTok fails compilation. But I couldn\u2019t care, since the weird looking moves were by design. All of the hops, shaking, and wide stances would be key to honing my performance, which is much more important to me than looking cool. <\/p>\n

Another key point: I needed to ditch my hardass serious exerciser face and full-body flex. \u201cWith sports and athletic training, I don\u2019t want you to be tense like you would be with a barbell,\u201d Davidson says. \u201cI want you to be fluid.\u201d With all these bouncy, elastic movements, I couldn\u2019t pose and flex like I would during a lifting session. But that was totally fine; I could feel how the exercises were challenging my muscles in a different way. <\/p>\n

LESSON 2:Use Resistance Strategically<\/p>\n

THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE 30-plus-minute session, we didn’t do anything that even vaguely resembled a classic strength exercise. These drills weren’t focused on strength, though: They were challenging me to live in and perfect the athletic positions that would pay off on game day.<\/p>\n

Take this example: When we moved from the initial set of plyos to the second group of exercises, the running drills, we used resistance bands as a tether in a sneaky-tough series of drills\u2014and for the first two rounds of the series, Davidson also had me holding a kettlebell by its horns. That wasn\u2019t to make the movement more challenging or to build more muscle. \u201cWhat this does is it takes the arms out of the equation,\u201d he said. By doing this, he was able to simplify his cues to just focus on my lower body movement and posture. <\/p>\n

There was another benefit to this approach: By the time I had finished those two rounds and put the weight down, I was prepared to fly through the hands-free rounds. I also felt more comfortable in the upright position he had cued me to maintain. We fine-tuned my arm position\u2014and I felt poppier when I skipped and pumped my legs through high-knees. <\/p>\n

Later in the session, we used the cable machine (Paloff presses) and med ball (throws and reach and roll). These moves helped me reinforce my athletic stance and feel more comfortable when moving laterally. These moves weren\u2019t easy; my inner thighs are still feeling it.<\/p>\n

LESSON 3:Take Up Space<\/p>\n

DAVIDSON WAS DROPPING knowledge throughout the workout, but his most common refrain was simple. \u201cTake up space.\u201d <\/p>\n

If you’re used to doing your overhead presses and lunges in crowded commercial gyms, you won’t like this idea. But to get the most out of exercises meant to build speed and athleticism, you’ll want to learn Davidson’s mantra. I was stretching out and getting my body into a position that allowed me to be extra athletic, whether I was skipping or in my wide athletic stance.<\/p>\n

What the cue was most useful for was getting into the right athletic position for the third section of the drills: wide legs, with my knees inside my feet. \u201cThe shape I want you to create with your body is an \u2018X\u2019 going from the foot to the opposite shoulder, and the other foot through the knee, through the hip to the opposite shoulder,\u201d Davidson says. <\/p>\n

The width of my feet wasn’t much different than my sumo stance\u2014but Davidson wanted my knees to shift slightly inward. That’s a no-no among strength training bros, although Davidson had a reason: This position made me more stable for sports, where I\u2019d take contact on an athletic field of play. And by getting into it, I was putting myself into a great spot to work through the range of motion needed for the sudden leaps and lunges of competition.<\/p>\n

The final section of drills, bounds and hops, took Davidson\u2019s admonition to take up space to its extreme. In doing so, I was wrapping up the workout by working on one of the most important athletic qualities for sport performance: single-leg power. As I jumped from side to side, I could envision myself cutting on the football field or leaping to cover my opponent in soccer or ultimate frisbee. \u201cA lot of people are just training two feet all the time,\u201d Davidson says. \u201cSingle-leg jumping is where it\u2019s at. It\u2019s a major challenge.\u201d <\/p>\n

LESSON 4:Remember the Game Is the Goal<\/p>\n

AFTER WE FINISHED all the drills, I was breathing heavily and had sweat through my shirt. I had worked hard\u2014but unlike some of the other Blitz sessions I\u2019ve taken on this year (especially the previous one Davidson put me through to demonstrate how tough a body recomp session needs to be<\/a>), I wasn\u2019t so exhausted that I needed to lie down on the floor.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not the point of athletic training. \u201cPeople get all concerned about the conditioning and the endurance part of it,\u201d Davidson says. \u201cNobody cares about how many times you can jump if you can\u2019t actually dunk the ball.\u201d <\/p>\n

Davidson was echoing something we discuss frequently in our Ultimate Athlete package: If you’re trying to improve athleticism for sports, it’s not about working yourself to exhaustion. Sure, there will be moments where that conditioning will come in handy\u2014but it\u2019s not what we\u2019re trying to elicit with these drills. That\u2019s a different type of workout.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need you to get up to a certain level of power and performance before I need you to even think about trying to repeat that power and performance,\u201d Davidson continues. \u201cIf all you\u2019re doing is getting yourself tired, you\u2019re never developing the raw horsepower to actually be able to create a more powerful, expressive engine in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

This type of training is all about the end result: making me a more powerful, explosive, speedy athlete. And to do that, I need to get out and play. That means the most important part of this workout will actually come outside the gym: Getting out on the field and having fun. <\/p>\n

Check out all of the videos in our Ultimate Athlete program, available exclusively for MH MVP subscribers, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Get Stronger With An Exclusive MH Program\"Chevron\"Chevron\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Brett Williams, NASM-CPT, PES, a senior editor at Men’s Health, is a certified trainer and former pro football player and tech reporter. You can find his work elsewhere at Mashable, Thrillist, and other outlets.<\/p>\n