I hear a lot of concerns/excuses (sorry) from athletes that they don’t lift during the season because they don’t want to be sore for practice or games. First off, if you are incorporating strength training all year long and using a legitimate in-season program, soreness should be very little in this phase of training. In-season exercises should be exercises that the athlete has seen before and they are maintaining strength. If this is the case, these exercises should not (if at all) make the athlete sore.

If the athlete has not seen the exercise and you are incorporating new exercises, make sure to minimize eccentric (the lengthening of the muscle as the resistance becomes greater) stress, so essentially these exercises do not have big lowering components. This is hard because most injuries happen from inadequate decelerating control.  

With that- here are the 5 lower body exercises that shouldn’t cause soreness during the season.

1. Step ups- I normally don’t like step ups for in season programs because they don’t have a big eccentric component, but they can be useful to keep your muscles from getting too sore. I like a racked barbell step-up because it still loads the spine without squatting (decelerating).
2. Deadlifts- Always my favorite exercises as it has multiple benefits to strength, power, posture, and core. They’re also great because they don’t have much of an eccentric factor unless you’re doing the stiff leg variation.  
3. Sled push/drag- A lot of coaches use sleds for metabolic conditioning, but it is actually a great concentric-only move and it enhances mobility on full hip extension cues. Short heavy loads are all this takes.
4. 1 Leg hip thrusters off a bench- There is a little eccentric stress here but if you just use bands or a dumbbell on your hip it won’t make you super sore.
5. 1 arm Bulgarian split squat with dumbbell from lower position to top position- Putting in this unilateral exercise gets you a lot of bang for your buck without a ton of resistance. It will create a little soreness but if you phase it in and start light it won’t be bad.

Happy lifting!