The Secret Life of a Student-Athlete: Power Naps, Protein Shakes, and Procrastination

Being a student-athlete is a life of constant balance—or at least, trying to pretend you have it all together. From the outside, we may look like finely-tuned machines, balancing our time between training, classes, and everything in between. But let me let you in on a little secret: the real secret to making it through the week? Power naps, protein shakes, and world-class procrastination.

Let’s start with the power naps. The unsung hero of student-athlete survival. You think it’s all about that 6 AM practice and the endless sprint drills? Wrong. It’s about the 20-minute nap you sneak between the end of practice and your 9 AM lecture. The kind of nap where you wake up in a daze, not sure if it’s morning or night, or which class you’re supposed to be in (hint: it’s the one you’re already late for). Power naps are an art form for student-athletes. You have to maximize your time, even if it means curling up in the student lounge or sneakily snoozing in the back row of a lecture. It’s all part of the grind.

Now, let’s talk about our not-so-secret weapon: protein shakes. These magical concoctions are the lifeblood of any athlete. Breakfast, lunch, dinner? Who needs it when you can blend together some protein powder, a banana, and whatever else you find in the fridge that looks blendable? Sure, we’ve all had that one time where we mixed spinach into the shake thinking it’d be a good “healthy” idea, only to gag halfway through. But at the end of the day, protein shakes are the quickest and laziest way to refuel between practice and rushing to class. Plus, they make you feel like you’re really taking care of yourself… even if your fridge contains little more than a tub of whey and half a carton of almond milk.

Then, of course, there’s procrastination. Oh, procrastination, my old friend. You’d think with a jam-packed schedule of practices, games, and team meetings, I’d have no time to waste. But oh, I find it. I find it in the small cracks between workouts and assignments. There’s always that nagging essay, the looming project, or an exam creeping up, but somehow, I convince myself that the best time to tackle it is at 1 AM the night before. Why plan ahead when I can hit the snooze button on both my alarm and my academic responsibilities? I’ll get it done… eventually. Just after this episode of Netflix. And maybe another nap.

Procrastination doesn’t just extend to academics, though. Laundry? I’ll get to it next week. Filling up my water bottle before practice? I can wait until I’m halfway through drills. Scheduling time to study for finals? That’s Future Me’s problem. And Future Me, well, they’re going to have one heck of a to-do list.

But somehow, through all the chaos of late-night cramming, 5 AM alarms, and sneaky snacks in between classes, we make it work. The life of a student-athlete is an endless juggling act of commitments, and while it might look effortless from the outside, let me tell you—there’s a lot of scrambling behind the scenes. From learning the perfect balance between napping and working out, to figuring out just how many protein shakes one person can stomach in a week, it’s all part of the unpredictable, caffeine-fueled ride that we wouldn’t trade for anything.

Except maybe another nap. Yeah, definitely another nap.