Medbridge and Athlete Development Solutions Partner to Eliminate the Gap Between Rehab and Return to Sport

SEATTLE — Medbridge, the leading digital health platform for clinician education, home exercise programs, patient-reported outcomes, and remote therapeutic monitoring, today announced a partnership with Athlete Development Solutions, founded by Nate Denning, PT, DPT, SCS, CSCS, RSCC of Integrated Performance and Phil Plisky, PT, DSc, ATC, CSCS. The partnership brings more than 125 athletic performance exercises to the Medbridge platform, along with a Q4 cohort learning series that teaches professionals how to program performance training from day one of rehabilitation.

The transition from rehabilitation to performance has long been the weakest point in an athlete's recovery. Clinicians are asked to return athletes to competition, but the tools available to them typically stop at basic strengthening; well short of the speed, agility, and power demands of sport. The result is athletes who are discharged from care but undertrained for the field, court, or mound, and therefore left at an elevated risk of reinjury. This partnership gives rehabilitation and performance professionals a shared exercise vocabulary and framework, so an athlete's program can begin day one and continue through full performance.

"Getting an athlete out of pain is not the same as getting them ready to compete, and our customers have been clear that they need help developing athletic performance," said Andrew Mickus, Chief Content and Clinical Officer at Medbridge. "Phil and Nate have spent their careers at the intersection of rehab and performance. This partnership puts their content directly into the workflows clinicians already use, and it does it in a way that serves physical therapists, athletic trainers, occupational therapists, and strength and conditioning professionals."

A Library Built for Every Phase of Return to Sport

The Athletic Performance Exercise Library spans the full progression of athletic readiness, giving professionals the range to build home exercise programs from early loading through full performance.

• Foundational strength: Squats, presses, deadlifts, and loaded carries that establish the movement quality and capacity athletes need before advancing.

• Power and plyometrics: Progressive jumping, landing, and rate-of-force-development work matched to tissue tolerance at each phase of healing.

• Speed and sprint mechanics: Acceleration and top-speed patterning that prepares athletes for the demands they will actually meet in competition.

• Agility and movement prep: Change-of-direction, deceleration, and preparatory patterns that begin early in rehab and continue as the athlete returns to the field.

The exercises are demonstrated and explained by clinicians in a real gym environment, giving professionals both the visual model and the coaching cues needed to prescribe with confidence. The library is more advanced than standard rehabilitation exercise content by design, and it is built to be prescribed by physical therapists, athletic trainers, occupational therapists, and certified strength and conditioning specialists.

A Cohort Series Organized Around Four Real Cases

Simplifying Performance Rehab: The 4-Case Clinical Roadmap Mentorship follows four athletes through their full recovery: a 17-year-old baseball player after ulnar collateral ligament repair, a 13-year-old volleyball player with shoulder instability, a 15-year-old soccer and basketball player after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, and a 19-year-old basketball player with a lateral ankle sprain. Each case walks through the phases of healing across all six domains of performance: movement, strength, power, speed, agility, and metabolic conditioning.

Rather than teaching performance training as something that begins after discharge, the series shows professionals how to build it into the plan of care from the first visit, with phase-specific goals, progression criteria, and coaching cues at each stage.

"Athletes do not stop being athletes when they get injured, but too often their training does," said Phil Plisky, PT, DSc, ATC, CSCS, co-founder of Athlete Development Solutions. "What we teach in this series is how to keep training the athlete while the tissue heals, so return to sport is a continuation of the plan, rather than a leap of faith at the end of it."

"The clinicians and coaches who can handle return to sport well are the ones who speak the same language across the whole timeline," said Nate Denning, PT, DPT, SCS, CSCS, RSCC, co-founder of Athlete Development Solutions. "Putting this content on Medbridge means the physical therapist, the athletic trainer, and the strength coach are finally working from the same playbook."

The cohort experience gives professionals additional benefits to accompany the courses: a dedicated three-month period to learn alongside peers who are working through the same four cases in real time. Each month, a live webinar with instructors Phil and Nate dives deeper into a new context to help participants apply the concepts: managing workload, building sport-specific progressions, and putting it all together in practice. It's the difference between watching the roadmap and actually building it with a cohort of peers doing the same work alongside you.

The Athletic Performance Exercise Library is available now to Medbridge customers. The Q4 Sports Performance Rehabilitation Cohort learning series is open for enrollment now, with sessions beginning October 21, 2026. To learn more or speak with a Medbridge team member, visit Sports Performance Rehabilitation Cohort Learning Series.

About Medbridge

Medbridge is the platform healthcare organizations use to retain their best clinicians, deliver excellent care that doesn't stop when their clinicians do, and collect the outcomes data that drives reimbursement and proves ROI. Medbridge gives clinicians gold-standard education, evidence-based care programs built into their workflows, and outcomes and RTM capabilities, without adding steps to their day. Nine of the top ten hospital systems and private practices in the country run on Medbridge. For more information, visit medbridge.com.

About Athlete Development Solutions

Athlete Development Solutions helps coaches, players, and professionals safely maximize performance and advance athletes to the next level by delivering an individualized, structured daily training system. Founded by sports performance leaders Dr. Nate Denning of Integrated Performance and Dr. Phil Plisky of PhilPlisky.com, the system is built on their years of professional sports experience and has elevated athlete development from high schools to professional leagues nationwide. Request a platform demo at www.athletedevelopmentsolutions.com.

MEDIA CONTACT Amelia Ramstead Medbridge [email protected] 253-220-6250