Simplifying Performance Rehab Part 1: A Case-Based Series

Presented by Phil Plisky and Nate Denning

Video Runtime: 41 Minutes; Learning Assessment Time: 31 Minutes

This course is part of a series designed to be taken sequentially. It is recommended that learners view the series in the following course order:

Simplifying Performance Rehab Part 1: A Case-Based Series
Simplifying Performance Rehab Part 2: Movement, Strength, and Power
Simplifying Performance Rehab Part 3: Speed, Agility, and Metabolic Training
Simplifying Performance Rehab Part 4: Managing Workload (Webinar)
Simplifying Performance Rehab Part 5: UCL Reconstruction
Simplifying Performance Rehab Part 6: Shoulder Instability
Simplifying Performance Rehab Part 7: Sport-Specific Progressions (Webinar)
Simplifying Performance Rehab Part 8: ACL Reconstruction
Simplifying Performance Rehab Part 9: Ankle Sprain
Simplifying Performance Rehab Part 10: Putting It All Together (Webinar)

Progressing an injured athlete back to sport is rarely as simple as clearing them at the end of a rehabilitation protocol; the demands of competition require power, speed, agility, and metabolic capacity that traditional rehab often never restores. Many clinicians hesitate to fold performance training into their plans of care, held back by the belief that it requires elite strength-and-conditioning expertise, specialized equipment, or time they don‘t have. This course dismantles those barriers with a case-based framework that treats rehabilitation, reconditioning, and performance as one continuous process rather than separate phases to bridge. Drawing on four recurring athletic cases spanning surgical and nonsurgical upper- and lower-extremity injuries, it shows how to begin with the end in mind, account for tissue healing timelines, monitor training workload, and progress an athlete through the essential domains of performance toward a confident return to sport. Physical therapists, athletic trainers, and other clinicians who manage injured athletes will leave able to identify what is holding their programming back and integrate performance concepts into rehabilitation from day one.

Learning Outcomes

Identify common barriers to incorporating performance training into rehabilitation programs for injured athletes
Translate foundational performance training framework components when presented with varied clinical athletic case scenarios
Define the key principles required to integrate performance training concepts into an athlete‘s rehabilitation program
Identify the essential domains of athletic performance required for an athlete‘s safe return-to-sport progression

Meet your instructors

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Phil Plisky

Dr. Phil Plisky is a professor in the University of Evansville’s Doctor of Physical Therapy and PhD in Health Professions Education programs. He is the host of the Medbridge Rehab and Performance Lab podcast and founder of the Coaches Club at

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Nate Denning

Dr. Nathan Denning is the founder of Integrated Performance and a partner at Athlete Development Solutions. His mission is to revolutionize human performance and rehabilitation through the integration of physical, mental, and educational support. Nate believes that peak performance—whether for an athlete or a clinician—is the…

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Chapters & learning objectives

1. Performance in Rehab: The Four Cases

This opening chapter reframes the long-standing separation between rehabilitation and performance, confronting the limiting beliefs—that performance work requires elite strength-coach expertise, more time than a caseload allows, or equipment the clinic doesn‘t have—that keep clinicians from integrating the two. It introduces four recurring athletic cases spanning surgical and nonsurgical injuries in the upper and lower extremities that carry through the rest of the series. Establishing this shared framework early gives clinicians concrete patient examples to reason from and a rationale for building performance work into rehabilitation from the first visit.

2. Key Principles

This chapter lays out the core principles for integrating performance concepts into an athlete‘s rehabilitation, beginning with the end in mind by defining sport demands and return-to-sport criteria, respecting tissue-specific healing timelines, using objective biomarkers and testing, and managing progression through acute-to-chronic workload monitoring. Grounding programming in healing biology and measurable load gives clinicians a repeatable way to individualize a plan and then systematically retest, monitor, and adjust it. The result is progression that advances the athlete without spiking workload beyond what healing tissue can tolerate.

3. Domains of Performance

This chapter defines the six domains of athletic performance—movement readiness, strength, power, speed, agility, and metabolic conditioning—and demonstrates how each is programmed across a real in-season training week. Worked examples show what loading, volume, and exercise selection look like within every domain. Knowing these domains gives clinicians a concrete picture of what a healthy, sport-ready athlete‘s training actually looks like so rehabilitation can be progressed toward those same targets rather than stopping short of them.

More courses in this series