Simplifying Performance Rehab Part 2: Movement, Strength, and Power

Presented by Phil Plisky and Nate Denning

Video Runtime: 43 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)

Returning an injured athlete to sport requires more than restoring range of motion and baseline strength—it means rebuilding the movement, strength, and power qualities their sport actually demands. Many clinicians feel overwhelmed or inefficient when programming these qualities, and without a clear model for what a healthy athlete’s week should look like, athletes are too often returned to competition undertrained. This course builds that model from the ground up, using a healthy-athlete case as the template for weekly programming across movement, strength, and power. It grounds decisions in the language of strength and conditioning—periodization, training age, and load prescription—and works through the specifics: establishing bodyweight and kettlebell competency, building a strength reserve and shifting the force–velocity curve, selecting lifts and splits, prescribing intensity by strength phase, and training power with minimal fatigue and full acceleration. Physical therapists, athletic trainers, and other clinicians who program for athletes will be able to define return-to-sport benchmarks and construct a balanced week of movement, strength, and power training.

Learning Outcomes

Define performance optimization parameters in a healthy athlete to establish baseline return-to-sport benchmarks
Highlight the foundational building blocks of movement training and development required for athletic programming
Outline the core principles and building blocks of strength development utilized in athletic conditioning
Recall the physiological building blocks and essential components of power development in sports performance
Outline a one-week training schedule incorporating movement, strength, and power progressions for a healthy athlete

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. Terminology and Movement

This chapter establishes what “optimizing performance” means for a healthy athlete and equips clinicians with the strength-and-conditioning vocabulary (supercompensation; periodization across macro-, meso-, and microcycles; and training age) needed to program deliberately. It then defines the components of movement training: individualized warmup, corrective work, dynamic stretch, neural activation, and movement integration, along with the bodyweight and kettlebell competency every athlete needs. Grounding movement readiness as a programmable foundation rather than an afterthought gives clinicians a shared system for defining and building optimal movement.

2. Strength

This chapter lays out the core principles of strength development: why strength matters through the concepts of strength reserve and the shifting force–velocity curve; how lifts are categorized into movement patterns and splits; and how volume and intensity are prescribed across hypertrophy, basic strength, and max strength phases. It walks through determining an athlete’s training age, finding a one-repetition max, programming rest, and structuring an in-season week. The result is a systematic way to prescribe strength that complements sport performance, keeps the athlete balanced, and respects tissue healing when applied in rehabilitation.

3. Power

This chapter defines power as high force applied at high velocity and distinguishes between the two types of power clinicians must train: muscular power and elastic power. It covers how to assess and develop power: appropriate loading at 0%–60% of one-repetition max, training in a minimally fatigued state, emphasizing full acceleration rather than the deceleration built into traditional lifting, and monitoring fatigue to guide volume. Understanding these principles allows clinicians to build the explosive qualities that sport demands that strength training alone does not produce and to sequence power work safely within the training week.

More courses in this series

Simplifying Performance Rehab Part 1: A Case-Based Series

Nate Denning and Phil Plisky