Simplifying Performance Rehab Part 5: UCL Reconstruction
Presented by Phil Plisky and Nate Denning
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)
Learning Outcomes
- Plan phase-specific clinical goals and progression criteria based on the physiological stages of healing following a UCL reconstruction
- Implement foundational rehabilitation essentials necessary to protect and support optimal tissue healing of the UCL
- Apply upper body strength training and coaching progressions safely across all phases of postsurgical UCL healing
- Modify power training and rate-of-force-development variables to accommodate tissue constraints throughout the healing timeline
- Prioritize speed, agility, and metabolic conditioning progressions to safely prepare the postsurgical athlete for return to sport
Meet your instructors
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
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…
Chapters & learning objectives
1. UCL Reconditioning: The Essentials
This chapter introduces the recurring case—a 17-year-old baseball pitcher recovering from a UCL repair with internal brace—and establishes the rehabilitation essentials that must continue throughout the process: restoring elbow, wrist, and shoulder range of motion; rebuilding local strength; and managing swelling and pain. It defines the clinical goals and progression criteria for each of the five physiological phases of healing, from the time-based initial phase through to the return-to-play phase. Anchoring performance work to a phase-based roadmap ensures clinicians layer strength and conditioning onto the athlete without compromising the healing and repair.
2. Upper Body Push Progressions
This chapter details how upper body push strength is advanced from phase 2 through return to sport, using concrete progressions such as the bilateral horizontal push, progressing from high plank to push-up on a box, alternating single-arm bench, dumbbell bench, and finally barbell bench. It also addresses the prioritization of movement deficiencies through corrective programming and coaching the athlete through each stage. Sequencing pushing exercises with biological healing allows clinicians to rebuild pressing capacity without exceeding what the repair can tolerate at any given phase.
3. Upper Body Pull Progressions
This chapter details staged upper body pull strength across the phases of healing, including the bilateral vertical pull progressing from supine banded superman through hangs and eccentric pull-ups to weighted pull-ups, and the unilateral horizontal pull progressing from supine shoulder packing to loaded single-arm rows. Each stage includes coaching cues for safe execution. Because pulling strength is essential to the throwing athlete’s shoulder and elbow health, progressing it gradually rebuilds capacity while protecting the repair.
4. Power, Speed, Agility, and Metabolic Training
This chapter shows how power, speed, agility, and metabolic conditioning are modified for each phase of UCL recovery, with phase-specific exercise examples for every quality. It emphasizes that these qualities can begin as early as phase 2, when progressing in relation to biological healing. It explains how metabolic training must be added to replace the load an athlete would normally get from practice and games. Progressing these domains alongside healing ensures the athlete returns not only recovered but fully sport-ready.
More courses in this series
Simplifying Performance Rehab Part 1: A Case-Based Series
Nate Denning and Phil Plisky
Simplifying Performance Rehab Part 2: Movement, Strength, and Power
Nate Denning and Phil Plisky
Simplifying Performance Rehab Part 3: Speed, Agility, and Metabolic Training
Nate Denning and Phil Plisky
Simplifying Performance Rehab Part 5: UCL Reconstruction
Nate Denning and Phil Plisky
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