The Real First Step: Restoring Control Before Stress

After UCL surgery, it’s common to fixate on when you’ll throw again. But the first priority isn’t throwing, it’s restoring controlled motion and stability throughout the arm.

Early on, stiffness, guarding, and altered mechanics can quietly overload the elbow without you realizing it. Before we add stress, we focus on how your elbow moves, how your shoulder supports it, and how force is transferred through your body.

This phase is about building a foundation that can eventually tolerate high-velocity, repetitive stress, without irritation or compensation.

Common Pitfall #1
Focusing only on the elbow. Neglecting shoulder, scapular, and trunk mechanics often shifts stress back to the graft once throwing begins.

Common Pitfall #2
Equating “feels good” with “ready.” Just because the elbow isn’t painful doesn’t mean it’s prepared for volume, velocity, or fatigue.

Our Approach

UCL rehab requires precision, patience, and context. We guide athletes through a structured progression that reflects the demands of throwing, not generic upper-extremity rehab.

Phase 1: Protected motion and foundational strength
We restore elbow range of motion while emphasizing shoulder stability, scapular control, grip strength, and total-body movement patterns that influence arm stress.

Phase 2: Load tolerance and sequencing
Strength and coordination are progressed across the arm, trunk, and lower body. The goal is efficient force transfer, so the elbow isn’t asked to do more than its share.

Phase 3: Return to throwing
Throwing is reintroduced gradually and intentionally. Progression is guided by movement quality, workload tolerance, and recovery response, not arbitrary milestones.