At Cohen Health and Performance, we see this all the time.
A patient walks in excited because their orthopedic surgeon just told them, “You’re cleared.”
For the athlete or for a parent of a young athlete that sounds like great news. It feels like full steam ahead, time to get back to the field, the court, or the gym.
But being cleared by your surgeon doesn’t necessarily mean your body is ready for the demands of your sport.
That’s where our team at Cohen Health and Performance, providers of expert physical therapy in Bethesda, comes in.
What Your Surgeon Means by “Cleared”
When your surgeon clears you, it’s a medical milestone. It means:
- The surgery was successful.
- Imaging and MRI results look good.
- Your range of motion has returned.
- You’ve regained a basic level of strength.
In other words, your surgeon’s focus is on whether the surgical site has healed and whether you’re safe to start progressing again. Their job is to make sure the repair looks good, moves well, and passes basic checks.
But that doesn’t mean your body is fully prepared for the demands of your sport.
Why “Cleared” Doesn’t Always Mean “Ready”
Let’s take a closer look at what happens in those follow-up visits.
Your surgeon might test your strength by asking you to hold your arm or leg in a fixed position while they apply pressure. If you can resist them without pain or weakness, that box gets checked.
The problem? That’s not how sports work.
Sports are dynamic. You’re not holding a static position. You’re cutting, sprinting, jumping, landing, throwing, or reacting at high speed. Your body must not only produce force but also control and absorb it repeatedly and efficiently.
That’s where the real risk lies after surgery. An athlete may appear strong in basic tests, but when it’s time to decelerate from a sprint or land from a jump, their body might not yet have the capacity to handle those forces safely.
Without that preparation, the risk of reinjury or injury elsewhere in the body skyrockets.
How Physical Therapy Bridges the Gap
This is exactly where advanced sports physical therapy in Bethesda plays a critical role.
At CHP, our job isn’t just to make sure your range of motion and strength look good on paper. It’s to determine if your body can handle the high-speed, high-load, fatigue-driven conditions of your sport.
We use a combination of clinical expertise and advanced sports technology, including VALD Force Plates, A-frames, and dynamometers to objectively measure how your body performs.
Some of the key things we assess include:
- Force production: How much power can you generate through your repaired side?
- Deceleration control: Can you safely slow your body down after a sprint or jump?
- Symmetry: Are you unconsciously favoring one side more than the other?
- Fatigue performance: Do you maintain good control and power when you’re tired?
These metrics tell us whether your body is actually ready for competition—not just whether your surgery has healed.
Every Sport Has Different Demands
One of the most important things we teach our patients is that every sport has its own movement and performance prerequisites.
A swimmer’s shoulder rehab will look completely different from a soccer player recovering from an ACL surgery.
A tennis player’s shoulder must tolerate explosive, high-velocity end-range movements.
A football player must absorb and redirect massive amounts of force.
That’s why at CHP, no two return-to-sport plans look the same. We build individualized programs that mirror the specific stresses and skills of your sport, helping you return not just healthy, but stronger, faster, and more resilient than before.
Fatigue: The Hidden Factor Behind Re-injury
Another key area we focus on is how your body performs when tired.
It’s easy to look great when you’re fresh but most injuries don’t happen during warm-ups. They happen when fatigue sets in late in the game, when your muscles and nervous system are under stress.
That’s why we test your ability to maintain strength, stability, and control under fatigue.
If your repaired side starts to fail once you’re tired, your risk of reinjury increases dramatically.
By building up work capacity and fatigue tolerance, we help you finish strong, no matter the score or the quarter.
The CHP Difference
At Cohen Health and Performance, our approach to physical therapy in Bethesda is centered on one goal: helping athletes safely and confidently return to the activities they love.
We combine one-on-one care, advanced testing technology, and individualized programming to make sure every athlete we work with is truly ready, not just medically cleared.
If you’ve been cleared by your surgeon but want to be confident that your body is ready for the next step, we’d love to help.
Contact us at Cohen Health and Performance today to learn more about our individualized physical therapy programs in Bethesda and McLean designed to help athletes move, feel, and perform at their best.
