Travis Allan- My Story

 

Act 1

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I was born in New Zealand and I have been working in the health and fitness industry since 1997.

 

When reflecting on my journey from there to the present day there are two pivotal moments that stand out.

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The first happened at the beginning of 2005.

I’d been studying and working in the leisure-center and corporate Gym environment, and in 2001 I’d been head-hunted along with a colleague to head up a rehab and performance training studio. It was part of a multidisciplinary sports medicine clinic, and a wonderful opportunity to work with New Zealand’s best physiotherapists, doctors, phycologists, nutritionists, podiatrists, and massage therapists. It was an honor to be thought of in that company. It was here that I believed that my career would truly take off, and in many ways it did.

 

I became one of the most sought-after rehab specialists and trainers, I was featured in magazine publications and I had a thriving business. Yet I was unsatisfied. I felt I had arrived in a position I hadn’t truly earned yet; I had more questions than answers, and my own education in the disciplines of fitness and rehab felt like it had foundered in a protocol-based approach. I didn’t feel I had acquired more ability or knowledge, just tools to tick boxes.

I admit the application of these tools I had acquired, and this protocol-based approach, worked for many patients and clients- but not everyone. Having been one of those people it didn’t work for, I was reminded of why I got into the industry in the first place. To cut a long story short, I’d been one of those Kiwi boys chasing the dream of becoming an “All Black”. Then, in my first year of a rugby scholarship at the sports institute of Otago, I fully ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in my knee in a preseason game.

 

Interlude

I was referred to the top surgeon in the country. I had the operation and was determined to recover. I did all the rehabilitation following the advice I was given with vigor, discipline, and dedication. But I never was able to return to the heights of the sport that I loved and there would be no All Black jersey for me since I was plagued by constant muscle tears and huge losses in confidence.

After every setback, I was instructed to do more of the “same program”. I was assured that the reason for the injury was because I wasn’t doing enough of it. Not once was the protocol/ program questioned, only my commitment to it.

 

They say the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expect a different result - and that’s really how it was for me. And later, when I became a therapist myself, it felt like I had come full circle: I was now using the very same protocols that hadn’t worked for me with my patients/clients.

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This become increasingly uncomfortable with the clients/patients that didn’t get the outcome we wanted, so I decided that I owed it to my younger self, the clients I wasn’t able to help, and to my future clients, to continue my pursuit for answers. I wanted everyone in my care to have the opportunity to get back to what they loved doing.

After some traveling and a short-term sports contract in New York, I arrived in London in September of 2005.

 

Things were not great. My best friend and his young family, with whom I had intended to live, had suddenly had to move away. He was a professional rugby player for Harlequins, he had signed a new contract, and they had been relegated. Now he was now in Pau, in the south of France; and I, meanwhile, was in Teddington, sitting in an empty flat with a sofa, plate, knife, and fork and zero knowledge about London, needing to start a business from scratch, and soon. That was the first pivotal moment: panic!

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Act Two

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The second big pivotal moment came for me in London. I had now established a business I was busy and I had a great clientele.

Again I was working with a whole range of people with varying goals.

I looked to seek out some other health care practitioners, with a view to creating a similar set-up to the one I had left behind. I was blown away when I realized there were thousands of practices - even within a small radius of where I was working. I didn’t have the time to work through the extensive list to find the best ones to approach.

However, as luck or the universe would have it, I was working with a client who had back, knee, and ankle issues.

 

She and I seemed to be stuck in a pattern of getting better and then regressing. The same feelings of not being able to really help started to resurface. After all, I was still using the same tools and they weren’t working in this case. I said to the client that I believed I couldn’t help them and that I no longer wanted to take their money without being able to give them or myself the results we expected.

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This worked out great to my advantage. My client was referred to a little-known type of therapy called MAT (Muscle Activation Therapy). And when it started to work for her, she passed on my details. She understood the frustration I was experiencing, and knew how much I wanted to help, and get answers to the hitherto unanswered questions I had.

 

After a brief conversation, I found myself having my very own assessment with the MAT specialist. He assessed and treated me in the same session.

I was making astonishing progress in response to the treatment - so quickly that it blew me away. It also made me check my ego, and start to question the verbal loop I had been spooling out over and over again to clients/patients. I was moved, both physically and mentally. I felt emotionally charged to dive in and learn more. The future weeks consisted of studying the technique, bones, anatomy.

The more I learned, the more I realized how little I knew.

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In this new spirit of humility, I asked the MAT therapist to treat some of my clients. I would go along and watch him practice. I fully surrendered to the learning process. I decided to enroll in the ‘jumpstart’ MAT courses when the practitioners came to London. It was so impressive that I took the major step of attending the full course in Denver, Colorado. After 10 flights, 10k USD, countless expenses on flights and hotels, plus much jet lag and thousands of hours of study, I became a MAT specialist.

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I continued to fly to the states to supplement my knowledge with the mastery classes in MAT and associated courses in RTS - Resistance Training Specialist.

 

That is an extraordinary course: it studies in detail the physical forces associated with exercise and their application to the dynamics of the body, both muscle, and bone. A real in-depth biomechanics approach. I also took courses in neuroscience, to gain a better understanding of the inner workings and relationships between the brain, central nervous system, and muscles.

 

For the next 3-4 years I flew to the states some 30 times and spent 60-70k on my education, in a quest to get better and better at helping people. Through hard work, perseverance, and the constant pursuit of mastery, I have opened many doors for myself and had wonderful opportunities to work with many of the UK’s elite.

 

It is not an empty boast to say I’ve become one of London’s most sought-after trainers and therapists, always working under the radar with a very little digital footprint, no website or advertising, and extending my client base via personal recommendations. Recently, the pandemic has made it necessary for me to do sessions online.

 

This turned out to be a great opportunity: I’m now able to offer online sessions beyond my established clientele. The experience of the last eighteen months has shown me that I can deliver a personal and customised experience through my laptop.