To be focused on physical success means that you have a strong desire to achieve a specific goals related to your physical health and fitness – This is where Sean Allt comes in and he can help you not only achieve that goal, but surpass it.
Being focused on physical success means that you are prioritizing your health and wellness and that you are making a conscious choice to improve your physical abilities and overall well-being. I feel our health and wellness is paramount in all that we have in life and that it elevates all of our achievements when we focus on it. It should be fun though, and with that fun a targeted goal can and does give you something to strive for.
Nobody wants to get to the end of their life journey and look back with regret and Sean Allt is driven to make sure you don’t. It may be that you want to climb that local mountain or even a world famous one, or you might want to take that mind blowing adventure or even conquer something that would push you beyond your current physical limits. If you have any of these types of goals in mind and it involves training to achieve it – keep reading because you need to got to get to know our first Memor-Able…
Sean Allt.
Who Is Sean Allt
Where did it all start and what drove your passion to help people develop their physical success while achieving amazing fitness experiences?
I always thought of myself as the “black sheep” of the family.
I grew up in a very musical household. My mother was a violist and my father’s a flautist. And on top of that my stepmother is a violinist and my aunt is also a violist and a violinist while my siblings are guitar players and pianists.
And here I am, working in the fitness space. It’s a little bit of a pivot from the “family business” right. That being said, if you had asked me anytime through high school what I was going to do with my life, I would have told you I was going to be a professional musician. I wanted to be a saxophone player, and it was an avenue that I was actively pursuing. I was pretty good at it and in then in grade 12 I took a class called Exercise Science and basically that’s when everything shifted and I fell in love with body science.
I absolutely fell in love with the machine that is the human body and I became very passionate about the nuts and bolts of how we work as machines. Like what makes it work, how does it improve? How can we make it better? All of that type of stuff. So I pursued a degree in kinesiology thinking at that time that I was going to go the physical therapy route with physiotherapy, chiropractic or something like that.
This is the path that I pursued while in university as well. I was in the athletic injuries department at the University of Western Ontario and while in my 4th year I got a field placement as an athletic therapist for the varsity track and field team working with athletes from varying disciplines. And what I learned from working with them, particularly working with them while they were injured, was that I didn’t want to work with people while they were recovering from injury. I wanted to be on the preventive and uplifting side of sports and fitness.
I am very thankful for the skill set that I built from my formal education, but what actually became kind of sad for me was while I was getting athletes back to being ready to perform and then sending them on their way I was not getting to be a part of that next step in the journey.
So that’s why I shifted into personal training because I realized that I could work with people in that post injury, post rehab world. Basically I wanted to be able to work with them as soon as a physiotherapist was ready to say, you’re good to go start strength training and then continue working with them all the way up until however far they want to take it.
Building Tools To Inspire Physical Success From
Do you recall who the instructor was in that first high school class that introduced you to your passion?
Mrs. Smith – she was impactful on my life obviously as my teacher in that grade 12 class for sure. She gave me the that initial spark and inspiration. She was also the teacher advisor for the Athletics Association in my high school, which I was on the executive of, and she was the teacher representative for the swim team at my high school of which I was the captain.
So without her, basically volunteering her time to be there first thing early in the morning for those swim practices, the team wouldn’t have been able to to be there. I wouldn’t have been able to practice because it was the policy of the school board that a teacher had to be present. That was my first real foray into competitive athletics. She also facilitated my ability to get into competitive athletics a little bit later than most kids do, but obviously she was a very impactful person for sure.
Thinking beyond Mrs. Smith, is there other people that inspire you today?
Yeah, for sure, a couple of people that are industry professionals, people like Eric Cressey and Tony Gentilcore and a ton of other great practitioners in the field. They have been very influential over my education, my growth, my development and my career over the past 15 years now.
But the biggest impact and inspiration for me would be my parents. I sort of alluded to that earlier with my different upbringing than a lot of people have. Most people are told go to school, get a good job, yadda yadda yadda, right.
My family allowed me to be creative.
The family business was music that is not traditionally seen as a stable or lucrative field to get into, so being raised in that type of environment, the message was very much find and chase your passion, do what makes you happy day in, day out, right? So to have that type of support and encouragement for sure was hugely impactful.
I did a deep introspection a couple of years ago and came to realize that the biggest reason that I want to become a coach in the health and wellness profession was my mom. My mom did not have an easy life, generally speaking she dealt with a lot of medical issues. And I realized just a couple of years ago, well after I was deep into my career that the thing that drove me to this was that I was trying to become the person that would have been able to help her back when she needed it.
Backcountry Strength And Sean Allt
You saw your path and knew what you wanted to achieve and give people – how did you make that a reality?
Backcountry strength is the the culmination of a lot of years of planning. I’ve known for quite a while that this is the career path for me. Health, wellness and fitness while helping people live their best lives, it sounds ideal right?
I realized years ago as a personal trainer you’re extremely limited in your ability to impact. Like there’s a critical mass that you reach. And then there’s just no going beyond it when you’re trading time for money one hour at a time in the gym. There are only so many 6:00 AM slots in the day or in a week.
So I knew that part of the solution was going to be shifting online and working with people in a slightly different capacity. And I also knew that for my long term vision for my own life, and for life with my wife that it needed to be outdoor based as we are enthusiasts, fanatics, whatever you want to call it.
We are also trying to live a life closer to nature and a more sustainability based life as well. So we knew in the future for us, that means having an acreage and growing a lot of our own food.
I started looking into online training back in 2015 before the COVID boom of online training and realized that there was a lot of opportunity there. So that’s when the planning process actually started. Ever since then it has been my passion and focus and I have a lot of fun with Backcountry Strength.
I started off with a couple of friends way back in 2015 but I was just sort of dabbling at that time. I was doing things like, hey can you do me a favor or can you be a test client for me? This was so I could practice delivering online and really hone my skills. I didn’t start doing this professionally until 2019 and that is when I started working with clients one-on-one online and I was doing a combination of nutrition and fitness training.
Backcountry Strength is basically a marriage of the concept of the online training so I can have greater reach and work with a greater number of people from a wider variety of places.
I believe that when you want to lead people, lead them on the journey that you’ve been on yourself, right? What has my journey been? It’s gone from no fitness to some fitness and then onto outdoor adventure and recreation combined healthy eating and fitness goals and now doing massive outdoor undertakings. I knew getting out of the gym where most trainers are was my calling and was where I could give my clients they highest return on investment for the time the spent with me.
Part of my journey was a move from Ontario to BC with my wife so we could chase our passion for outdoor recreation and outdoor activity. That stuff is available in Ontario, but when you were living in downtown Toronto, it was like 3 hours of traffic just to get to the cities limit. And then you have to drive to wherever you’re going versus being in BC and it’s a hop, skip and a jump to wherever you want to go.
My own health has been a big driver along with my passion while building Backcountry Strength. It has been such a positive impact on my own health and my own mental well-being and there is tons of research these days talking about the benefits of spending time outdoors, exercise and getting green spaces. It just makes sense all around.
Also my mom’s history both physical and mental health wise has me trying to be proactive, knowing that I have certain genetic predispositions to mood disorders, anxiety, depression, that type of thing. I am trying to be proactive about and spending as much time outdoors in nature as possible and encouraging other people to do the same time.
The reality is most people don’t do fitness because they don’t enjoy it or they don’t think it’s fun and I am a walking example of why that is the incorrect mindset.
We all know most people don’t actually enjoy the process of going to the gym right? It’s a thing that they feel like they have to do or they should do so I want to take that and flip it on his head and combine it with things they really do enjoy. It’s motivation that they already have in them, I just help them uncork it.
Fitness is a means of supporting passions and activities, rather than just something you feel like you have to do because you’re supposed to. It’s all those things, but it can be so much more depending on how you frame and view it. You need to look at it through the lens that it will dramatically impact your motivation, your commitment, and your level of self efficacy.
Are you a solopreneur or is this a team effort?
I have couple coaches to help me through the development and growth and all of that type of stuff. But Backcountry Strength – the service delivery, marketing, all of that… That’s all me.
Looking at the future what are your big goals?
My biggest goal is to have at least two different service streams or service offerings through Backcountry Strength. One on one training, which is what I’m doing right now as well as a group coaching offerings. And in fact, probably a couple of different group coaching offerings just based on the specific types of endeavors or expeditions that people are training for.
So for example, we are seeing a couple of different camps that sort of naturally emerged in our adventure space. There’s the mountain bikers, the hikers, the mountain hunters, and there is the multi sport expedition people who are doing some combination of hiking, skiing, paddling and a whole host of other things.
I love the one-on-one space and it’s definitely an area where I’ve thrived for many, many years. But I also know that with the goal of expanding our reach and wanting to impact more lives that group session are definitely on the horizon. Group coaching is also more financially accessible for a lot of people as well. So it creates an opportunity for more people to be able to benefit from physical success coaching and development compared to only those that have the means to access one-on-one coaching.
My big audacious goal is the marriage of the business with my personal vision for my wife and I that I shared with you earlier. Having the off grid space and turn it into a permaculture farm. Start out by offering some glamping and that type of stuff as we build up the property with a farm and then eventually have an off grid, permaculture health and wellness retreat.
I would have a decent sized gym on the property, cold plunge, saunas, all that type of stuff. So people can come for a week, a month, or whatever and work on themselves while reconnecting with their health, healthy natural eating and while building a foundation for a lifestyle shift. They can get some guidance and instruction on that and maybe piggyback that with a trip or an expedition.
It’s like, yeah, we’re gonna go do this thing, but we’re gonna come train here for a month first. Right? Let’s Go!
Who Can You Best Help With Physical Success
If you could visualize your absolute best client what would they look like?
I love the way that you frame that because there’s a thought of who is the ideal avatar and then who can you still help and who do you still enjoy helping, right? I mean, the ideal avatar is 35 to 55, which I know is a bigger window than some people say you should have but I find a lot of people hit at different times. They have this moment of enlightenment at different times in their lives, depending on where they’re at in their own journey, independent of age or ability.
An ideal person is in that age range and has some type of big adventure that they’ve got on their calendar within the next year. They want to make sure that they’re physically prepared to take on those physical challenges of whatever that dream is that excites them. I’ll give you a couple examples of people I am working with right now.
One client who turns 50 this year has a goal of doing a BC bike race, which is a six day mountain bike stage race on Vancouver Island. He wants to do it before he has his 50th birthday. I get to help him achieve that massive goal.
I have another client who is a little bit ahead of the curve just in terms of planning and preparation, but in 2024 they are planning to do a multi-sport expedition through Patagonia. So basically hiking ,trail running, and paddling through Patagonia. WOW right!
Another client I am currently training with is going to do a 12 day backpacking expedition through Nepal in October of this year. Mind blowing memories here!
And the list goes on – Some adventures are massive and other ones are more personal and smaller in scope. It really doesn’t matter how big it is though, the whole point of my being there with them and helping them prepare for that adventure is to give them the best chance at success, amazing memories and a tall tale to tell.
How Does A Client Prepare To Work With You?
A person lands on your website, looks around and likes what they see – now what?
OK, that’s a that’s a great question. And I think the the biggest thing is being open and honest with yourself about where you’re currently at in terms of your readiness for your adventure. I’ll be honest, some people show up and they know they have this loose goal and this desire for adventure, but they don’t yet know exactly what that is or exactly what that looks like. I help find that clarity.
I show new clients how to have the mindset of “I’m preparing to do something awesome, do something epic or to create memories that are going to last a lifetime”. I tap into that as the driver and motivator because a lot of people starting a physical success journey often times see it as a vanity metric or an obligation like some sort of personal obligation to start feeling right. And that’s not really that motivating.
Overall people tend to struggle the most with commitment and with adherence in an online coaching environment so you do need a certain level of intrinsic motivation and self accountability because it’s not like one-on-one personal training where you have a scheduled appointment with a human being that’s gonna be there, standing, waiting for you at the gym, making sure you do every rep of every set.
The coaching dynamic is a little different with with online coaching. I still have regular check-ins with my clients and we troubleshoot, we problem solve. We do all that type of stuff and I provide them with all of their workouts, nutritional guidance and supplementary needs throughout.
But I’m not physically there with them holding their hand as they go through every single exercise. So I mean, really the big thing is just knowing that this is something that you’re committed to doing because it is going to facilitate something else right, it’s a process to get you to this big, awesome, amazing thing that is potentially going to change your life.
For a lot of people these types of expeditions or excursions literally are life changing.
In a sentences or two what would you say to a reader to motivate them to meet Sean Allt and to start them on the journey to conquer that physical success goal?
The short version is: it’ll change your life.
I help busy professionals finally conquer the physical success bucket list adventure they’ve been putting off for years. I have learned that most people have a thing that’s been tickling the back of their mind for years. Like, I would love to go hike Killy or I would love to go paddle the Lake Circuit or I would love to go do… You know, insert your awesome freaking adventure here, right?
Careers get in the way, right? A lot of people that I work with are very successful career driven individuals who have seen a lot of success in their professional lives because they’ve dedicated so much of their time and so much of their lives to it. I think the reason that the people I end up working with are in that 35 to 55 range is because they’re getting to that point where they’re doing their reflections and their introspections and seeing that they have checked a lot of boxes but have they hit the important ones?
It’s usually a resounding no.
They have accomplished a lot of things over the years and want to start putting some wins in the personal life column now. And yeah, sure, they’re married, they are happy and have kids and all that kind of stuff. Absolutely not saying those aren’t wins, those absolutely are. But a lot of people want to see the world. They want to take on an adventure. They want to create lasting memories and that’s what I facilitate. That’s what I want for them and am driven to help them get there.
Sean wants to help you create those epic memories from those massive adventures that you once conquered when you made the decision to do those awesome things that you had only dreamed about. You will remember the experience for the rest of your life and it’s a story you will your kids and grandkids and they will see the spark in your eyes when you do.
THAT is what Sean Allt does for people and it is INSPIRING.
