Community Highlights: Meet Blake Huddleston of Volunteer Physical Therapy and Performance

Today we’d like to introduce you to Blake Huddleston.

Hi Blake, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
Growing up, I played multiple sports – if there was a ball, I was chasing it. Though I played multiple team sports throughout my life, I never really had any formal training in lifting weights or other types of exercise. I was blessed in that I knew early on in my high school career that I wanted to be a Physical Therapist, and something in my mind clicked in 2014 that made me decide I needed to get serious about my own health and wellness since I was not playing sports anymore. My real health and fitness journey did not begin until my junior year of college while at MTSU studying for my bachelor’s in Exercise Science.  I started hitting the weight room 5-6 days a week at MTSU. I studied, studied, studied all different types of exercise, while also getting advice from the staff and faculty in the MTSU Exercise Science department to build up my knowledge base.

Fast forward to my graduate program to become a Doctor of Physical Therapy at Tennessee State University. While in school at TSU, I decided to focus my attention on working with fitness athletes. I started personal training while in school for a little extra income, but more importantly, to sharpen my coaching skills while also developing my ability to write appropriate exercise programming for people of all ages and activity levels. I created an excellent base of knowledge with the help of my professors, classmates, and clinical instructors throughout my schooling. I graduated with my Doctorate in May 2020, passed my National Board Exam in July, and officially became a licensed Physical Therapist in August of 2020. Those summer months of 2020 were tough. Many people were hesitant about hiring due to the ever-changing pandemic world, or were going with other candidates who had more experience than I did. After interviewing for several jobs, declining a few offers, and lots of discouragement due to missing out on places I thought I wanted to work, I can now look back and see that God had created a perfect storm of events to lead me to His greater plan for me. Hindsight is always 20/20. (pun intended)

Volunteer Physical Therapy and Performance was born in November 2020. Since opening, I have had the great privilege to earn the trust of several clients over the months to give me a shot at a much different type of care than most have experienced. I specialize in working with CrossFit, functional fitness, barbell, and ball sport athletes and bridge the gap between traditional rehab and performance training. My business is not the typical healthcare model – I offer 1-on-1, 1-hour treatment sessions, which allows me to identify the root cause of pain or problems and address that to get my clients performing pain-free for life. I also get to spend that whole hour really getting to know my clients and their stories, and have noticed how beneficial it is for both their pain and mental health to be able to have a provider they can spend so much time with every week. This allows my clients to develop an unmatched sense of trust in the care I provide. If you told me when I began my journey to become a Physical Therapist that I would be a small business owner right out of school, I would have laughed at you – but here I am, working on something I am so passionate about that it makes me excited to get up and go to work every day. Love what you do, and you never work a day in your life, right?

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Is the road EVER smooth?! Let me know if you find the smooth road so I can travel it as well! There were lots of struggles. I typically don’t share this freely, but I hope it will be an encouragement to someone: in PT school, I actually had to repeat some classes, which delayed my graduation by a whole year. I was mentally unhealthy, struggling with anxiety, depression, and a lack of motivation. The word we typically use for that is burned out, but it was like burn out on steroids. I was also dealing with stomach ulcers which increased my anxiety and made it hard to get up and out of bed most days.

I remember vividly when I got the call from my academic advisor that I would have to repeat classes or drop out of the program – immediate heart drop – and let me tell you, I considered just completely giving up and searching for a new career. However, that year off from school turned out to be a pivotal moment for me – it gave me a year off to collect myself, work on my mental AND physical health, change my diet to avoid the pain with stomach ulcers, decompress from the pressure of school, and work a personal training job I loved.

That year to focus on myself and my relationship with God took a dark time and made it something that I still use for motivation to this day. I could not have made it through that time without a true relationship with God or the love of my family and friends. Looking back, I can see how God was again working in my life to get me to exactly where I was supposed to be. And wouldn’t you know it, the class I joined ended up containing some of my very best friends and conveniently a girl who I now call my fiancee. What a trip that is!

We’ve been impressed with Volunteer Physical Therapy and Performance, LLC, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Volunteer Physical Therapy and Performance is a Performance-Based Physical Therapy business specializing in working with athletes and the active population, especially CrossFit and functional fitness athletes, barbell athletes, and ball sport athletes. My whole treatment philosophy is to keep the active population pain-free and performing their best while still doing the activities they love, both in and outside of the gym. Lots of people ask me if I only work with athletes – I tell them “if you have a body and move it, you ARE an athlete!” Most people see that I work with a lot of high level athletes and potentially let that keep them from reaching out to me, but my doors are open to any person who wants to continue to live their active and healthy lifestyle without pain, even if they don’t classify themselves as an “athlete.” 

I am different from traditional physical therapy clinics, and, in reality, most other healthcare providers, in that I am able to offer an hour-long session with 100% 1-on-1 care. It is almost impossible to find a healthcare provider who spends an entire hour with JUST you, and I feel very fortunate that I get to offer this style of care, as I have seen the benefits it has on my client’s rehab timeframe. I am most proud of the community of athletes that I have created and that people enjoy working with me so much that they stick around. I am truly humbled that people trust me with their care, and I will always give each client 110% of myself.

If I were to give the readers one tidbit about what I want everyone to know about Volunteer Physical Therapy and Performance, it would be that if you have been dealing with pain or an injury that is keeping you from being active, or if you’re tired of medical providers telling you, “just rest, just take this medicine, just stop doing the activities you enjoy,” etc., please do not hesitate to reach out to me so we can get you on the fast track to recovery!

What matters most to you?
In life, my faith, family, and my fiancee are the things that top the list of what matters most to me. Without them, I would not be who I am or where I am today, and Volunteer Physical Therapy and Performance might still be just a dream. I would also get in trouble with my two dogs if I didn’t mention them in what matters to me – they can read, after all, because they are the smartest dogs in the world!

In my business, what matters most to me is providing my clients with an unmatched experience in the healthcare sphere. I am so passionate about what I do and the folks I work with, and I hope to transfer that passion into a type of care that cannot be duplicated. It is also important to me to be a fully transparent provider. I think the medical and healthcare world can sometimes be a confusing and murky place, so I always aim to bring clarity to my clients so they can constantly be in the loop of what exactly is going on with their body and not have to do all the guesswork and Google searches to know what their provider is talking about.

My goal is to be a provider that can help bring clarity to each person I come in contact with, so that they can have a provider on their side that they know has their best interest in mind and would never do anything to compromise their dignity or trust!

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/volunteer_ptp/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Volunteer-Physical-Therapy-and-Performance-LLC-109556280965692/