Celebrity personal trainer and lifestyle coach

‘Pioneer’
I’m one of the first personal trainers in Holland. I was around eighteen years old when I started on my own, mainly as a strength and conditioning coach for athletes. But what I realized after a couple of years, is that it was really hard work with the athletes and there was really little progress, because they were already so very good. For example, with a tennis player, we had to work with him three or four months to get him half a second quicker to a net. For the tennis player it’s big, but for me it wasn’t really satisfying. Then I realized that a lot of customers just working out there were saying: “hey, you’re doing one-on-one training, can’t you do that with me as well.” And I was like: “oh, why not.” So I started there, even before it was called personal training.

‘Knowledge’
I still work with athletes and it is great because you really have to go into depth of your knowledge and your expertise. But if you help somebody to lose 30 kilograms, you change his or her life. And that’s a very big satisfaction, for me as well. You don’t have to come up with totally new kinds of workouts. It’s more coaching and it’s easier knowledge. The knowledge could be: you don’t have to eat that much, you have to stop binging, stop drinking and work out three, four, five times per week. Everybody can do it, but no one can do it on their own.

‘Words of wisdom’
I had a discussion with one of my clients, who is extremely successful in his business, and he said: “I am successful in my business, because I surround myself with people with expertise. I have an expert in accounting, I have an expert on legal advise, I have an expert on everything.”
Very good businessmen can’t do everything on their own; they place the right person on the right task. And actually we, as personal trainers, are also an expert for those kinds of people. When he explained it like that I was like: “you’re actually right.” If you run a business, if you want to be exceptionally good in a business, you can not do everything on your own. You need to hire a lawyer, you need to hire all experts.

‘Power in consistency’
My mission is to help everybody to achieve their goal. My team and I teach that there’s a lot of power in consistency, because in everything, also in your business, then consistency is the key mostly. If you do something for two weeks very good and then you leave it for a month, then you’ll never get anywhere. Why we achieve 99% of the goals that our clients want, is because we make a plan. Also with my background in working with athletes, I make a plan as well. If you go to the Olympics, you’re not going to just workout. Look at Usain Bolt, he has a complete plan from A to Z. That’s called a periodization over a longer period of time. That’s what I do with all my clients.

‘Truly inspired’
I thrive by inspiration. I like to be inspired. And I think a big part of being really inspired is that you have to be able to go beyond your own ego. Like somebody who I inspire is Pete Cohen. He is a British celebrity trainer, but he is completely different than all the standard trainers. And in the personal trainers industry there is a lot of ego because we all have biceps and compare them. But when I have a conversation with him and the voice in my head goes like: “I have bigger biceps than he has”, and, “he does a great job but I think I’ll do it better”, then that doesn’t help me. If you really open up yourself and learn new things, you have to stop comparing and set aside your own ego, because then you get truly inspired.

‘Legacy’
My main focus is being a personal trainer and being an entrepreneur in the personal training industry. As an entrepreneur I’m leading other trainers to another level and I’m busy with several locations in the Netherlands. Eventually Los Angeles is a dream as well. The legacy I would want to leave behind is to have helped as many people as I can to think like an athlete.
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Location:
Cobra Museum, Amstelveen, The Netherlands

Clothing:
H&M
Laura Dolls
River Island
TopMan
Vintage Wearhouse Amsterdam
WE Fashion

Photography:
Ferrie by Studio Popgun

Styling:
Alfan Asyari

Muah:
Lina Valciukaite

Interviewer:
Lexter Woodley

Guy van der Reijden:
www.3sixty5.nl/en