About us

About Max

From a little boy feeling small to a professional basketball player of 2.08 meter tall!

Hi, I’m Max van Schaik. I might be tall, but clients actually me “the nice guy”! Because I emphasise with my clients and also give them some tough love when pushing through exercises.

Let me tell you a bit more about myself. Observing, analysing and holding back at first before breaking out are my qualities. They form a pattern from my childhood to professional basketball player and currently as a Personal Trainer.

As a small child my parents and I moved to the US. I didn’t speak English, so I kept completely silent in the first year. The teachers found it difficult to get to know me. Until the moment I started speaking… This just came out of the blue! From not saying a word all year to full sentences and chatting as if nothing had happened. The teachers were perplexed! I had been listening and observing all year trying to grasp the language and words all together.

When I was 16 I moved to Spain to play basketball professionally. Pretty young, and another country where I didn’t speak the language. Again by observing and listening I was able to play well on the basketball court. Fortunately, I took Spanish lessons and quickly mastered the language.

I played professionally for 12 years for clubs in the Netherlands, Spain and China. Then an horrible accident happened… I injured my shoulder! I needed surgery with a minimum rehabilitation of one year. My contract ended and so did my career. This was a difficult time for me.

After the surgery I was not allowed to move my arm for months. This was a completely different life than I was used to. With intensive treatments and training, together with my specialists we had to work in small steps, build up and stay consistent. The goal is to get my arm to function optimally again. During this period I chose to become a Personal Trainer. I was fascinated how complex my own injury was. What was behind what I did, how I did it and why I did it. This has made me realize what is possible.

I experienced what it is like to perform professionally and to build up from scratch. I can relate to where most of my clients come from and the challenges they face in moving better and getting stronger.

Speed date with Max

What are your best sports performances?

Basketball:

• Youth European Championships with the Netherlands
• Spanish Under-20 National Champion.
• Played basketball in China With NBA Hall Of Famer Tracy McGrady
• Was in Olympic team 3×3 until accident.

Training:

• After a shoulder injury/surgery, after which I was not allowed to lift my arm for 2 months. Then months in a row with mini steps could and was allowed to improve, worked towards ‘healthy shoulder’ and an overhead press of 70 + kg and bench press 120 kg + in 1.5 years.

What are you most proud of?

I am most proud of my personal development after my life as a professional basketball player.

How do you ensure that you continue to develop?

I keep developing myself by finding ways to grow in terms of training, courses and approach. Open to everyone to be able and willing to learn. This year I plan to do a course obout the shoulder: strength and rehab training; and a course on strength and conditioning.

What other people don’t know about you…

Many people see me as calm and demure, which I am. But when I’m in a familiar environment… then the brakes are off!

Funny enough, although I’m more an introvert, my girlfriend is the opposite!

In my youth I played four different sports in one year: football, basketball, tennis and baseball. And yet my girlfriend Babette is more sporty than I am, she is a Rocycle instructor (indoor cycling) gives 10 lessons a week with 60 people in a lesson and goes the hardest every lesson!

What is still on your bucket list?

I love to travel and traveling through Japan is very high on my bucket list.

About Dymphy

How I went from Chubby Girl to Sporty Spice!

As a child I was sporty, but with my sturdy build I was certainly not the best at PE. I thought I was “too fat” and always felt like I needed to lose weight to accept myself.
From the age of 15 I started with fitness: circuit training for women. When I felt confident enough and had gathered enough courage, I started working out by myself at BasicFit. I only trained my legs, abs and cardio. But I didn’t know what to do with all those machines. I felt insecure.

At age 17 I started kickboxing at FittClub Diemen. And I was immediately hooked! The technical and intense training taught me respect, discipline and team spirit. The old school kickboxing, MMA and boot camp sessions have shaped me both mentally and physically.
I learned that I was stronger than I thought. At first one minute of planking was hell! And a push-up? Ha, I could only fall on my face! Because I found training fun and challenging and I trained consistently, I got better.

I believed I would always stay chubby, but when I learned more about nutrition and started tracking it in a nutrition app, I lost almost 4 kg in 1 month! The story I used to tell myself suddenly turned out to be completely untrue! Only then did I really start to believe in myself; in my own strength and perseverance. And if I could have such a strong limiting belief holding me back, then other people can experience this too. This increased my drive to help other people.

Speed date with Dymphy

Which sports have you done?

• Fitness
• Powerlifting
• Olympic weightlifting
• Spinning
• High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
• Obstacle races (Mud Masters, Strong Viking)
• Dancing (hip-hop, dancehall, twerking)
• CrossFit (international competitions)

What other people don’t know about you…

I love art, museums as well as painting and drawing myself. With some of my clients we had a painting club together where we came together every week to paint.

How do you ensure that you continue to develop professionally?

As an athlete I always set new performance goals and my coach helps me to work towards them in a personal program.
As a coach and trainer I read a lot and follow various courses.
Since 2020 I have been a teacher and mentor at the Milo Performance & Education programme. Here I teach new Personal Trainers our wonderful profession. As a teacher I need to be at a higher level of understanding of the theory and practice than our students. That definitely challenges me to keep studying!

What are you unsure about? And from which story you tell yourself would you like to break free?