Dirk Baelus - Ironman triathlete, author, macrobiotic fan
Dirk Baelus is a unique athlete in the triathlon world. With a PB of 8h50' in the Ironman Triathlon and 4 participations to IM in Kona (Hawaai) this ex-café owner turned sportsman keeps on surprising . His achievement are even more unique when you know that his diet is purely based on the macrobiotic principles. Relying on his own experiment in the field of natural food for performance he created his,own brand of organic supplements , launching his new career as an entrepreneur as well.
Veerle Van Hoeck - Belgian Champion trailrunning, member of the Salomon Team
When you first meet Veerle, she's the nicest, tiniest girl in the world. When you meet Veerle on a race course, she's your worst nightmare. Winner of La Bouillonnante (25km), Trail des Fantômes and Belgian Champion long distance in La Roche , more than often she fights for the general victory chasing those podium position usually reserved to men-only. Since 2013 she started partecipating in ultra-trail on more days and hostile environments, earning a place as the only woman in the very exclusive Salomon Trail Team of Belgium.
"Max’s functional input in my training strategy is crucial to keep me on the tracks, literally and figurally. The program of Max not only offers me my getaway ticket from injuries, it also allow me to work in its utterly inspiring setting to challenge my limits and ease my mind at the same time. His straight forward and expert approach helps me to fully balance and strengthen my body which is absolutely vital to put my trail running ambition into practice."
Stef Damen - Sales Officer at Dafra Pharma International and passionate mountainbiker
What started as a hobby for Stef Damen it's now becoming a dream. His speciality are Cross Country MTB competition of 70-100km and has ridden through African forests for charity. Since we train together we just focus a lot on core and stability training and the amazing increase in lower back flexibility allowed him to assume a better riding position and maximise his energy output. Stef surprised everyone when he finished 2nd after ex-World Champion Erwin Vervecken in the Sterrencross. A youth dream coming true!
"Max is a pro in transforming dull fitness exercises into challenging, and more important, fun functional ways to discover the strengths but most important, weaknesses of your own body. Already after one hour of training his expert eye sees which parts of your body you need to improve to become a better athlete, but also to prevent the modern day-to-day injuries of a working man. (Such as the usual problems when you sit behind a desk 8hours a day..)"
Ellen Swinnen - Mountainbiking young mother
With her 3rd place in the Elite Woman Vulkanbike 85km race, Ellen has given her visit card for the 2015 season. Competing with the top of the female MTB Cross Country world is not easy when you have a 9 to 5 job...During the Sellaronda Hero, the world's toughest MTB marathon over 87km and 4700hm in the italian Dolomites she finished 4th in her category.
Nina Fagerström - professional showjumping jockey
Nina Fagerström works as a professional showjumping jockey. Nina´s main job is to train horses ready for competitions where she competes almost every weekend against the worlds top riders. A professional jockey can somehow be compared to a formula-car driver; the car is important, teamwork is very important but the most important link is the rider who makes the result. If you don't have a good car or team even a good driver can't win. Nina's team consists of several specialists: I am the guy responsible to make her as fit as she can, still avoiding injuries.
Truus Druyts - Radio presentator, singer/songwriter and coach
One of the few female motivational speakers around, Truus' work has always been driven by passion She has followed a very selective education as actress and singer and has been working for 22years for national television and 13 years for national radio. Next to her artistic career, she is a demanded businesscoach and motivational speaker. It is obvious that in the life of this busy woman physical fitness plays an important role. I'm very happy to have helped her in the past two years to boost her energy level to such a way that she can transfer it to her audience during every performance.
"Change takes a lot of energy. So whenever I take the stage to facilitate that deep and lasting transformation for the individuals in my audience,it is one of the key ingredients of my performance. Energy. And really: does anyone believe a trainer who does not walk the talk? Max has trained my body to match the energy of my heart and mind. I’m in better shape than I ever was, focused, balanced, functional, ready for action, with loads of energy to train and teach days in a row. Max is the expert trainer who masters both movement and intelligence of body and mind. His trainings and method are stimulating physically and mentally. On top of that he is a great guy with a strong vision. He’s a master taking people to a higher level of excellence."
Serge Berberof (Sergio) - Engineer, father, partner, ultrarunner
Serge (Sergio for the friends) is a 56-yrs old engineer with a passion for the outdoors and for trailrunning. I met him almost 8 years ago during a very rainy EcoTrail in Brussels and we had the chance to speak for a while. Then nothing for 8 years. Until he decided to run a 100km ultratrail and he reached out to me. It's been a hell of a ride, but we made it!
"We can’t be good at everything. If we were, there would be no need for teams. Hence, in order to make my dream of running my first 100km Trail a reality with no more than 6 months for preparation, I contacted Max. He worked out a tailor-made training plan on the basis of its core functional training principles. With 5 sessions per week, I got to work.
The four main revelations for me were: a change in my general posture, shorter strides with landing on the tip of my feet, increasing significantly my pace, and get rid of injuries as soon as possible in the process. Sometimes I wondered why not running longer distances than 25-30km during training? I got always the same answer: “Trust the process.” And did I trusted it!
I went thru all possible emotions, sometimes pain and the desire to give up - but I embraced the suck. Max ran with me as pacer on the last 25km, and we crossed the finish line together. To me that is leadership.
A week later, I started to realise the magnitude of the effort by the feedback I get from tons of people and all the things I learned about myself along the way.
Thanks. "
Max Icardi
As an independent fitness & health specialist I combine personal training for individuals and companies with professional education courses for trainers.
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