Large giants are also being felled by corona. Last week gym owner, former bodybuilder and multiple winner of ‘strongest man’ competitions Hans Schonewille passed away at the age of 62.
He is called a striking personality: simple, down-to-earth, sporty, open-hearted, smiley, caring and strong. And quirky. Schonewille owned Fantastic Sports in Hoogeveen, the gym he had already started when he was eighteen, at the time in three garage boxes of sixty square meters in total.
The gym now has about fifteen hundred members who can count on extensive personal attention and guidance – according to Schonewille himself, in contrast to the large, cheaper gyms that provide “no quality” and mainly rely on sleeping members.
What Schonewille was all about was “inspiration, experience and movement”, he said last year a long interview on YouTube: “Whatever you pay attention to, grows.” The gym was closed on Sundays. A weekly rest day is beneficial, he was convinced, partly for religious reasons. The seeds of his growing faith came in 2007, when a whirlwind severely damaged the gym, he had to close the business for months and then the economic recession hit him. He decided, on the advice of his soul mate Piet Baarssen from Urk, former Strongest Man in the Netherlands, “to put his problems to God”. He started to focus less on athletes and more on overweight people who wanted to live fitter and healthier and for whom he had developed a special weight loss program. Success guaranteed. “I sell results.” He has been fine ever since. “I owe that to the Great Master above, who watches over me.”
Sons also corona
Schonewille had a strong opinion about the government’s corona measures. It is unknown if he was vaccinated. His two sons also got corona.
Friends can hardly comprehend his death and are deeply saddened. “He was a huge inspiration,” says gym owner Lenard Hakkers (57) from Hardenberg. “He could motivate you. If you were in a slump and you got away from Hans, you could take on the whole world again. Then you thought: it’s not all that hard.”
The Hague bodybuilder Willem Jonkman, known as ‘Iron Willem’, was having lunch with him a few weeks ago. Jonkman (68) was one of Schonewille’s best friends, a comradeship that started forty years ago when Schonewille wanted to do more strength training, wanted to know everything about suitable nutrition and for this purpose went from Hoogeveen twice a week for nine years to Jonkman’s gym in Den Hague traveled. “That man will never leave my heart,” says a deeply saddened Jonkman. “I have so many good memories. We shared a passion for strength sports. He wanted to be a bodybuilder as a boy. Later he wanted to become the strongest man. He was very eager. What I taught him in the beginning is to live without hesitation, with determination and determination. Don’t think you can’t do something if you haven’t tried it yet, but enjoy every moment of who you are and what you do.” Like Jonkman, Schonewille was not very fond of contemporary personal trainers who mainly transfer theoretical knowledge. Jonkman: “What our generation wants to instill in people is passion and feeling. Training should be like making love to your partner, because everything thrives with love.” But when I see some guys these days raging and throwing, I sometimes say: they have read the Kamasutra from front to back but they have never had sex.”
Cousin Ronald Hartman, owner of the transport company of the same name, has also lost “a buddy” with the death of Schonewille. Hartman (50) says that Schonewille regularly drove a truck to Scandinavia “just for fun”. During the week he was a labrador at his gym: sweet and kind to everyone. He did everything. How many elderly who had been medically exhausted he has helped to get out of a wheelchair. For his rest, he would occasionally go for a ride on the weekend. He liked it.”
Last year, Schonewille, looking back on his life, said that he had actually stayed an athlete for too long and became a real entrepreneur too late. His dream was to be in the gym into old age and eventually pass it on to his two sons. The former is not granted to him, the latter may be.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of October 4, 2021
Large giants are also being felled by corona. Last week gym owner, former bodybuilder and multiple winner of ‘strongest man’ competitions Hans Schonewille passed away at the age of 62.
He is called a striking personality: simple, down-to-earth, sporty, open-hearted, smiley, caring and strong. And quirky. Schonewille owned Fantastic Sports in Hoogeveen, the gym he had already started when he was eighteen, at the time in three garage boxes of sixty square meters in total.
The gym now has about fifteen hundred members who can count on extensive personal attention and guidance – according to Schonewille himself, in contrast to the large, cheaper gyms that provide “no quality” and mainly rely on sleeping members.
What Schonewille was all about was “inspiration, experience and movement”, he said last year a long interview on YouTube: “Whatever you pay attention to, grows.” The gym was closed on Sundays. A weekly rest day is beneficial, he was convinced, partly for religious reasons. The seeds of his growing faith came in 2007, when a whirlwind severely damaged the gym, he had to close the business for months and then the economic recession hit him. He decided, on the advice of his soul mate Piet Baarssen from Urk, former Strongest Man in the Netherlands, “to put his problems to God”. He started to focus less on athletes and more on overweight people who wanted to live fitter and healthier and for whom he had developed a special weight loss program. Success guaranteed. “I sell results.” He has been fine ever since. “I owe that to the Great Master above, who watches over me.”
Sons also corona
Schonewille had a strong opinion about the government’s corona measures. It is unknown if he was vaccinated. His two sons also got corona.
Friends can hardly comprehend his death and are deeply saddened. “He was a huge inspiration,” says gym owner Lenard Hakkers (57) from Hardenberg. “He could motivate you. If you were in a slump and you got away from Hans, you could take on the whole world again. Then you thought: it’s not all that hard.”
The Hague bodybuilder Willem Jonkman, known as ‘Iron Willem’, was having lunch with him a few weeks ago. Jonkman (68) was one of Schonewille’s best friends, a comradeship that started forty years ago when Schonewille wanted to do more strength training, wanted to know everything about suitable nutrition and for this purpose went from Hoogeveen twice a week for nine years to Jonkman’s gym in Den Hague traveled. “That man will never leave my heart,” says a deeply saddened Jonkman. “I have so many good memories. We shared a passion for strength sports. He wanted to be a bodybuilder as a boy. Later he wanted to become the strongest man. He was very eager. What I taught him in the beginning is to live without hesitation, with determination and determination. Don’t think you can’t do something if you haven’t tried it yet, but enjoy every moment of who you are and what you do.” Like Jonkman, Schonewille was not very fond of contemporary personal trainers who mainly transfer theoretical knowledge. Jonkman: “What our generation wants to instill in people is passion and feeling. Training should be like making love to your partner, because everything thrives with love.” But when I see some guys these days raging and throwing, I sometimes say: they have read the Kamasutra from front to back but they have never had sex.”
Cousin Ronald Hartman, owner of the transport company of the same name, has also lost “a buddy” with the death of Schonewille. Hartman (50) says that Schonewille regularly drove a truck to Scandinavia “just for fun”. During the week he was a labrador at his gym: sweet and kind to everyone. He did everything. How many elderly who had been medically exhausted he has helped to get out of a wheelchair. For his rest, he would occasionally go for a ride on the weekend. He liked it.”
Last year, Schonewille, looking back on his life, said that he had actually stayed an athlete for too long and became a real entrepreneur too late. His dream was to be in the gym into old age and eventually pass it on to his two sons. The former is not granted to him, the latter may be.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of October 4, 2021
Large giants are also being felled by corona. Last week gym owner, former bodybuilder and multiple winner of ‘strongest man’ competitions Hans Schonewille passed away at the age of 62.
He is called a striking personality: simple, down-to-earth, sporty, open-hearted, smiley, caring and strong. And quirky. Schonewille owned Fantastic Sports in Hoogeveen, the gym he had already started when he was eighteen, at the time in three garage boxes of sixty square meters in total.
The gym now has about fifteen hundred members who can count on extensive personal attention and guidance – according to Schonewille himself, in contrast to the large, cheaper gyms that provide “no quality” and mainly rely on sleeping members.
What Schonewille was all about was “inspiration, experience and movement”, he said last year a long interview on YouTube: “Whatever you pay attention to, grows.” The gym was closed on Sundays. A weekly rest day is beneficial, he was convinced, partly for religious reasons. The seeds of his growing faith came in 2007, when a whirlwind severely damaged the gym, he had to close the business for months and then the economic recession hit him. He decided, on the advice of his soul mate Piet Baarssen from Urk, former Strongest Man in the Netherlands, “to put his problems to God”. He started to focus less on athletes and more on overweight people who wanted to live fitter and healthier and for whom he had developed a special weight loss program. Success guaranteed. “I sell results.” He has been fine ever since. “I owe that to the Great Master above, who watches over me.”
Sons also corona
Schonewille had a strong opinion about the government’s corona measures. It is unknown if he was vaccinated. His two sons also got corona.
Friends can hardly comprehend his death and are deeply saddened. “He was a huge inspiration,” says gym owner Lenard Hakkers (57) from Hardenberg. “He could motivate you. If you were in a slump and you got away from Hans, you could take on the whole world again. Then you thought: it’s not all that hard.”
The Hague bodybuilder Willem Jonkman, known as ‘Iron Willem’, was having lunch with him a few weeks ago. Jonkman (68) was one of Schonewille’s best friends, a comradeship that started forty years ago when Schonewille wanted to do more strength training, wanted to know everything about suitable nutrition and for this purpose went from Hoogeveen twice a week for nine years to Jonkman’s gym in Den Hague traveled. “That man will never leave my heart,” says a deeply saddened Jonkman. “I have so many good memories. We shared a passion for strength sports. He wanted to be a bodybuilder as a boy. Later he wanted to become the strongest man. He was very eager. What I taught him in the beginning is to live without hesitation, with determination and determination. Don’t think you can’t do something if you haven’t tried it yet, but enjoy every moment of who you are and what you do.” Like Jonkman, Schonewille was not very fond of contemporary personal trainers who mainly transfer theoretical knowledge. Jonkman: “What our generation wants to instill in people is passion and feeling. Training should be like making love to your partner, because everything thrives with love.” But when I see some guys these days raging and throwing, I sometimes say: they have read the Kamasutra from front to back but they have never had sex.”
Cousin Ronald Hartman, owner of the transport company of the same name, has also lost “a buddy” with the death of Schonewille. Hartman (50) says that Schonewille regularly drove a truck to Scandinavia “just for fun”. During the week he was a labrador at his gym: sweet and kind to everyone. He did everything. How many elderly who had been medically exhausted he has helped to get out of a wheelchair. For his rest, he would occasionally go for a ride on the weekend. He liked it.”
Last year, Schonewille, looking back on his life, said that he had actually stayed an athlete for too long and became a real entrepreneur too late. His dream was to be in the gym into old age and eventually pass it on to his two sons. The former is not granted to him, the latter may be.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of October 4, 2021
Large giants are also being felled by corona. Last week gym owner, former bodybuilder and multiple winner of ‘strongest man’ competitions Hans Schonewille passed away at the age of 62.
He is called a striking personality: simple, down-to-earth, sporty, open-hearted, smiley, caring and strong. And quirky. Schonewille owned Fantastic Sports in Hoogeveen, the gym he had already started when he was eighteen, at the time in three garage boxes of sixty square meters in total.
The gym now has about fifteen hundred members who can count on extensive personal attention and guidance – according to Schonewille himself, in contrast to the large, cheaper gyms that provide “no quality” and mainly rely on sleeping members.
What Schonewille was all about was “inspiration, experience and movement”, he said last year a long interview on YouTube: “Whatever you pay attention to, grows.” The gym was closed on Sundays. A weekly rest day is beneficial, he was convinced, partly for religious reasons. The seeds of his growing faith came in 2007, when a whirlwind severely damaged the gym, he had to close the business for months and then the economic recession hit him. He decided, on the advice of his soul mate Piet Baarssen from Urk, former Strongest Man in the Netherlands, “to put his problems to God”. He started to focus less on athletes and more on overweight people who wanted to live fitter and healthier and for whom he had developed a special weight loss program. Success guaranteed. “I sell results.” He has been fine ever since. “I owe that to the Great Master above, who watches over me.”
Sons also corona
Schonewille had a strong opinion about the government’s corona measures. It is unknown if he was vaccinated. His two sons also got corona.
Friends can hardly comprehend his death and are deeply saddened. “He was a huge inspiration,” says gym owner Lenard Hakkers (57) from Hardenberg. “He could motivate you. If you were in a slump and you got away from Hans, you could take on the whole world again. Then you thought: it’s not all that hard.”
The Hague bodybuilder Willem Jonkman, known as ‘Iron Willem’, was having lunch with him a few weeks ago. Jonkman (68) was one of Schonewille’s best friends, a comradeship that started forty years ago when Schonewille wanted to do more strength training, wanted to know everything about suitable nutrition and for this purpose went from Hoogeveen twice a week for nine years to Jonkman’s gym in Den Hague traveled. “That man will never leave my heart,” says a deeply saddened Jonkman. “I have so many good memories. We shared a passion for strength sports. He wanted to be a bodybuilder as a boy. Later he wanted to become the strongest man. He was very eager. What I taught him in the beginning is to live without hesitation, with determination and determination. Don’t think you can’t do something if you haven’t tried it yet, but enjoy every moment of who you are and what you do.” Like Jonkman, Schonewille was not very fond of contemporary personal trainers who mainly transfer theoretical knowledge. Jonkman: “What our generation wants to instill in people is passion and feeling. Training should be like making love to your partner, because everything thrives with love.” But when I see some guys these days raging and throwing, I sometimes say: they have read the Kamasutra from front to back but they have never had sex.”
Cousin Ronald Hartman, owner of the transport company of the same name, has also lost “a buddy” with the death of Schonewille. Hartman (50) says that Schonewille regularly drove a truck to Scandinavia “just for fun”. During the week he was a labrador at his gym: sweet and kind to everyone. He did everything. How many elderly who had been medically exhausted he has helped to get out of a wheelchair. For his rest, he would occasionally go for a ride on the weekend. He liked it.”
Last year, Schonewille, looking back on his life, said that he had actually stayed an athlete for too long and became a real entrepreneur too late. His dream was to be in the gym into old age and eventually pass it on to his two sons. The former is not granted to him, the latter may be.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of October 4, 2021