Bodybuilding
From 80 to 160 kilos
Eight years of eating, lifting and sleeping to a schedule turned a 2.18-metre frame of 80 kilos into the tallest professional bodybuilder in the world.
- Height. Measured by Guinness at 218.3 cm
- 2.18m
- Weight at nineteen
- 80kg
- Weight in 2025
- 160kg
- A full day on set, over seven meals
- 7,000kcal
Transformation
The timeline
1989
Born in Hilversum
Two metres at fourteen, 2.18 at nineteen. Then he stops growing, at about 80 kilos.
Years 1–2
The first 20 kilos
He starts lifting and gains 20 kilos in two years. In the third year progress stalls, so he studies how bodybuilders eat and train.
2013
Bodybuilding, seriously
Training becomes a profession. In March he co-founds Muscle Meat to feed it.
2018
Cover of Men’s Health
About 150 kilos. Meets fans at FIBO in Cologne in April and covers the November issue of Men’s Health Netherlands, with a documentary on how he gained 70 kilos in eight years.
2021
Guinness World Records
Measured at 218.3 cm on 27 April. Announced in October as the tallest professional bodybuilder.
2025
160 kilos for Reacher
Adds five kilos of muscle in a year while doing four months of stunt training for the final fight.
2026
Zangief
The wrestler from Street Fighter, played by the tallest professional bodybuilder.
Training
How he trains
Nothing exotic. Heavy, controlled work in blocks, full range of motion where his limbs allow it, and recovery treated as part of the programme.
01
Six-week blocks
He rotates between stamina work (drop sets and supersets), hypertrophy and strength, switching every six weeks.
02
Three failures per set
Roughly eight reps to failure, a breath, three more, a breath, one more. Three sets per exercise.
03
Range over load
Most machines are built for people half a metre shorter. A chest press gives him about 75% of the movement, so he leaves it out.
04
Warm up, always
Five or six minutes on a bike and two sets of fifteen with an empty bar. Skip it and his knees tell him the next day.
05
The recovery rule
If a muscle has not recovered within three to four days, the session was too much.
06
Maintenance on set
Keeping muscle takes far less work than building it. During shoots he drops to around a third of his normal volume.
“It’s all about perspective.”
Nutrition
Seven meals a day
A normal day is 6,500 to 7,000 calories, and the full 7,000 when the day on set is long. Protein runs from 300 grams on rest days to 400 when he trains.
Meals come every two and a half hours, roughly 1,000 calories each. In 2018 the seventh was on an alarm at three in the morning.
A typical meal takes three minutes: 200 grams of salmon and a shake of 150 grams of ultrafine oats, 50 grams of vanilla whey and water. About 1,000 calories and 70 grams of protein.
Cutting is relative. For the boxer in The Electrical Life of Louis Wain he dropped to 5,000 calories a day, which was enough to get lean.
For the camera
A body built for roles
Reacher
Four hours of stunt training a day, one hour of bodybuilding in the evening, a two-hour nap and ten hours of sleep. Five kilos of muscle added in a year.
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain
For the boxer he cut to 5,000 calories a day and got lean.
Street Fighter
Before filming in Australia in 2025 he studied how Zangief talks, moves and fights in the games.
The bodybuilding world
Among the big names
FIBO
Met fans at the QNT stand in hall 10.1 at FIBO 2018, the fitness trade fair in Cologne.
Arnold Classic
He has also been a guest at the Arnold Classic.
Side by side
Photographed beside Phil Heath, Jay Cutler, Ronnie Coleman, Big Ramy, Kevin Levrone and Hafþór Björnsson, and trained with Bradley Martyn at his Zoo Culture gym.
Advice from the top
It was Jay Cutler who told him that keeping muscle takes far less work than building it.
“I think this life isn’t possible for normal people”