Man Behind the Brand - Marco van Tintelen
The beginning of Marco van Tintelen: from asthma to champion dancer
Fate colors and determines. If little Marco van Tintelen hadn't had asthma, he would have been ‘not a bad’ footballer. His mother enrolled six-year-old Marco at the local dance school Griek (now De Vos) on Zijlweg in Haarlem and because one thing leads to another, he became the Dutch champion of Latin American dancing at the age of 24. After many adventures in the dance, step, aerobic, personal training, and pilates world, he runs CRUSH, his own high-intensity pilates studio in Haarlem. A unique workout concept that he developed himself. “In Amsterdam, when I worked for PLTS, I was nicknamed The Legend.”
The youth of Marco van Tintelen and his sports career
It's quite special that a boy from Vijfhuizen ends up in the dance world instead of football.
“I also played football briefly and was quite good at it. But due to my asthma – which I later grew out of – it was better to choose another sport, and that became swimming and dancing.
At the age of 12, I eventually ended up at dance school Marcella van Altena (the wife of Oos Kesbeke) in Hoofddorp, where I significantly improved my level.
During that time, I was quite all-round and danced a lot for Lucia Marthas, for whom I did the craziest things. From dancing for Annie Schilder during performances at the 5 O'Clock Show to lying dead as a soldier on a crate at Bet on That..?
I also once won the Milkhouse Dance Party dance competition at the TROS Popformule program.
My trainer Marcella passed away in 1994 from liver cancer – she was only 34 – and then I also stopped. She was the best for me, and without her, I couldn't continue; that was it for me.”
From dancer to teacher: the first steps in fitness and pilates
I started teaching before I stopped dancing, around my 18th.
And then you made the transition from dancer to teacher, how did that go?
I started teaching at a gym in Hoofddorp. “I met Debbie Jenner there – you know, from Doris Day and the Pins. She pushed me and helped me to start teaching in Amsterdam and, because of the talent she saw in me, she also encouraged me to follow the training to become a pilates instructor. After that, I also started teaching at her pilates studio in the Hilton Hotel.
If you buy her Ground Control Pilates book from that time, you'll see me in the instructional photos.
The career of Marco van Tintelen at PLTS Amsterdam
Besides pilates, I had another great passion, which was teaching aerobic and step classes, especially the advanced classes. In creating the choreographies, I could express my love for dance, and I did that at the big gyms in and around Amsterdam and Amstelveen, including the well-known All Sports where I worked for 17 years.
In addition to all the aerobic and step training, I also completed all my Fitvak training and I also have the papers from the globally recognized personal training course NASM in my pocket. I've actually done everything in this field, but my passion has always been teaching in groups.
The creation of my own pilates concept
I think I started at PLTS almost 10 years ago.
I already knew Guy van der Reijden (sports entrepreneur and the man who, together with his then partner Renée Vervoorn, founded PLTS in Amsterdam, MM) since I was 20, and when he posted a message on social media looking for people to teach, I responded. He invited me for a kind of ‘audition’ for his new pilates concept PLTS.
What was funny was that he indicated before that audition even started that I would definitely stay.
The PLTS methodology: high intensity pilates according to Marco
“I really wanted to create something new for PLTS and went to London where I looked at how they taught classes there, and thus I developed my own concept: on one hand, classical pilates, which works by performing exercises very slowly, but with very nice mixed music with fast transitions. My workout is really a flow where we work according to the classical pilates principles, making it truly a pilates class, but within that, you take no breaks and keep the exercises in a flow. Through the slow movement, the constant flow, the balance, it is a real high intensity low impact training. This boosts your metabolism and you continue to burn for a long time even after the class. I remember Renée Vervoorn participating and saying: ‘What an amazing thing you have created.’”
The growth of PLTS and life as a master trainer
Eventually, you became the founding master trainer, created the monthly sequence that every teacher had to give, and also trained the instructors once a month, and trained their first two branches on Bilderdijkstraat and Stadionplein in Amsterdam.
“That was a great time; we had such a rare good team with about 12 trainers and taught actors, dancers, to the assistants of Hans Klok and everything in between. PLTS was really a concept, and more and more studios opened. I trained the new instructors and taught about 30 hours a week. I was indeed called The Legend, haha.”
The turning point: corona and the step to independence
And yet there has been a turning point.
“Corona came and everything was locked down. I decided to pick up my old love again and gave step classes in the Amsterdamse Bos. That became a sensation; sometimes we were stepping there with 60 people.”
The birth of CRUSH in Haarlem
In Haarlem, on the Gedempte Oude Gracht, it all had to happen.
“I wanted to do it all myself, no investor, no help. At 18, I had two clothing stores; so that entrepreneurial spirit has always been there. I bought small reformer pilates machines and found a pop-up location. At first, I had six machines, later that expanded to thirteen. In the meantime, I saved for real machines and looked for the ultimate location. I can tell you: that was not easy. But eventually, I found the perfect place on Zijlweg in Haarlem, where we now offer pilates barre classes in addition to the reformer pilates classes. You once called me the magnet of Haarlem, and it is true that all the nice people from Haarlem, Bloemendaal, and Aerdenhout come together here. Even customers from Amsterdam come here for a class.”
Future plans of CRUSH Pilates
And does this Haarlem success taste for more?
“I really dream of multiple locations and would love to open in Amsterdam. But good staff is really the foundation, and that is scarce. I am very happy with my team AND I am very happy in Haarlem. The atmosphere here is different, very authentic and familial. Ultimately, everything in my life has gone as it should have, so I trust that this will also find its form.”
Reflection: what Marco van Tintelen would like to pass on to his younger self
And if you look back on your career so far and take stock, what would you have liked to pass on to your younger self?
A brief silence follows. “Then I would have started for myself much earlier.”
CRUSH High Intensity Pilates Haarlem
Zijlweg 1, Haarlem
Image: @annesophiefotografie
