Programmer turned educator. CIO by 28. Kettlebell coach by calling. Author of 20+ books. Builder of KETTLEBELL MONSTER.
Born in 1973 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, I grew up in children's homes — an unconventional start that taught me self-reliance early. By age six, I was programming on an MZ-800 and a Commodore 64. Computers weren't just a hobby — they were an escape, and eventually, a career.
At 16, I joined the Dutch Air Force. After military service, I dove into programming professionally — ColdFusion, Java, PHP, databases. I worked for banks like Suncorp, Queensland Government contracts, and tech companies. By 28, I was CIO.
Years behind a desk took their toll. By my early 30s, I was dealing with sciatica — the kind that stops you mid-step. In 2004, a single 16kg kettlebell changed everything. Within months, the sciatica was gone. Within a year, I was hooked on kettlebell training in a way I'd never been hooked on anything physical before.
That one kettlebell led me to pursue every certification I could find — StrongFirst (SFG Level 2, signed by Pavel Tsatsouline), Russian Girevoy Sport Institute, IKSFA, IKFF, CrossFit Level 1. I didn't pick a tribe. I studied them all.
In 2004, my wife Anna Junghans and I co-founded Executive Results, a personal training business in Australia. We opened THE TOUGH SPOT gyms — functional kettlebell training spaces where real people did real work.
In 2009, I launched Cavemantraining online. What started as a blog became the world's premier online kettlebell education provider — 22,000+ students in 150 countries, 3,000+ training videos, NASM and ACE accredited courses and certifications, 70,000+ YouTube subscribers.
Wherever I lay my kettlebell, that's my home. Over two decades, I've lived and trained in nine countries: the Netherlands, Spain, Australia, Vietnam, Thailand, Italy, Tanzania, Albania, and Greece. Each place taught me something different about movement, culture, and what it means to train.
I'm currently based in Kalamata, Greece — olive trees, sea air, and a kettlebell in the garden.
In February 2026, Facebook deleted my account. Overnight, 217,000+ community members across multiple kettlebell groups — gone. Years of content, connections, and conversations — erased by an algorithm.
But the domain kettlebell.monster had been mine since 2019, waiting. I'm a programmer. I build things. So I built the platform the kettlebell community deserved — from scratch. 1.39 million lines of code. The first and only social network built exclusively for kettlebell training.
KETTLEBELL MONSTER launched in October 2025. It's not just a replacement for Facebook groups — it's everything in one place: workouts, courses, tracking, community, a shop, and a space for coaches to build real businesses.
"I don't know everything. I'm on a path of lifelong learning. There is always something to learn from someone, no matter who they are."
I bridge Hardstyle and Sport Style kettlebell training because the bell doesn't care about your methodology. I teach biomechanics because understanding why matters more than knowing how. I build my own platforms because your community shouldn't be at the mercy of someone else's algorithm.
My wife Anna is my co-founder, training partner, and the person who keeps everything running. Our son Benooi and our French Bulldog Nacho complete the picture. We've lived on four continents together and trained in gyms, parks, beaches, and living rooms across the world.