Blog
VanOpstall Family Legacy Continues to Grow
Someone with the last name VanOpstall has been training at PowerStrength from the beginning since 2011.
It began with Matt in the first original PowerStrength facility. He would be a 3-year starter on the offensive line at Hillsdale College.
He started to bring his younger brother, Dan, when Dan was in 7th grade.
Dan was an offensive lineman at Michigan State from 2018-2022.
John and Chris are currently playing at Hillsdale, John on the offensive line and Chris on the defensive line.
All 4 brothers have been staples at PowerStrength, in high school, in-season and out, and in the summer college program.
That alone would be enough to cement the name in PowerStrength lore, but their parents, Earl and Pat, joined the Over 40 Personal Training program over 3 years ago.
“PowerStrength has had a huge impact on our family,” Earl said.
PowerStrength Owner, Mark Ehnis, knows how much work went into achieving these big goals for such a long period of time.
“The VanOpstall’s are a legacy around here.” Ehnis says. “They never made excuses and kept working. They were raised right and it shows. All four of them exceeded expectations and achieved the dream of playing football in college. It’s incredible. And to have them be such loyal supporters for the last 13 years means a lot – you don’t see that too often. The stories are countless and they’ve experienced it all. I’m so proud of all of them and very grateful for their support of the PowerStrength Family.”
With the achievements of Matt and Dan, there was little question as to the path the younger VanOpstall boys would take when it came to raising their games.
“I saw what my brothers did there and how it helped them,” John said. “If you want to play college ball, you’re going to need to put in extra work, especially during the summer and this is a great place to do it. It was like, if you want this, this is what you need to do.”
“It was never an option to go to another training facility because my parents had seen the type of athletes that PowerStrength has put out over the years,” Chris said. “It was just the next stepping stone in my career towards college football.”
BROTHERLY LOVE
Younger brothers often look up to their older siblings, that is certainly the case for John and Chris when it comes to living up to the family name at PowerStrength.
“I’ve had brothers who’ve had their names up on the boards and I’ve been just trying to chase their records,” Chris said. “Seeing what they’ve accomplished has pushed me to want to better myself, to beat them, and kind of serve as competition over the years between me and my brothers to see who really is the best out of our family.”
The success of Matt and Dan has paved the way the younger brothers who know exactly what it takes to reach their goals.
“Seeing what Dan went through here, he made huge strides, almost more than what he did in college,” John said. “It made me realize that this place really works. You’re not getting some random high school coach who is decent, you’re getting actual professional trainers working with you. That really helped me have that belief which is the biggest thing for most young kids. This actually is going to work and going to help you so put in everything that you have.”
STARTING EARLY
The extra benefit for John and Chris was the ability to start training at PowerStrength at a younger age. They were able to join the “Little Beast” program in middle school to lay a foundation for strength, work ethic, and ability to be coached.
“Anybody who’s had children that are large and have these quick growth spurts knows that they get clumsy,” Earl said. “One of ours was referred to by wrestling coaches as the ‘baby giraffe,’ and the Little Beast program helped them redevelop their balance and coordination with these longer limbs by gaining strength, doing some of the stretching and the other coordination drills that they do. It really helped them level back out, get adjusted for to their longer limbs to take that next step as they went into high school to really kind of develop strength.”
UPGRADING
Matt, Dan, John, and Chris each set a goal to play football at the college level and had a work ethic that could get them there.
Walking in the door at PowerStrength was the perfect vehicle to get them to their desired destination.
“PowerStrength is much more than a muscle gym,” Earl said. “They came here to become better athletes, to pursue their dream of playing college ball of which all four of them have played college football. But it’s not just the strength, it’s an attitude. It is a mentality, and mental toughness that the trainers at PoweStrength help you build, the nutrition they follow, the healthy eating habits. It drives your competitiveness because they’re participating with like-minded athletes who all are shooting for the same goal and they want to be here, not have to be here, that’s had a huge impact.”
Chris gives PowerStrength a lot of credit for his opportunity to play football at the college level.
“PowerStrength has increased my potential and where I am now drastically over the last four years,” Chris said. “If I were to have stuck with just the bare minimum working out at my high school like most high school athletes, I would have never probably been able to hit a Division II college school for football. I would have maybe been a low Division III. But with the help of PowerStrength, I was able to be pushed physically to a point where I was able to go to D2 football, compete, and push me somewhere where I personally wouldn’t have gotten myself to or where my high school coaches wouldn’t have gotten me to.”
The VanOpstall’s train at the Jenison location, general manager Derek Ehnis has had a front-row seat for John and Chris’s journeys.
“The consistency for them has improved their athleticism,” Derek said. “Being as consistent as they are, they have earned every bit of athleticism that they’ve shown in college by playing college sports. Growing up they had to be consistent because that was their edge. That was what was going to get them ahead in training. Every one of those boys that I’ve met, and I’ve coached two of them, it just runs in their family to just show up, be consistent, and do the work and always be the hardest working one in the room.”
IN-SEASON IMPORTANCE
Training while in-season for football or any other sport is often underutilized. Those who continue to attend PowerStrength sessions while practicing and playing contests in their sport get a serious advantage over their opponents.
“No offense to anyone, they trained in-season with football in high school, they pretty much were the strongest kids on the team because they continued training,” Earl said about his sons. “They did all the high school training but then supplemented it with PowerStrength training. They were the strongest kids on the team, they earned maximum playing time, played both ways, and played the whole game. It’s a balancing act, in my opinion, you can’t abandon your high school program and just go to PowerStrength because you need to be part of the team. The kids that come here for high school training, they’re going to be the leaders on their team, and if you’re going to be a leader, you have to be with your team. But what’s great is, they’ll do their high school workout, come here, the trainers would say, ‘What did you do today?’ And then modify the workout so that they don’t double up on that stuff.”
Chris had a busy schedule in high school with classes, which included weight training, and practice, but he still found a way to get to PowerStrength, sometimes after practice, or on a Saturday, because he wanted to maintain the gains he had made.
“It helps towards maintaining and gaining strength throughout the season because usually at the high school level they’re not really focusing on pushing you hard,” Chris said. You might push weight sometimes, but most of the time you’re not pushing the weight. When you come here you’re still going to be pushing a lot of weight, but they also are going to make sure that you’re ready for the season. You’re going to do equal amounts of mobility and flexibility training, as well as that heavy, hardcore strength training.”
SUMMER COLLEGE PROGRAM
PowerStrength offers a summer program exclusively for college athletes to take their performance to another level.
The VanOpstall boys continued to take advantage of the largest collection of college athletes training together in West Michigan.
“It’s been a great environment during the summers where everything gets relaxed and you don’t have coaches or anything on you,” John said. “The trainers here are amazing. They know their stuff when it comes to lifting, keeping your body healthy, nutrition, and all that. So it’s just been a great environment to keep the gains going that I had while school was going and just keep it going throughout the summer.”
“Coming home in the summertime, they are consistently training year in and year out after college, they all did that,” Derek said “It allows them to report back to camp in the best shape they can be, and also give them opportunities to either earn playing time, but whatever it is, those guys accept it in stride, and they’re going to continue to put the effort in to give themselves the best opportunity to be successful. Those qualities will carry over post-college football, hopefully, in their careers and how they raise their families someday.”
LESSONS FOR LIFE
PowerStrength is as good as it gets at helping people reach goals. The benefits certainly don’t stop with fitness and athletic achievements, knowledge gained in the process creates benefits that go far beyond the playing field.
“They really push us at PowerStrength,” Chris said. “Every time I come in, they’re always trying to make me 1% better and that’s something I can take into daily life. I need to be 1% better at this class, or I need to be 1% better at reviewing film for football. Taking that idea of working in steps really pushes you to be better as a person and in life. They push you so hard here that sometimes you think you’re just going break and once you hit that limit, you see that you can keep going. It just gives you a fresh vision of what you can do.”
Matt and Dan are great examples. Both are now well past their playing days and living healthy energetic lifestyles.
“The discipline they learn at PowerStrength they’ve carried into their post-college career,” Earl said. “(Matt) who was 305 lbs. is probably 215 lbs. now, he runs, bikes, and does lots of activities to keep himself healthy. (Dan) that was 320 lbs., he’s back down to 250 lbs. and is in good shape, and continues to work out in a facility in Chicago to stay healthy and stay strong. So those have been huge benefits, it’s just the mindset that they learned at PowerStrength.”
FAMILY AFFAIR
Earl and his wife Pat were the most recent VanOpstalls to join PowerStrength, as part of the 40 and Over Personal Training program.
Earl is a perfect example of the fact that no previous fitness experience is necessary, the trainers can meet anyone where they are and guide them to success.
“I had never really worked out, I tried a couple of different things like the YMCA and whatnot, but I wasn’t an athlete in school,” Earl said. “I thought I’d give this a try because the reality is, all of my muscle was leaving the house and for the first time in decades I was having to lift heavy things around the house. I also wanted to improve my health a little bit. So I’ve been able to avoid getting put on any medications.
“For my wife who had a hip replacement the recovery provided here at PowerStrength, because she had compensated for the hip for so long, it really helped her regain balance, strength, and better functionality and gave her a lot more confidence in her new hip as well as the camaraderie with the other people that she works out with. She had breast cancer a couple of years ago and the rally of the women that she trains with here at PowerStrength was very empowering for her and gave her a lot of confidence going through that. So, PowerStrength’s had a very significant impact on our family.”
Sessions are very different when it comes to athletes and adults, but one thing that remains consistent across the board at PowerStrength is the small group atmosphere that allows each person to receive the individual attention necessary for the biggest gains.
“The small group, getting some individual attention, but I don’t respond to somebody one one-on-one driving me,” Earl said about what makes PowerStrength different. “It was the right balance of the number of people working out with the trainers, and the knowledge of the trainers. Mark invests a lot in training the trainers on their knowledge of how to do this. For me it was it’s the right balance, they push me when they need to and they listen to my goals. I’m not here to become Superman, I’m here to keep moving. And the safety factor, they make sure that you’re doing it right, they’ll get to you quickly if they don’t see you lifting something properly or stretching properly.”
All of the VanOpstall’s have set a great example of what hard work and dedication can do.
“PowerStrength isn’t just a gym or a meathead gym,” Earl said. “The coordination drills they do, the speed and agility work, they do the flexibility, the emphasis on nutrition. It doesn’t just get you stronger, it does that, but you’re a much more well-rounded athlete. Coming to PowerStrength will lead to more success in your endeavors.”
GET STARTED AT POWERSTRENGTH
5th-12th grade athletes of all sports and abilities can sign up at PowerStrength at any time while spots remain. Choose the PowerStrength location most convenient for you – Alpine, Kentwood, Jenison, and Plainfield – with a 5th facility in Holland coming in late fall 2024!
Visit https://powerstrengthpro.com/athlete/contact/ to learn more or click below to schedule your assessment and get started.
