Van Marinos
Author | Accredited Exercise Scientist and the Founder/Director of Community Moves Health & Fitness
Van Marinos is an Accredited Exercise Scientist and the Founder/Director of Community Moves Health & Fitness, a specialised network of over-50s gyms across Sydney. Since 2018, Van has helped hundreds of older Australians improve their strength, mobility, confidence, and social connection — ensuring they grow stronger, not older.
With over 15 years’ experience across sport, health, and fitness, Van has worked with the Australian Sports Commission, Football Federation Australia, and a wide range of private health organisations. He has coached thousands of individuals, from elite athletes to weekend warriors, and is recognised for translating cutting-edge exercise science into practical, enjoyable programs for older adults.
Van holds a Bachelor of Human Movement & Health Education (USyd) and a Master’s Degree (Honours) in Sports Coaching (Griffith University). He also holds Cert III & IV in Fitness and extensive certifications in nutrition, chronic disease management, corrective exercise, and advanced physiology.
As a leading voice in functional ageing, Van regularly contributes to national conversations on healthy ageing. He has been featured in Body & Soul, The Australian Women’s Weekly, Starts at 60, and appeared as an expert on ABC TV’s “Old People’s Home for Teenagers.”
Van has also been a featured speaker at the Healthy Ageing Summit, and has appeared on multiple podcasts discussing exercise, longevity, community health, and ageing well.
Outside Community Moves, Van has also provided consulting and program development for other organisations, including ShooIn and PTP.
He lives on Sydney’s Northern Beaches with his wife and three children.
BOOKS AUTHORED BY VAN
What if the secret to ageing well had less to do with anti ageing creams and miracle cures… and more to do with movement, purpose, and finding your people?
In Strong & Social, exercise scientist and founder of Community Moves, Van Marinos, shares a powerful and deeply human look at what it truly means to grow older well.
After watching his own father battle terminal cancer, Van was forced to confront a difficult truth. We are living longer than ever before, but many of us are becoming weaker, lonelier, and more disconnected along the way.
This book is not about chasing perfection or becoming a fitness fanatic. It is about reclaiming strength, confidence, mobility, and joy in a way that is realistic, sustainable, and grounded in real life.
Inside, you will discover:
Why movement is one of the most powerful tools we have for longevity
How strength training can dramatically improve quality of life as we age
The hidden health dangers of loneliness and social isolation
Practical ways to create healthier habits that actually stick
Inspiring real life stories from everyday people transforming their lives through movement and community.
Blending science, storytelling, and practical advice, Strong & Social is a guide for anyone wanting to feel stronger, healthier, and more connected in the second half of life.
Because ageing is inevitable.
How we age is not.
BOOK REVIEWS
Congratulations on your book; unlike so any fitness books you do not advocate a physical regime which in reality is beyond the elderly to maintain as an ongoing regime, Your subtle promotion of sustained mobility over muscle building is absolutely in character within our aged limits, the way Community Moves adapts exercises to suit our limitations enables everyone to exercise. What is more, under your guidance, we each work within our personal limitations, giving us senses of achievement and the desire to "come back tomorrow" for further doable exercises.
Strong & Social is not an extreme fitness bible, it is a conversation, talking to the reader, not at them. You do not thrust heavy weights and other exertional workouts , instead you are nuanced with gradually building strength, mind and balance as moveable objectives, all by working at our own level and capabilities.
All achieved with a diversity of short multiple and sustainable mobility exercises, many of which can be easily continued at home.
To me the most outstanding result of Community Moves is how as we progress, we start to question or challenge our lifestyle, we become far more aware .to our ambience, and are happier within ourselves.
— Jim Lees
