Trainer Sohee Carpenter says her past struggles with eating disorders set her on a path to help others correct problematic food and fitness behaviors. Get to know this force of fitness: life, nutrition, training and balance–and find out what makes her tick.
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00:00 Hey, Woman's Health, I'm Sohee.
00:01 What is something I did for myself this morning?
00:04 Technically started last night.
00:05 I got a really good night of sleep.
00:07 I don't have any special ritual.
00:09 I just go to bed and try not to stay on my phone
00:11 for too long, but I'm still working on that.
00:13 What is something that puts me in a good mood?
00:15 Definitely would be whenever I have a good night of sleep.
00:18 It is the difference between I'm goofy,
00:20 I'm cracking jokes versus I'm a gremlin, absolute gremlin.
00:24 So today's a good sleep day, so that's great.
00:27 I also love the feeling when I finish a really good workout,
00:31 my form was feeling great, I felt strong,
00:33 maybe I set some PRs here and there.
00:35 So when I reach the end of my planned workout
00:38 and I can actually do it in full
00:39 and not have to cut it short or anything
00:41 'cause the day's really busy,
00:42 I feel really, really good about myself.
00:44 What are my favorite workout moves?
00:46 I am a sucker for the traditional lifting movements.
00:50 I love the squat, bench press, deadlift,
00:52 overhead press, the pull-up,
00:54 and then all the variations thereof.
00:55 I would say in the past couple of weeks,
00:57 I'm starting to get the itch
00:58 for pursuing really solid strength gains lately.
01:03 So I want to get my numbers up there.
01:04 So that's something I'm having a lot of fun with.
01:06 What is my advice for women wanting to get into lifting?
01:09 There's so many places to start.
01:10 I would probably say work with what you have.
01:12 I work with, so my target population is women,
01:15 which is great,
01:16 and I work with a lot of beginners especially.
01:18 And one of the biggest things I notice
01:21 is that they are uncomfortable
01:23 or afraid to go into a conventional gym setting,
01:26 especially if it's crowded,
01:27 there are a lot of guys around,
01:29 they don't want to look silly,
01:29 not knowing what they're doing.
01:30 I would say if that's the case, then start at home.
01:33 Start with what you feel comfortable doing
01:34 in the privacy of your living room,
01:36 your bedroom,
01:37 somewhere where you're not going to feel self-conscious.
01:39 Pull up some trainers videos that you trust,
01:42 grab a pair of dumbbells or anything around your house.
01:44 You'd be surprised how creative you can get
01:46 with a backpack or a duffel bag.
01:48 You can fill it with cans,
01:49 bottles of water,
01:50 textbooks and things like that
01:51 to create makeshift weights.
01:53 And you can learn your movements that way.
01:54 So during the pandemic,
01:55 I showed several videos of how to do,
01:59 I actually released a whole program
02:01 on how to lift at home using
02:03 zero traditional gym equipment.
02:04 And it was all like,
02:05 okay, here's how you take a backpack,
02:07 make sure it's very sturdy.
02:08 Now we're going to fill it up with this and this and this.
02:10 And I'd weigh it and it was like 35, 40 pounds.
02:12 And I filmed several videos
02:14 of me doing actual like squatting movements,
02:16 things like that with like a backpack as my weight.
02:19 And it worked great.
02:20 Healthy eating to me is about
02:23 liking the way that you eat
02:25 and also eating in a way
02:26 that is actually sustainable for you.
02:28 And that to me means an inclusive diet,
02:31 not an exclusive diet,
02:32 which I think is the opposite of what
02:34 many fitness coaches tend to preach.
02:36 So I am not a fan of restricting or banning any foods
02:40 outside of medical restrictions
02:43 or actual personal preference.
02:45 So if you don't like bagels,
02:46 I would never force you to eat bagels, for example.
02:48 But if you love bagels,
02:49 I would say find a way to include them in your diet
02:51 because I am really big on actually maintaining
02:54 a healthy relationship with food.
02:56 And that includes not obsessing over all your nutrients,
03:00 not obsessing over calories.
03:01 And I've been there.
03:02 It's not a fun place to be.
03:03 And I want you to be able to eat in a way
03:05 that makes you feel really good,
03:07 but also allows you to live your life.
03:09 And so the post in reference was,
03:11 recently I did a satire post
03:13 and it was about the golden rules to be healthy.
03:16 And all of it was satire.
03:17 And it was like, no sugar, no bagels, no cereal,
03:20 no granola, no cake, not even on your birthday, no joy.
03:24 And hopefully most people understood
03:27 that none of it was actually serious.
03:29 And the point was to drive home the fact
03:31 that a lot of times the advice that fitness coaches
03:34 and health coaches give are actually not that far off
03:38 from that original post where they place
03:41 so many unnecessary restrictions on things you cannot eat
03:46 that I think it does people a disservice
03:48 because they start worrying about like,
03:50 okay, so I don't even know what to eat anymore.
03:52 And they're at the grocery store,
03:53 reading ingredients lists all the time
03:55 and worrying over ingredients that are in such small doses
04:00 that they don't ever have to worry
04:01 about the health implications whatsoever.
04:03 And they can just enjoy it and move on with their life.
04:05 And I think what's happening a lot is that the stress
04:09 of worrying about what you're eating
04:11 ends up being worse for your health
04:13 than what you're actually eating.
04:15 I would rather you relax.
04:16 If you want pizza, have your pizza.
04:19 And I would rather you learn and practice,
04:22 for example, mindful eating skills.
04:24 So you can learn when to stop
04:26 when you're reasonably satisfied,
04:28 not feel guilty and then just move on.
04:30 That's it, it's pretty simple.
04:32 And it's funny because when people hear that I'm a trainer,
04:35 sometimes one of the first things they say is like,
04:36 oh, so you shouldn't be eating all this stuff.
04:38 You shouldn't be eating fries.
04:39 And I'm like, well, fries are one of my favorite foods
04:41 actually, so I will have that.
04:43 But there is still very much this misconception
04:45 that if you're a trainer or if you're health conscious,
04:48 that means restriction.
04:49 And to me, it's addition.
04:51 How do I navigate fitness with ADHD?
04:54 The way my brain works, first of all, in my head,
04:58 there's like two dozen tabs open at once
05:00 at any given time point.
05:01 But when it comes to my fitness,
05:03 I definitely come from a background
05:05 of the first several years of my fitness journey.
05:07 I was changing my program every other day
05:10 and looking for whatever was the next exciting thing.
05:13 And so I was obsessed with,
05:15 okay, well, that looks like a better program.
05:16 That looks more perfect.
05:17 So I changed variables and changed variables.
05:19 And then because of that,
05:20 I was never actually sticking to anything.
05:22 Nowadays, knowing my personality especially,
05:25 I've really whittled things down to repetition
05:28 of the same workouts every week.
05:30 And I love especially to track my progress.
05:33 So if I say like, oh, this is how much you benched.
05:35 This is how much weight you did.
05:36 This is how many reps you did.
05:37 I write that down.
05:38 And then the next week, as long as I'm feeling good,
05:40 I'll say, okay, let's see if we can get an extra rep
05:42 or let's see if we can increase the load on that.
05:44 So the numbers, so that's a big part of why
05:48 I like the traditional movements
05:49 because it's very easy to say,
05:51 okay, that was this many pounds
05:52 as opposed to maybe like a yoga move,
05:55 which is also great,
05:56 but yoga, it might be harder
05:57 to quantify your progress necessarily.
05:59 So I like objective numbers.
06:01 So whatever I can do to objectively track my progress,
06:04 I will do that.
06:05 So I have a bit of a disordered eating background.
06:07 And so when it comes to numbers,
06:09 I'm very careful to track things
06:11 that I know are actually beneficial
06:13 for me and my mental health,
06:14 like my lifting numbers and whatnot,
06:16 and not quantifying other things
06:19 like what are my body measurements
06:20 looking like from day to day?
06:21 Have they dropped or changed from last week or last month?
06:24 I don't really worry about that stuff.
06:26 And instead I focus on things
06:28 that I know will actually make me feel good about myself.
06:31 Do I have tattoos?
06:32 I actually have three tattoos.
06:33 I've got one behind my ear,
06:35 one on my right shoulder blade,
06:38 and then the newest one is on my ring finger.
06:41 So these two I'm actually trying
06:43 to get removed sometime soon.
06:45 But this one I got last year
06:47 and it's my husband's initials and he has the same.
06:50 He's got my name written in Korean on his ring finger too.
06:54 Do I have any injuries?
06:56 The one semi-serious injury happened
07:00 like seven and a half years ago,
07:01 but it actually was while I was dead lifting
07:03 and I hurt my back.
07:05 It is because I was very underfed that day
07:08 and my body was not prepared to lift the loads
07:09 that I was trying to lift.
07:11 And I felt this very loud crunch in my right side.
07:14 It was very unpleasant, dropped the weight immediately.
07:16 Thankfully it wasn't anything more serious,
07:18 but I ended up having sciatica down my whole right leg
07:20 for seven months.
07:21 So I couldn't really walk properly.
07:22 I couldn't do any rotational movements.
07:25 I couldn't squat or deadlift for seven months.
07:27 And so while pretty minor in the grand scheme of things,
07:29 it was fairly distressing.
07:31 And so since then I am extra careful with my form
07:37 and making sure I'm actually properly fueled
07:39 before my workouts if I'm going to push hard that day.
07:41 One of the worst things you can do
07:42 when you're injured and hurt is to stay completely immobile,
07:45 is to stay bedridden.
07:46 So I did train a lot of upper body.
07:48 So upper body had no restrictions.
07:49 And then lower body, I would do some single leg work,
07:51 like light single leg work.
07:53 And I was able to do hip thrusts
07:54 and glute bridge variations with no issue.
07:56 So I did a lot of that in the meantime.
07:57 How do you overcome fear in the gym?
07:59 From my experience working with a lot of women in the gym,
08:03 so a lot of times they'll come train with me
08:04 and they'll say, "Hey, can you check my form?
08:06 I recently just finished data collection
08:07 for my PhD training study actually.
08:09 So I got to work with dozens of women."
08:11 And I kept seeing the same theme over and over,
08:13 which was, "Well, I don't push my workouts
08:16 because I'm not sure if my form is good enough.
08:19 And because I'm not sure if my form is good,
08:21 I don't wanna push and then hurt myself."
08:23 So that was just over and over, repeat the theme.
08:25 And then they also said, "I don't know what it feels like
08:28 to be pushing close to failure."
08:30 And so almost every single participant I trained,
08:33 client I train, even when they consider themselves
08:36 an advanced lifter, I oftentimes find that they can
08:39 hit thrust, deadlift, bench press so much more weight
08:42 than they actually can.
08:43 Sometimes all it takes is another experienced trainer
08:46 or a coach that you trust giving you the okay,
08:48 the green light on your form and saying,
08:49 "That looks great, you can do more."
08:50 And then you're like, "Oh, well, she said I can do more,
08:52 so I'm gonna do more."
08:53 So that happened a lot, but I would say,
08:56 don't be afraid to recruit the help of a trainer
08:58 or someone who really knows what they're doing
08:59 to watch your form and to give you feedback
09:02 on how you're looking.
09:03 And sometimes I can watch someone and I'll say,
09:05 "You can add 50,000 to that."
09:06 And they're like, "What, no way."
09:07 And then they do it and then they get it up
09:08 and then their confidence just soars through the roof.
09:10 It's really fun to see.
09:11 What is my favorite thing about my body?
09:14 I'm gonna say I love all the things my body can do.
09:17 I love to cook, so I love being in the kitchen.
09:19 And lately I've picked up baking and I'm having fun
09:22 practicing cake decorating.
09:24 So when it's a friend member's or a family member's birthday
09:26 I'm like, "I'll do it, I'll do it."
09:28 And I loved practicing, even if it doesn't look that great,
09:30 I still have fun doing it.
09:31 I love carrying my pets around.
09:34 (laughs)
09:35 I have a pug, a chihuahua, and a Siamese cat.
09:38 My husband knows I love carrying them
09:39 around the house with me.
09:40 This is debatable, but I actually kind of love
09:43 how stubborn I can be.
09:44 So I'm gonna go to part about my brain that I like.
09:46 I like how stubborn I am in that I am extremely persistent.
09:50 Once I decide I want something, I will do it.
09:52 That's kind of an admirable trait with myself.
09:54 (laughs)