1) Who is Ben Carpenter? (where are you from, what do you do, a bit about yourself (hobbies, etc)
I am a personal trainer and fitness model from Oxfordshire. Obviously a fitness fanatic so outside of the gym my hobbies mainly include taking photos of food and selfies in the lift and uploading them to Instagram.
I started when I was in sixth form as they built a new leisure centre next to the school so I must have been 17 or 18 when I first started using the gym. I was always pretty active though and played various sports ever since I was a child.
3) Whats been the hardest part of your journey so far? and how have you overcome them (set backs, rejections, injuries, basically anything difficult that you have had to overcome)
In my early 20s I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease and lost 50lbs of body weight over the course of a few months. After 7 days in hospital and a year off work I had to rebuild the physique I had only to go through the same ordeal just a couple of years later. When fitness is your passion, your career and your livelihood being forced away from that due to illness is a very difficult thing to cope with. Comparatively to that rupturing my left bicep tendon (tearing it off the bone completely) a couple of years ago was significantly easier to deal with.
4) What does your typical workout/diet routine look like?
I actually exercise every day. It has become a habit of mine that energises me and clears my head for the rest of the day. Even if I do some light cardio in the morning I feel better for having done something. My actual weight lifting routine has been a little bit all over the place during my bicep rehabilitation because it was very difficult to train upper body as hard as I did previously so all the rules regarding frequency, volume and intensity kind of went out of the window because I was lifting such light weights lol.
5) What have you learned over the past year regarding training, lifestyle and nutrition?
I don't think I have learned anything over the past year that has significantly impacted the message I pass to clients. The fundamentals are still in place i.e. consuming appropriate number of calories, consuming adequate protein, progressively overload during weight training. There has been some newer research which has helped cement how much is down to personal preferences such as fasted cardio not being superior to fed cardio in terms of weight loss and both higher and lower repetition ranges being able to build muscle tissue when compared to the typical 8-12 hypertrophy repetition zone. It is more common for me now to allow clients to pick which methodologies they prefer rather than trying to steer them towards something I thought might have been slightly superior.
6) Whats your favourite Cheat/Treat meal?
Due to my stomach issues I find it very difficult to eat large amounts of junk food which in some ways is a bit of a blessing because it makes it a lot harder for me to gain significant amounts of body fat! If I eat a lot of fatty food and anything very rich in dairy it tends to cause me a lot of discomfort so things like pizzas, cheesecakes and deep fried food tend to stay way off the menu. I love eating something like burger and chips and if I use leaner beef and oven chips I can do it without any issues. I also have a soft spot for a huge bucket of pick and mix sweets, especially if I am sitting down to watch a film.
7) one supplement that you could not live without?
I am a sponsored athlete so my personal supplement regime is very substantial. That being said I never claim someone absolutely needs supplements and I don't think there is anything I could live without. My most commonly consumed supplements are protein powders and caffeine so it would be a toss up between those on which would be hardest to omit.
8) If you had to start out from scratch with your physique what would you do differently and why?
Stop worrying about tiny details that make very little difference. I used to focus so much on things that in hindsight were simply wasted energy. I would obsess over meal timing, meal frequency, the post workout anabolic window, how long my workouts were etc. I think it is much more valuable to enjoy a routine and be consistent with it than try and strive for something you view as perfection if it comes at the expense of happiness elsewhere. I used to obsess so much about being super strict with food that I would avoid social situations with friends. This is something I am very happy to have moved on from.
9) Who do you look upto in the fitness industry and why?
The list of people here is too long for me to remember everyone. I admire anyone who genuinely puts their client's best interests first. This includes being able to admit you were wrong so you are putting out the best information possible as well as making sure your earnings are achieved ethically. I have no interest in getting behind the next big diet trend solely to make a quick buck if it means sacrificing the quality of the information I put out.
10) If you had to give one bit of advice to people starting out what would that be?
Make your workout routine as enjoyable as possible. Achieving a great physique takes time and if you hate what you are doing it is far less likely you will actually be able to stick to it long enough to get you to where you want to be..
11) What new goals are on the horizon? (new goals, aims, etc)
I constantly set goals for myself. A big one for me is following on from such severe illness it was very difficult for me to train my legs as hard as I could train my upper body (the drug interactions caused a lot of swelling, stiffness and pain in my lower extremities) so I would like to be as proud of my legs as I am my upper body.
12) Where can people find you? (website, social media accounts)
Facebook.com/BenCarpenterPersonalTraining is my main hub. I post informative videos on my YouTube channel www.youtube.com/BenCarpenter and fitness photos and infographics on my Instagram www.instagram.com/bdccarpenter :)
