Meet our dutch athlete Sophie! She’s a successful home workout guide guru, fitness influencer, and all about inspiring her community to level up. 
Read our interview and find out more about the Women’s Best athlete!
Name: Sophie van Oostenbrugge
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Height: 164 cm / 5’5″
Birthday: 6th February 1994
Instagram: @gainsbybrains
Can you share more about yourself and what you are doing?
My name is Sophie, and I share everything from home workouts to gym training, from food to daily life on my social media channels. My goal is to motivate and inspire as many people as possible to continue to push their limits, build habits to feel better and achieve results they didn’t know were possible.
When did your journey start? Was there a certain event or situation after which you found your passion for fitness and decided this was your path?
During university and after quitting field hockey, I felt like I was so focused on studying that the balance between training my mind and training my body was gone. My boyfriend was going to the gym so that’s when I decided to get a gym membership as well and I fell in love with it.
You have a pretty large following on Instagram, tell us what the one takeaway is for your audience? What are you aiming to achieve with your community?
Level up. If there is anything you want to achieve, whether it’s a fitness-related goal or anything else: set your mind to it – work for it, fail a couple of times and get back up until you reach your goal. You can achieve so much more than you think with the right mindset and dedication.
How have you remained consistent with your fitness and training, and what kind of advice can you offer to those who are maybe struggling with finding motivation or purpose?
Find something you enjoy doing, instead of just doing something because of the possible outcome. You still won’t enjoy every session, every single time you go. But making sure that you find enjoyment in the journey will allow you to stay consistent.
Was there ever a time when you felt like you weren’t good enough or didn’t fit in?
Whenever I find myself getting worried or anxious about things that happened in the past, or things that might happen in the future I try to redirect my thoughts to the current moment. Everyone has insecurities and bad days, but I try to acknowledge the thoughts or feelings and let them go. Not to let them cripple me or weigh me down.
Let’s talk workouts. What does your weekly routine look like and what’s your favorite body part to train?
Now, I’m either working on or filming my at-home follow-along workouts and I practice Brazilian Jiu Jitsu once or twice a week. When the gyms are open, I usually go to the gym 4 times a week (upper / lower split) and film follow-along workouts next to it.
Do you follow a specific diet? What about your favorite treats?
No specific diet, no restrictions and no calorie counting. I find that this works best for me, the more relaxed I am with everything I do regarding training and nutrition, the better results I get.
What are your favorite Women’s Best nutrition and supplement products? When do you use them and why?
My three favorite products are the Pre-Workout in Sour Peach Candy, Creatine and Fit Whey Protein powder. I use the Pre-Workout before my training, when I need a bit of an extra push, and the creatine and protein powder afterwards.
Lastly, you decided to collab with Women’s Best. Why did you choose to be part of the community?
I’ve been using Women’s Best products since I started my fitness journey and loved them ever since. It only made sense to me to collab! It’s been a few years and I am still just as passionate about it.
