Interview: Cameron Byrnes - Celebrity Personal Trainer
Lucky duck me was given the opportunity to interview now a celebrity himself Personal Trainer - Cameron Byrnes who you would have seen on Channel 7's hit TV show - Bringing Sexy Back where Cameron helps transforms peoples lives.
Cameron isn't just the TV star Personal Trainer, Cameron has trained celebrities like Larry Emdur, Mel B, Jackie O, Johnny Ruffo and the list goes on.
– INTERVIEW START –
What got you into
Personal Training / Fitness as a career?
Long story, I used to
be a landscaper when I left school then I started training. I’ve been a state
swimmer, played baseball, soccer, tennis, water polo – I’ve done many things
but in the back of my head I never thought I could. Whilst I was working being
a landscaper I took up Cert 3 in Fitness and that’s how it came about, I
thought damn, I want to work in a gym and it snowballed from there.
How much of a positive
influence has becoming a Personal Trainer done for your life?
My family we like
food. My brother and My Dad are very big foodies and they’re not big on
exercise. I know that I would be definitely on that path if I didn’t go into
the health and fitness side of things so it’s had a very positive impact on
physical but also mentally like we all do. Once we are on a health plan, eating
healthy and training more; we’re more alert, we get more done, we’re more
focused and it works better for me.
If any, how did
Bringing Sexy Back change your career? (More single ladies
signed up?)
I would have to say
every second or third message on social media might be along those lines of are
you single or HOT.
I’ve trained with
celebrities for many years like Mel B, Jackie 0 so being around that sort of
people I’m used to but being the one on television – I still don’t get it and
realise that I’ve actually been on TV although since then I’ve done some
leading transformations like Mens Health and Womens Health and now have just
been offered the role as Health Professional for Mens Health.
Me: Oh wow,
Congratulations
So that’s pretty cool
and I’ve just worked with Larry and he won the Best Celebrity Mens Health Challenge
Me: Yeah Larry’s
looking good
I do get to work on
much cooler projects now.
Who were you biggest
fitness influences growing up and have they changed now?
Wow, that’s a tough
one, a really tough one. That’s an interesting one because I played a lot of
sport so whatever sport you play in you look at who leads that sport. I don’t
have one person so in swimming it could have been anything, it could have been
an elite swimmer or a female swimmer, and how their careers went so I just kind
of mould to what I’m working on. If I was to take up crossfit then I would look
at Jason Haywood who is the leaders of the industry so you would look up to
them and how they do it. You might want to look at transformations and look at
other weightloss coaches and see what they’re doing.
What is your favourite
type of training to do and least favourite?
Umm.. Least favourite,
okay this is not suppose to be on the record but obstacle training for me is
hard, endurance long distance marathon running. I’m going to say marathon
running, I hate running.
I’ll tell you why, I
have to do so many different things for my clients and so many different things
for events that I don’t have the ability to run consistently to be a good
runner.
Like anything weight
loss and anything is a time and application of a certain mood to be specific.
That I don’t like as I’m not conditioned for running.
What I like most is
circuit interval training only because it’s cardio based, it gets you fitter,
it help burns calories and at the end of it you go ‘Damn, that was hard’ ‘Damn,
that was good’ ‘F**k, I’m f**ked’ you know what I mean like it’s really good.
Things like F45 are great, you get in there, 45 mins, smash it and have a great
time.
What’s your favourite
single exercise and your least favourite?
I would have to say best
favourite is ah, baby bench press. Only because I am just good at it. Like I
don’t have to think about it. I might train chest once every two weeks but when
I do a chest exercise it just seems natural, it just feels right. Because I’m
good at it I train it less, otherwise that part will overdevelop and you don’t
want that to happen for your proportion right.
Squats…
Me: You don’t like
them?
Full loaded 150kg-200kg
on your shoulders on an Olympic bar, squat down to the ground and back … I’ve
actually done my knee, just had something happen to my knee and had cartilage removed
so my left knee is always that funny and doesn’t feel right.
I’ll do massive
kettlebell lunges, I love those just a squat loaded, shoulder loaded Olympic
bar squat I just don’t like the movement on it, my body doesn’t like it but
that’s quite common.
It come down to
engineering so why I’m not a good runner and the reason why I’m not a good
squatter. I actually did a bit of engineering studies on your body and the
measurements between your hips to knee, knee to ankle play a bit part
mechanically on how you do a squat.
Me: That’s really
funny that you say that a past personal trainer of mine used to take
measurements of my legs and I would always say what are you doing and she’d
respond with something about the mechanics of the body so there you go.
How can you remain
motivated on exercising and healthy eating when it’s basically the same thing
over and over?
AWHH wash your mouth
out if it’s the same thing over and over you're doing it wrong.
Look if your doing the
same thing over and over again, then you are doing it wrong. For me every week
is different, it’s a different challenge. I always have 2 or 3 new recipes a
week and I do that with my coaching program right.
So every week I don’t
give someone the same food plan for 12 weeks, every week I keep 70% of it the
same and will change a snack here, two recipes for dinner there, and maybe a
new breakfast and just simply change a few options.
That way you can be
like oh, I’m looking forward to that new chicken stir-fry, it sounds awesome so
that way you have something to look forward to.
With workouts they
always have to be a bit challenging. Every week I give a base workout so it
might be a body weight workout and that’s your challenge for the week and that’s
your base. Then you might go to a spin class, aerobics class or something like
that, so that’s how that works – it could be either way.
Can you tell me a time
when you have lost motivation and how did you overcome it?
Okay, ah a few years
back I was training a very high level celebrity, we were on a strict plan and I
was really pushing myself with that client and it was a grilling process of
having 6 weeks to achieve a certain result. In the process I actually got
pneumonia and got quite sick because I didn’t realise I had it. Then there was
a 10 day turn around where I needed to rest and in that moment because I cant’t
do anything, I couldn’t breathe very well and I actually became quite depressed
in that period of time, ate quite a lot and put on 6kgs of body fat. Just
because you become inactive and eating the same volume of calories; people
don’t understand that if you cut workouts out that you need to eat accordingly.
It’s not a gradual thing you need to go no, I’m not burning up 2000 calories today
so I need to be smarter about it and I didn’t do that so I probably ate more
then normal and worked out less. I needed to make sure that once I was feeling
better and exercising properly that I topped up my food, as food needs to be
number 1 and start moving again but responsibly. It’s not all or nothing you go
eat to make myself feel better, move to burn calories and it might have just
been a power walk or gone outside and walked each day to get myself moving
again and it’s a really hard mindset, you’ve got to where you are at and accept
where you are at before you can move back up again.
Do you crave McDonalds
or junk food?
Do I look like a human
being? *we all laugh*
Look I’m the most real
personal trainer and I’ll tell you right now, yeah of course I do but there’s a
reason I’ll be craving it and that will be because I haven’t eaten properly
throughout the day. People who want fast food and I’m not talking just take
away food, I’m talking food that is easily brought and eaten straight away is
because you haven’t eaten properly throughout the day so you need to eat
something now or wait until you have time to prepare it. I find that if I can
eat really well for the first half of the day up until lunchtime, I don’t have
cravings later on. Most people skip breakfast, have a coffee, maybe have a
snack at 11am and then bad food at lunch time because they haven’t eaten
properly through the first half of the day so I always say start your day
bigger than the end of the day and you’ll never have those cravings. But if
you’re ever on a road trip there’s always a stop at Maccas just at least once.
In saying that, what’s
your favourite cheat meal?
Ahh, I’ll go pizza. I
actually make my own but I make it just like dominios. I make a difference base
so I make a cauliflower base, it’s really easy to make and I still feel like
I’m eating pizza putting everything on like your tomato paste on and everything
on it. I just don’t like and have cut out wheat because it bloats my body
really quickly, everyone’s different but I hate that feeling in my belly.
More and more though I
am turning further and further off sugar. I watched The Sugar and now I’ve make
every single one of my clients watch it because it shows you that fats don’t
turn into fatty liver syndrome, it’s actually sugar that makes the liver fatty.
Through cutting out sugar it creates so many mental health benefits.
What the best 100%
split for women for weight loss involving carbs, protein and fats?
Every body type is
different. I could put you next to another girl who is more active and always
been small and petite so her carbs would be higher because she is super, super
active and your carbs need to be lower because your getting back into exercise
as you’ve had a baby so the splits and ratios are very different.
What I say is this –
Understand what a carbohydrate is, what are good carbs and bad carbs and use
them wisely. So if you’re going to go - Quinoa, brown rice, sweet potato I
would go 33 split each if your trying to get your food under control. Never go
cold turkey and cut carbs. There is no such thing as cut carbs, but there is a
really good method that I use quite successfully and it’s not even difficult.
Carb cycling, it’s so
simple; one day you go good carbs like the ones I mentioned and then the next
day you cut the carbs down, you might have a few fats in their but more
protein.
At the end of the day
it comes down to your body will tell you what it needs.
If you’re being
physically active 5 days a week – eat more carbs on those days and lower carbs
on the days you don’t workout so you’re not putting too much energy in.
There is 3 really easy
formulas to follow and carb cycling is a very, very important one, eating carbs
on the days your working out on is the second one and going balance of all
three is the third one – balance of all each.
What is the first
thing you do upon waking up? E.g yoga, lemon water
Because I don’t have
big dinners, I wake up hungry and I wake up with my body saying ah, eat
something, eat something now so I’m straight up to eat muesli.
I try to alternative
so I do a breaky shake – I put chia seeds, acia berry, coconut powder water, a
little bit of ice, a bit of water and blend it up, that’s one morning. The next
morning it’ll be oats and then the next morning after that back to muesli. I
usually have the three staple breakfasts but if I have a bit more time then I
might make a quick omelette, the Nutrabullets are brilliant; three (3) eggs, a
bit of parmesan, some onion, cherry tomatoes, three (3) pulses, into the pan and
it’s done; literally no more than five (5) minutes.
Last one, In your
personal opinion is it best to workout morning or night?
Morning. Not for fat
loss right, that’s not necessary the truth not everyone can work it. The reason
why the morning is good is, is when you workout doing something physical; you
wake up. The endorphins are released, circulation is up, brain function is
already heightened before you get to breakfast so you start the day so productive,
you’ve speed your metabolism up so you’re going to eat better because you are
actually hungry so I always recommend get up early and get it done. By the end
of the day your heart is just not in it, like you’re just not that motivated.
- – INTERVIEW
END –
Getting to meet and
interview Cameron was a huge highlight for me not only for my media blog status
but for my fitness career as well. It’s an inspiration to talk to someone who
is so dedicated to fitness and make a well known impression on many through his
hard work and where he has gotten himself to on this day through his passion
for fitness.
Cameron was such an
easy going, relaxed and friendly person who I felt I had known for quite
sometime on a personal level from the first few seconds of talking to him.
I really do thank Cameron
for his time and for answering all the questions that were requested through me
reaching out to you for what you would like to know had you been given the
chance to ask Cameron anything.
You can reach out to Cameron via his website link below and get involved in his 12 week challenges.
