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.

www.cameronbyrnes.com.au