Celebrity trainer gives his best fitness tips

THE celebrity trainer responsible for Larry Emdur’s stunning transformation reveals his fitness tips and what it’s like working with the stars.

MOST people never have the opportunity to meet a celebrity in their lifetime let alone develop a personal relationship with one — Cameron Byrnes is not one of those people.

Having worked with the likes of former Spice Girl Mel B, ex-Manly NRL star Steve Menzies and Morning Show host Larry Emdur, Byrnes is willing to put anyone through a world of pain in order to achieve their fitness goals.

Byrnes rose to prominence late last year after becoming the Men’s Health Magazine health and fitness expert and is now known as one of Australia’s best trainers. His featured transformations of Menzies and Emdur in Men’s Health thoroughly impressed the nation, showing the retired Menzies drop over 10kg and a third of his body fat in just six weeks.

Now a spokesperson for Skins Australia, Byrnes told news.com.au he is currently in the middle of yet another celebrity transformation.

“It’s another ex-football player doing a transformation with Fox Sports,” he said.

“We can’t really say much because a lot could happen halfway through the program. But it should be a pretty big transformation.” We wouldn’t expect any less.

Larry Emdur lost 13kgs ahead of his 50th birthday while working with Men’s Health Magazine fitness expert Cameron Byrnes.

Byrnes said while Menzies was one of his most successful transformations, it was tough in it’s early stages.

“When he was playing footy Menzies would do all explosive stuff, put as much weight on the leg press or bench press and just go for it and get out as much as he could,” Byrnes said.

“And nutrition did not play a part at all — you just ate when you were hungry, got a big feed in before the game, all that sort of stuff.”

According to the popular trainer, Menzies was a sucker for anything pastry.

“The first 10 days I was getting messages from him sending me photos of meat pies and things in the cake shop asking ‘Can I have this just once?’.

“I used to tell him ‘You can have it but it will set you back a few days — you’ll owe me 100 burpees if you want that sausage roll. Is it worth it?”

After refining his diet and including higher repetitions and lighter weights into his workouts, Menzies started to see significant results.

“He told me he didn’t even feel like he trained that hard,” Byrnes said. “He’s going around telling people he got ripped and didn’t even train that hard.”

Convincing a born and bred footy man to cut meat pies from his diet is but one of Byrne’s daily grievances as health coach to the stars, occasionally having to force clients out the door in the early hours of the morning to get them to the gym.

“There was one time I rocked up at Mel B’s house just before 5am. She opened the door wearing only a towel — I think she had had a bit of a big night the night before,” he said.

“So I just pushed her up the stairs, told her to get her Skins on and kicked her out the door.”

According to Byrnes, Steve Menzies’ diet consisted of meat pies and pastries during his playing days.

One of the most in demand trainers in the country, Byrnes recently started filming a series of 25 motivational points of reference for men’s health.

“We are trying to educate men who are interested in health and fitness and give them bite-sized pieces of quick of information,” he said.

Cam gave us exclusive insight into three of his best tips for achieving your fitness goals.

1. SET YOURSELF A GOAL

And not just any goal — it must be reasonable and achievable.

Cam said he would always sit down with every client and discuss what they want to achieve and how they will realistically achieve it.

“I tell my clients at our first consultation ‘this is where I want you to be and this is how I think you can achieve that’.”

2. PLAN

No goal is successful without a plan.

“I always start with my end goal and work backwards from there. Where will I need to be at the halfway point? Where do I need to be in a month? Or a week?” he said.

The key is to have a plan for everything, from weekly training routines to monthly shopping lists.

“Remember: Not everything works. Only plan your training a week in advance as you will more than likely have to change it up along the way.”

3. MINDSET PATTERNS

“I always start my morning by setting out what I have to achieve that day,” Cam says. “It’s part of my wake-up process. Get into your own head and get your mind on track so that you remember your goals for the day. A bit of mind training is all it takes.”

In working with his former client Larry Emdur, Byrnes recently established his new business ifnotnowwhen.com.au which is scheduled to launch in the coming weeks. Aimed at men around the 30-50 mark, the “bloke focused” site looks to take health and fitness back to the basics.

“It gives you all your basic food recipes and easy stuff,” Byrnes said. “We are hoping it will help men to save money, eat healthy and train more.”

Byrnes is also the ambassador and creator of Fit in your Jeans for Genes campaign running this month which looks to raise money for research conducted at the Children’s Medical Research Institute for birth defect and genetic disease.