Health + Wellness: Creating New Habits

We explore creating health new habits with Brian Cammarata, personal trainer at Lynx Fitness.

“Change occurs with new habits,” says Brian Cammarata, Personal Trainer at Lynx Fitness. Brian is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and a TPI Certified Golf Fitness Instructor specializing in movement quality and body composition change. “You need patience and realistic expectations. I recommend to my clients that they start small and build,” he says. As one of the most centrally located Boston hotels with gym facilities, guests at Boston Park Plaza can continue their workout routines when visiting our city, without interruption. “After a few weeks, you’ll see the changes start to snowball.”

Brian tells his clients not to go it alone. “Either hire a trainer. Or join classes. Or workout with a friend. You need to be accountable to someone at the start,” he says. By being accountable you start adopting new habits. That’s when change happens. “You want to evolve from fitness as what you do to fitness as what you are.”

Focus on the fundamentals

Brian believes that social media can be a distraction. “I call it ‘majoring in the minors’. It can have people focusing on the wrong things,” he says. He believes in what he calls the five bedrocks of health: reducing stress, getting adequate sleep, good nutrition, increasing aerobic capacity and strength training.

Improved aerobic capacity leads to better stamina, helps maintain weight loss and provides a range of other health benefits including strengthening your heart. Brian says that working with weights changes your body composition. It increases your basal metabolic rate, so you burn more calories in the day. “It makes managing your weight easier,” he says. “Americans are good at losing weight. We aren’t good at keeping it off. That comes with real, long-term change.” Strength training is also beneficial for bone health. It can increase bone density, which is important with age.

Seasonal impact

If you live in a climate with four seasons, build your training in a seasonal way. In the winter, take advantage of a gym to build up your strength. As the days get longer and the weather warms up, Brian recommends that people take their fitness outside. “In the spring, get to the track to run or ride your bike. It’s good for Vitamin D, works on your aerobic capacity and it keeps your workout fresh.”

TopGolf Boston

One of the great tools at Lynx Fitness is TopGolf. “It keeps your game sharp when you can’t get to a course,” Brian says. TopGolf lets you pick one or two aspects of golf to focus on. You can book half an hour to work on your swing or your short game, or it simulates playing a famous course, such as Pebble Beach.

Brian’s key piece of advice is to keep it simple at the beginning. To make long term changes, focus on the bedrocks of health. And if you need help, ask for it – from a friend, a partner, or a professional, such as Brian at Lynx Fitness.

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