Teen’s fitness journey improved his physical and mental strength

Cam Baker poses to check on his fitness progress. Photos submitted

By Tom Victoria

As Cam Baker‘s strength increased, he became mentally stronger as well. Now, he wants others to follow his path of self-improvement.

The 17-year-old Texan described what fitness means to him.

“Fitness is really important to me because I like to stay active and wanting to help a lot of people that feel like they're down and they don't feel good,” he said. “I like to help people whenever it comes to that. They can improve themselves and make them a better version of themselves. That's what I like so much about fitness is because you can be strong physically, but you can also be strong mentally. That's what a lot of people need, especially now when everybody's glued on their phones all the time. They're just staying in their rooms all the time, doing nothing. What you need to do is you just go out and get mentally stronger and just do better things for yourself.”

Cam intends to motivate others to improve their fitness and lives as he did.

“My current fitness goal is just really to inspire people and help people get better,” he said. “I was super skinny whenever I was little. That just runs in my father's genetics. I always got bullied because of my size. I was 5’1 whenever I was in eighth grade. I was a small person. I didn't look that good at most. That's where you always have to start out as. It's both sides of it. It's you start fat and then you work yourself until you get fit and where you like how you look. Also, whenever you are skinny at first and then you work yourself, you eat, you work out, and then you like how you look at the end.”

Cam wants others to feel better about themselves.

“That's what my goal is: to just really help people,” he said. “Just because I see a lot of people in my eyes and I see my younger self and they probably feel weak and they probably feel not useful. That's how I felt whenever I was young.”

Cam wants to spread positivity through an online presence.

“I would post some stuff, but I didn't really get into the fitness industry until about three or four years ago,” he said. “At the start of it, I got a lot of hate from it. I still get a whole bunch of hate from a whole bunch of toxic people. Nobody wants to be around a whole bunch of toxic people. I like to just have positive people on my page and I like to talk to positive people. I don't like people that smoke or drink. They can do their thing, but just let me do my thing and we'll both be good at the end.”

Cam said there’s nothing wrong with people not being the same.

“Everybody's different in their own ways,” he said. “That's why I like being in the fitness industry because people are different. People have their different physiques. People have their different diets that they do and everything like that. I don't judge anybody for their differences, their flaws. My goal is to help people get better and make them feel better about themselves.”

Cam works out throughout the week.

“My current workout routine is mostly different parts of the body different days of the week,” he said. “It's Mondays, arms. Tuesday is back and shoulders. Wednesday is a rest day slash cheat day because I am on a bulk right now. I can have my cheat days and I can just eat whatever I want and then go back. Thursday, that's legs. And then Friday is a whatever day. It's whatever doesn't feel the sorest you can just work out. Then Saturday is leg day again. Sunday is just another rest day. I have two rest days out of the whole week.”

When possible, Cam works out twice a day.

“If I can, I will work out at least two or three hours,” he said. “That's going to be in the morning because I do work out two times a day. I work out around two or three hours a day, which is like 8:30 to 11:30ish, so that's about two or three hours. And then go home, eat, rest, take a shower and then go back to the gym at 5, and then stay there till 7, which is very important because you always need to stay active. I know a lot of people don't have that discipline. They're like I already worked out for the day. How about you take it a step further and work out more in that day? It doesn't have to be heavy weights.”

Cam goes for intensity over quantity.

“I just do heavy weights and less reps,” he said. “It's more controlled lifting. A lot of people ask if I do calisthenics or if I do this, that, the other. What I do is a bodybuilding workout, so it's more weight, less reps. It's if you're doing your pr (personal record) and it's 275 and you can only do a certain amount, then I would do that. If curling with a 50-pound dumbbell, then I do maybe five reps for three sets.”

Cam graduates high school next spring.

“My plan is following high school probably just staying consistent and just doing what I've been doing,” he said. After high school, I am planning to move to South Dakota. I am planning to move down there and trying to start a new journey in life and still doing the same things that I have been doing, but changing some stuff up.”

Unlike many who live in a southern climate, Cam prefers a place with winter weather.

“I really like the winters there,” he said. “There's just a crap ton of snow there. I love snow. Whenever I do move down there, I plan to get a warehouse and turn it into my personal gym. Because I do have a YouTube channel, so I'm planning to make more videos there and just trying to just get my YouTube channel to the top.”

Cam wants his passion to be his career.

“That's what I've always planned to do,” he said. “Since I was young, I've had a YouTube channel. I've had multiple YouTube channels since I was 10 through now. Those YouTube channels didn't work out. I've tried multiple things. I've tried vlogging. I've tried reaction channels and stuff like that. But what I am now is trying to do fitness content just like these fitness influencers that do have their own YouTube channel. I don't really want to piggyback off of them, but they do inspire me to do what I do now.”

“It was that one particular day that really got me mad and had me thinking what if I did start working out and what if they see me in the future, what would they think?”

Cam recalled the time in his life when he decided to improve his fitness.

“I don't remember the exact date, but I do remember the year,” he said. “It was seventh grade year and I was still in middle school. It was this one day that these few dudes were picking on me. They were like you're skinny. We could beat you up. They were just some average bullies in middle school. I used to be a very sensitive person. I didn't really know how to control my emotions. I would either break down or get mad or just keep everything in which I know was really bad. It was that one particular day that really got me mad and had me thinking what if I did start working out and what if they see me in the future, what would they think?”

Cam noticed a significant change in his physique during sophomore year two years ago.

“That's whenever I start like locking down and started to get self-disciplined and just stay consistent with everything and started eating more,” he said. “The end of sophomore year, a lot of people started seeing changes in me.”

Gaining greater strength and a better physique earned Cam the honor of being the de facto furniture mover among friends and family.

“My parents, they call me Hercules because like I'm so much stronger than anybody in the house,” he said.

Cam advised people to start their own fitness journeys as soon as they can.

“If you take the time and just stay consistent,” he said. “Change everything just to be living a healthy lifestyle or just doing everything that you can do to at least get fit. You're not going to look as good as somebody that would be fit today, but you could have an immaculate physique by the end of 2026 if you really tried your best.”

“I've always  wanted to help other people out.”

Cam also focuses on diet as part of his fitness regimen.

“It's pretty consistent whenever it comes to a diet,” he said. “I basically like two diets. Ones for the cut and ones for the bulk. The cut is more like you eat more protein than you eat more carbs. It's the other way around with bulking. You eat more carbs and you eat protein. That's how you just get bigger. Whenever you compete, then you cut and eat that. I just do a simple diet whenever it comes to that. For my cut, I do chicken and rice. No seasoning. I switched some things up this time for my bulk. It's a carnivore diet basically, so it's more red meat and everything like that. I heard it's really good for muscle mass and gain.”

Cam advised people trying to control calorie intake to know what’s entailed ahead of time.

“If you go on a diet, you should do your research first,” he said. “Just see what other people do and maybe add your twist to it, because that's what I did at first. There's some diets out there that are just absolutely horrible. It's just bad. Take fish pills, those are very bad for you, especially fish oil. I do take supplements like protein powder, creatine, pre-workout. I do take the safe pills. They're iron, so my iron deficiency doesn't go bad. And apple vinegar. That's another good one. I take that almost every morning before I do eat. It's a really simple diet.”

Cam was led to inspire others.

“I've always been a kind-hearted person,” he said. “I've always wanted to help other people out. Now me going into the fitness journey, I could help out other people from just showing what I do and my workout routines and what I eat, my diets and everything like that. That's what I really like about inspiring people, because I can show people what I do and they can either mimic me or do my exact same thing, but with a little twist on it. I love inspiring people.”

Cam has done some urban exploration in the Lone Star State.

“Where I live in Denison,” he said. “There's not that many abandoned places, but whatever there is, you wouldn't think that would be abandoned. My last explore video was exploring an abandoned church that I didn't even know was abandoned until I hit up one of my friends and I was like, hey, do you know any abandoned places? He was like, yeah, we drive by it all the time. It's right across the street from this one store. It was an abandoned church of course. I didn't even know that was abandoned or a church, so that surprised me.”

Cam deals in cryptocurrency.

“I'm my own boss,” he said. “I do income and trading. I do work with other people. I receive about 6K if it's a good day. If it's a really good day, it would be about 15K. I would send him back about 40 percent of that profit and then we do 60 for the 15,000, so we both get a fair share amount of both of the money.”

Cam deals with stocks.

“You can trade stock,” he said. “You can basically do trading and currency. Sometimes, it'll be really bad and the trading will just go down. The currency will just go down all of a sudden, which I've had those days where it's just everything is shut down and like you either don't get that money for the day or you're not able to send back half of that money. You'll have your good days and you'll have your bad days. You have to have your research first whenever you do do it. You could lose all of your money.”

Cam started with the first decentralized cryptocurrency.

“It was more Bitcoin,” he said. “I just really got into whenever Bitcoin is really big and that's what brought me into stocks. Bitcoin just really just kind of set it off for me.

Cam stays motivated by thinking about where he came from and where he’s going.

“I do think about the past,” he said. “Not everything in my past was bad. It was certain sections of it. I work for it, and then at the end, I'm gonna get it. That's what I really think of whenever I feel down or unmotivated or anything like that.”

“You’ll get somewhere in life if you really just buckle down and just stay focused, so that’s what I want for everybody.”

Cam wants his online followers to learn at least one lesson.  

“Just stay focused, disciplined,” he said. “You'll get somewhere in life if you really just buckle down and just stay focused, so that's what I want for everybody.”

Cam offered advice for anyone wanting to get into cyber currency.

“Probably Bitcoin, because that's what I did,” he said. “I got far with that. I would want people to do that for sure.”

Cam said those wanting to become content creators need to express themselves.

“First off, make sure not to be antisocial, because that's how I was at first,” he said. “My first YouTube video ever was on a different channel. I didn't know what to say and I was just very antisocial. I would just stay silent for most of the time, especially with my reaction channel. It's basically in the word, you have to react to something instead of just sitting there and not reacting to anything.”

Cam added posters need to keep the content flowing.

“Make sure to post very frequently,” he said. “I'm not saying every day, but I'm saying once a week, maybe every weekend. That's what I did at first. I did every weekend with my channel that I have now. I didn't really have anything to do because I would just be at home and not really do anything. But now I'm older and I can go out more. I have more ability to do anything. If anybody wants to start their own YouTube channel, make sure to stay consistent with it and just don't forget it because that's what I did, and it did not end up very good. Don't forget it. Make sure to post very frequently and stay consistent with it.”

Cam dispensed advice to those considering working out.

“Just stay consistent, stay disciplined,” he said. “If you can't do that, then work yourself up to it. Do whatever it takes to get in shape. Go to Planet Fitness and buy a $10 membership and just work out there. A lot of people don't like Planet Fitness that much, but it's a good gym to work out at, especially for a beginner. It has controlled weights. It doesn't have complicated weights saying it's kilograms. I go to Planet Fitness myself. I know personally some semi-famous content creators that do go to Planet Fitness and they've done bodybuilding competitions, which I'm gonna be going into soon. They've won second or third place. They've had a really good physique just from going to Planet Fitness.”

Cam said it doesn’t matter if a beginner wants to start lifting weights or do body weight exercises at first.

“Not really,” he said. “It doesn't matter if you lift weights or if you use your own body weight. You're going to have to put in the work. It's not easy, doing a couple push-ups and you're jacked. You can use your body weight because that's what I did at first. I did my push-ups, I did my situps and did my squats, the basic stuff just with my body weight and I got like a smidge, because I saw my abs start to fill out more. I started to see crevices of my biceps and just by all body weight. Then I got my dumbbells and started lifting them and doing squats with them and crunches. You can do bodyweight exercises with weight, too.”

 Cam’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camlifts_100p/

 Cam’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Camlifts_100p