ARTICLE 2:  CAMARILLO MOM ON

TV FITNESS ODYSSEY 

By Bhavna Mistry

DAILY NEWS/Sunday, May 20, 2001

CAMARILLO – Just as an architect wields a straight edge and compass to design a building, “body architect” Geri Arnais uses the tools of a personal trainer to craft a new body for Dana Lynn, a Camarillo attorney and mother of triplets.

Arnais’ regime for her subject ranges from workouts on contraptions she compares to those in a torture chamber to the mind-calming contortions of yoga.  The goal is for Lynn to win the Discovery Channel’s “Discovery Health and Body Challenge,” a quest that means a strict 1,200-calorie-a-day diet, grueling work with weights and body-molding weight training.

It’s the quickest way to cut a body,” Arnais, an Agoura trainer, said.  “It’s just not making people healthy, it’s creating body symmetry.”

Lynn is one of six contestants in the cable channel challenge designed to find a person who makes the ‘most positive life change’.  “The goal is not just to lose weight, but to transform you”, says Lynn, resting between exercise sets at a Thousand Oaks gym.  “It’s a 16-week training course for the rest of your life.”

Personal trainer Geri Arnais, right, helps Dana Lynn get the most from her weight exercises.

Over the past eight weeks, the 5-foot-4 Lynn has lost 21 pounds and dropped from a size 14 to an 8.  She’s one of the top contenders in the challenge schedule to be aired in hour-long episodes starting Jan. 8.  In June, Lynn will start a hypnosis program to help her stop smoking and is currently doing Pilates exercise and yoga to improve her mental clarity.

“Even if I don’t win, getting in shape is all worth it,” Lynn said.  “I’m going to be personally satisfied.”  Lynn meets with Arnais for an hour and 15 minutes three times a week for high-resistance weight training, diet counseling and cardiovascular exercise.  On a fourth day, the pair meet to do Pilates, a vigorous exercise done by kneeling, standing, sitting or lying on the back to lengthen and strengthen the muscles that are shortened by intensive weight training.

Arnais’ Pilates equipment consists of a bed made of springs with straps and chains attached.  It also has a trapeze swing.  “It looks like torture equipment,” Arnais said.  “It’s the best way I’ve ever found to work your muscles out”.  

The two also spend time performing yoga, a mind and body workout combining postures and deep breaths to help calm the soul and bring about peace of mind.  “She has a tremendous amount of stress in her life,” Arnais said.  “We’re working to reduce that.”  

Discovery Channel producers, who find that diet and fitness shows are popular with their audiences, said that they opted for the challenge instead of doing a documentary.  “If you take a journey with these characters, it’s more fun to watch,” said Claire Vande Polder, executive producer of the show.

Other contestants include a pastry chef from Bel-Air, a heavy-metal guitarist from Redondo Beach, a female dock worker from Long Beach, a comedian from Los Angeles and a Los Angeles Police Department officer from Glendora.

“She’s a mother to the extreme,” Vande Polder said of Lynn, noting she was selected in an open casting call.  “She’s very bubbly and likable and has a winning smile . . . Something that our viewers can relate to.”