Steven Kuehne is a personal trainer, who also happens to train our parents. Before gyms and fitness centers were temporarily closed, we were impressed with Steven’s commitment to health and the positive impact he has on our parents’ health. 

Now that Steven cannot work with his clients in-person, we continue to be impressed with how he has shifted his training sessions. On Lenard Team Connections, we spoke about working out at home and how to stay motivated during these times.

Keep reading for more, or listen to the full conversation here. 

How have you changed your services since mid-March?

Well, like for everybody else this was a huge shock. Once the gym shut down, we were at a point where we didn't know what to do. So I reached out to a couple of clients. We were doing some outdoor training one-on-one and some small group training for a little while, while it was still safe to meet them outdoors. Obviously, we kept our space and were safe with everything we were doing. It was still tough though. 

Once the guidelines started getting a little more strict, we had to cut that off. I tried to do some Zoom online training, but that didn't go exactly as planned. It wasn't terrible, but not exactly as planned. It wasn't that same one-on-one feel that I get with my clientele. 

Eventually, I started just reaching out to my clients; I kept sending them workouts. I'm still doing that each week, I'm sending new fresh workouts to each one of them. And I'm staying up to date with them, finding out what they're doing, how they're eating, and what they're doing to stay active.

What is your advice for people who aren’t feeling motivated right now?

With motivation, write down your goals. So if you want to lose 10 pounds by summer or if you want to get a little more toned up or just physically fit overall, write those goals down. 

When you write them down you're more likely to do them each day because honestly, half the time you wake up during all this you don't want to do anything. 

So having those goals written down, it's going to force you to stay disciplined towards achieving those goals. If you don't do it then you're not going to be any closer to achieving everything that you want, as far as fitness and health goes.

What can people do who don’t have access to equipment?

So the first step,  just get up and get moving. 

Your best friend is going to be your body. 

Breaking down your basic workouts: do your squats, your push-ups, and your planks. Set a certain number of squats and push-ups that you want to do per given workout. If you want to achieve 100, take as many sets as you need to achieve that goal. 

On top of that, you can use a backpack full of books to add on weight. You can do some overhead presses, you can do like a bent over row with that. You can also put it on your back and do some more squats. 

I know a lot of people were stocking up on water. So, if you have a gallon of water, you can do some lateral raises and bicep curls, grab it, do an overhead press. It that is too heavy, grab a can, and just get moving. 

Now for people that may not be able to move as well or just people in general that aren't at a high level of fitness: Use a chair to get up and down out of the chair with nice proper posture. You can do push-ups on the chair, planks on the chair, use a wall. 

Another great tip I would say is if you have a staircase, use your stairs. It simulates a Stairmaster. Set 5-10 minutes aside, walk up and down your stairs. You can even throw that backpack on and then you have weights right there.

You really don't need that much equipment to get a great workout. You can go for a mile walk if you want. That's a great workout right there. Just get moving. The minimum amount of time recommended guidelines for ACSM, which is who I'm certified through, they say minimally most people should be working out about 30 to 60 minutes of an intermediate pace per week about three times.

You also have experience working with people with special needs. Can you share more on that?

I've been working with kids with special needs, mainly autism and down syndrome for about two years now. I used to actually run a class with them at a New York Sports Club. I brought them into the big basketball court. We brought a whole bunch of equipment in and basically had stations set up that they all went around to and completed. We encourage the kids to keep moving and running. We set up little obstacle courses, simple things like walking over hurdles, picking up a weight and carrying it overhead - all functional movements that promote better posture and movement.

Do you have any other health or fitness tips for people right now?

The biggest thing I would say is right now is definitely the best time to get started on your fitness goals. 

Regardless of what you've been doing so far throughout the quarantine, make sure you get started today. You're not going to be able to better yourself overall physically or mentally unless you start doing it. 

There's a number of benefits from exercise which include mood boost; you physically feel better. It's been shown to improve your immune system which is essential right now obviously more than ever, and you can get rid of all the stress that you get from being stuck at home with your family while working out. Another thing I would say would definitely be to focus on your nutrition right now more than ever. We're not going out as much as we were, we're not getting all that salt and sugar that we were getting in our food. We can go to the store, buy healthy foods, like chicken, fish, or lean beef and fruits and vegetables and eat those rather than the process box foods that we're so used to eating.

This is probably the most free time we're gonna have in a long time, probably ever, in our lives. Again, regardless of what you’ve done up to this point, make sure you start today. Don't say okay, I'll start tomorrow or Monday, start today.

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