Sunderland Olympic boxer Tony Jeffries streams live workouts from LA to keep people in lockdown moving

Like gym owners around the world, Jaffa has been hit hard by the closure of gyms to help limit the spread of Covid-19.

Over the past eight years Tony, who won bronze at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, has built up a successful gym, Box’n’Burn, with his business partner Kevin Watson.

Not only does it attract athletes and celebrities such as Sugar Ray Leonard, Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Hemsworth, it has scores of loyal members who rely on it for their dose of fitness.

With people in lockdown, Jaffa has started live streaming workouts on the gym’s You Tube channel, with tens of thousands of people tuning in around the world.

Speaking to the Echo from his home in LA, the retired professional boxer said: “It was March 15 when the Mayor of LA County announced the closure of all gyms in the county, which is a huge area of 4million people.

“As you can imagine, we were devastated as it’s our business and livelihood. We have hundreds of members that come on a daily basis, it’s part of their lives.

“We didn’t want to just stop and not give them anything, so we came up with the idea of a free online workout streamed through the Box’n’Burn YouTube channel.”

The workouts soon gathered pace with people around the world in lockdown tuning in, including people as far afield as Italy.

Tony, who lives in LA with wife Sarah and their three children, Jayde, five; Jessie, four, and Jodie,two, added: “We soon realised that it wasn’t just people in our gym and community doing the workouts, there are people all over the world who are stuck at home and wanting to workout.”

Tony, who is understandably concerned for the future of his business, which employs 45 people, says he’s been lifted by the feedback from the videos.

“People have been messaging saying it’s really helped them,” explained Tony, whose gym will be closed until at least May 1. “It’s so satisfying that people are saying the workouts, either done by me or other members of the team, are their highlight of the day.”

While Tony is helping people at home, his wife Sarah is at the frontline of the health crisis as lead nurse educator of the emergency department at Saint John hospital in Santa Monica.

“I’m so proud of her and everyone else in the medical profession,” said Tony who met Sarah when they were classmates at East Herrington Primary School.

“They don’t want recognition. Sarah is getting up at 3am and working a ton of hours and doing everything she can because she’s a nurse and that’s what she does.

“If I was getting up and saving lives I’d be telling the world about it, but they just do it to help people. It’s the same with all the nurses in Sunderland Royal Hospital, and the other emergency services. They’re the back bone of our society and deserve medals for what they do.”