Life in isolation is an adjustment.

“It’s driving me nuts,” said Mike Tuller. “Yeah, I would prefer to be out in the community.”

Tuller is founder of Abilities Movement, which provides fitness and personal training for people with physical limitations.

“I think it’s important for a person to have something to help them move,” he said. “To be motivated, to get out and reduce those stresses that are happening right now.”

Tuller usually conducts his sessions in-person. But in this time of social distancing, that’s not possible. So from his home office, Tuller is delivering the next best thing.

Tele-fitness uses a remote hookup and involves clients’ family members and care givers.

Erika Daugherty suffered a traumatic brain injury.  Her mom says the sessions are a blessing.

“I feel like, for Erika, if we don’t do the sessions she gets tight very quickly,” said Enza Daugherty, as she and Amy Castner, Erika’s home health aide, assisted in exercises. “So it’s imperative that we stick to a schedule.”

Most sessions include physical activity. But teller says it’s much more. The mental aspect of the sessions helps clients overcome feelings of social anxiety and isolation.

“With fitness and overcoming some of the obstacles they face, it’s 80 percent in the mind, he said. “And so we gotta help them overcome that.”

Even though they can’t be together, the work continues. Just in a different way.