KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Chris Anderaos hails from São Paulo, Brazil, and came to Kansas City to play soccer at UMKC.
The Brazilian is now a fitness and wellness coordinator on campus, and when quarantine started, he had an idea.
"We have to make their houses their gym so we can make this happen and take care of people, and I know how to do that and that’s when we started," Anderaos said.
He started hosting social media workouts on Instagram and YouTube.
"I started with 20, 15 people coming. Then it grew to 30, 40," he explained. "A peak of 1,000 people on the live with an average of 500 people joining."
He’s up to more than 25,000 Instagram followers, and the 24-year-old is seeing results by focusing on high-intensity interval training (HIIT).
"It’s just been amazing, so many testimonials of people that have been able to change their lives based on workouts we do together, based on the daily stories we do, promoting joy and happiness during this tough time," Anderaos said about the success.
It’s been a tough time for him, too. He’s on his own in the U.S., with the rest of his family in Brazil.
"Right now, they’re the only people I want to see right now. I have a lot of older adults in my family. I feel I can’t protect them being here. I can’t go back to my country," Anderaos said.
Even from afar, they can follow Anderaos’ fitness formula.
"My godmother, she’s not motivated at all to exercise, I always told her, you have to do it. Once quarantine started, we had a great call, she said, 'Chris, I will do everything because you’re promoting it and I want to do it,'" he said.
His digital reach crosses the country borders, but for his Kansas City neighbors, he had one message.
"Take care of your health, take care of yourself, your life is important," Anderaos said.
