Paul Bass Photo
The engine was running. The baby was bundled up.
Stephen Jones was ready for the call.
Jones awaited the call — from his 6‑month-old son Kyrell’s babysitter — in the driver seat of his car Tuesday morning with Kyrell on his lap.
The car was parked outside Jones’s home on the winding stretch of Blake Street between Osborn and Whalley.
Jones had already dropped his four daughters to three different schools around town.
“I’m waiting for the babysitter so I can start my activities with my training,” Jones said during a conversation on the “Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s “LoveBabz LoveTalk” program while Kyrell sat still on his lap staring at his face.
The babysitter had a doctor’s appointment Tuesday. Jones was warming up the car so that once she phoned to say she had returned home, he could bring Kyrell, his first son, to her home across town.
After drop-off, he planned as usual to pump up his energy by stopping at Dunkin for his “natural remedy” (aka black coffee) and cranking up DMX and Guns & Roses, “my workout music.”
Then it was on to LA Fitness at the Milford Mall, where he has belonged for 23 years.
His own training would come first: “I do heavy weights. I do body weights. I do calisthenics. I do everything.
“If I don’t work out, I’ll feel like crap. Working out is like my addiction. I’m all natural. No preservatives. I never use anything in my body.”
The next hours are spent with other members. Jones works as a personal trainer.
With his clients, Jones first assesses their capabilities. Then he guides them — and joins them at each step.
“I don’t like to tell my people what to do. I have to do it with them. So I’m basically working out four, five times a day.” “I don’t like personal trainers who tell you what to do and they look like crap themselves. I’ve got to tell you what to do and do it with you,” he said.
Back at home, he’ll sometimes continue the workout with Kyrell. The “military press” — lifting the baby in the air — is Kyrell’s favorite. It also helps dad work on a shoulder injury.
Jones looked back into Kyrell’s eyes.
“When I’m away from this guy,” he said, “I miss him. If I’m away from him a few minutes, I’m missing him.”
Click on the video to watch the conversation with Stephen Jones on the “Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s “LoveBabz LoveTalk” program — because cell reception is apparently perennially spotty on that block of Blake Street, portions are hard to follow. (Our apologies!)
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Click here for previous “Word on the Street” episodes and write-ups.
