Can Joe Wicks keep Britain’s children fit – and parents sane?
Lisa Williams and her son join ‘the nation’s PE teacher’ in the first of his workouts for the family
‘Good morning everybody and welcome to day number one of PE with Joe,” chirps Joe Wicks. The personal trainer, known as The Body Coach, has declared himself “the nation’s PE teacher” for children facing long days ahead – with no return to school, and the springtime routine of rounders and running around the playing field on hold.
Little wonder that kids across the country are already bouncing off the walls with excess energy – and parents like me face the terrifying task of keeping them trained and entertained, while we conference call.
Enter Wicks. My husband and I started doing his Youtube workouts a couple of years ago. With packed schedules and calories to burn, his online 15-minute HIIT (high-intensity interval training) sessions were a godsend, and his enthusiasm infectious. When he said “jump”, we jumped.
Now, with more time on our hands, the need for a short, high-intensity workout seems less urgent – quaint almost. Along with a rapid rise in the popularity of “slow” pursuits, such as gardening and breadmaking, the way we stay fit is set to change, too – and that includes our children. Which is how I find myself tuning into Wicks’s Youtube channel at 9am, with my five-year-old son hovering uncertainly in the background.
So is there a way to make it work? Wicks thinks so, with his “let’s do this” attitude and tight blue Lycra, leading us all through a series of squats and lunges from his living room in Richmond, south-west
London. Fans will have seen this room before; all tasteful pale grey with an impossibly pristine carpet. He has a map of the world behind him (not marked out with Covid-19 outbreak stats just yet) and a pale blue electric guitar hangs on the wall.
“You may not have heard my name or seen my big bouncy curly hair, but I’m Joe Wicks,” he tells his new school-age audience, sounding breathless with enthusiasm (or is it nerves?). He adds that he’s passionate about children getting into exercise and that this week he had been due to go on a tour of UK schools. This is his alternative: offering up daily 30-minute workouts for children.
What we love about Wicks is how his videos aren’t too flashy. It’s just him, basic equipment and common sense. The red-blooded adults among us like it when he takes his top off to work out in the garden; simple pleasures that chime with the new national mood.
I’m not sure his stripped-back style will work on little ones though, who are used to PE being more games than six-pack goals. And as I get stuck in – relieved to have something physical to do – my son watches, unimpressed, from the sofa. “This isn’t like PE at school,” he says sadly. I cajole him to stand and he starts to move – no child can resist a star jump. Five minutes in, we’ve done our warm up, and Wicks announces that 800,000 people, all around the world, are currently tuned in. “Someone’s watching from Brazil!” I report to my son, who shrugs. He’s not learnt about South America in geography lessons yet.
“Come on everyone, you’re doing so well, we’re smashing it!” says Wicks. He might not be able to see us, but he knows we’re doing every move perfectly. “Aaaaand relax! Good job!” he pants.
We reach for some water and give each other a high five. It feels good to exercise together, and I find it motivating to hear
Wicks’s shout-outs.
He explains that his brother Nicky is talking to him through an earpiece; he’s monitoring the audience response and telling him who to wave to. “Charlie and Olivia, living in France, taking part!” says Wicks. It reminds me of children’s TV, when they used to read out birthday cards.
My son complains of being hot. He’s dressed himself today and, instead of school uniform, is wearing tracksuit bottoms and a jumper, with no T-shirt underneath. He refuses to take off the jumper and starts to slow. “It’s not fun,” he complains.
Then something good happens.
We get messages from some of the school parents, showing pictures of them doing Wicks’s workouts together. “Look!” I say, smugly, “Your friends are getting stuck in!” I send our own picture, and we feel more like a class again. Children don’t like being alone or just with their mums and dads. They like being with other little people. Photos on our smartphones are no substitute for them careering through the playground, or kicking a ball around, but it’s going to have to be enough for now.
There’s a pause.
“We’ve got Korea!,” Wicks announces. “This Youtube has just gone global, wow!”
Unfortunately, so has the coronavirus, but at least a pandemic of push-ups is one I can deal with.
I can’t honestly say that our living room matches Wicks’s levels of enthusiasm. My son, who normally at this time would be playing with a train set or friends, takes to the air punch with the passion of Tyson Fury, but the floor-based moves such as mountain climbers are a tough sell. It doesn’t help that my partner can’t join in: with both of us trying to juggle work, there’s no time for group activities.
That’s why we need Wicks’s zeal more than ever. The mission of his school tour was to get pupils moving for 15 minutes before class, so they’d be alert and energised in time to learn.
My son might still be a bit sceptical, but at least we both have a healthy glow and some blood pumping through the veins. It will help with morale, too: when we wake up every day, and realise this isn’t all just a bad dream, these workouts will help us feel motivated and connected.
“Say ‘well done Mum, well done Dad, well done Gran’!” Wicks tells us. “Well done little brothers and sisters!”
He’s promoting the group energy we need at the moment, not to mention the physical one. As he pledges to do this every day for as long as the schools are closed, I’m tearful as well as sweaty. “I’m going to be here for you,” he adds.
Stop it, Joe.
We’ll be tuning in every morning if we can. My son says he’ll only do it if his friends are joining in – and if he can do more punching.
My favourite, though, is one of Wicks’s last moves – the “kangaroo hop”, during which he pleads with viewers not to drop their “joeys”. I’d advise him to use more of this imagery with children. If we can keep them interested, we can keep them fit. And if we get really desperate, perhaps he can unhook his guitar off the wall and become our music teacher, too.
See P.E With Joe every day at 9am at The Body Coach TV on Youtube
He’s promoting the group energy we need, not to mention the physical one