800K ON HOME STRETCH!
Workout guru Joe’s web class is huge hit – as he vows to be ‘UK’s PE teacher’
FITNESS guru Joe Wicks was ‘blown away’ after more than 800,000 households took part in his live online workout yesterday morning.
Wicks, 33, launched PE with Joe – a 30-minute workout class for children – in the wake of school closures.
‘That’s it, we’ve completed day one of PE with Joe,’ he said after the 9am session on YouTube which he will run on weekdays for the foreseeable future.
‘I’ve been blown away. I cannot believe the numbers. There were 806,000 households on individual TVs or laptops streaming,’ he said. ‘You can only imagine the millions of people who took part in that.
‘This is so important, I’m a man on a mission.’ Wicks also gained 30,000 new subscribers while his video received 1.7million playbacks, meaning it had been watched for a total time of 51 years.
Footballer Wayne Rooney’s family was among those who took part in the session. His wife Coleen shared a video of their sons Kit, Kai, Klay and Cass following the workout on their huge TV.
Singer Stacey Solomon’s sons Leighton and Zachary took part with her partner and Dancing on Ice champion Joe Swash. Other followers of the exercises beamed from Wicks’s London home included cycling star Mark Cavendish and his children.
As Wicks kicked off the session with 614,000 already tuned in, he said: ‘I’m going to be your PE teacher for the nation.’
He added that he initially thought his session was just going to be for the UK but ‘it’s turned out to be so much bigger’. Last week Wicks had vowed to ‘get your kids moving, positive, optimistic’.
Announcing his plans on Instagram, he added: ‘Parents are going to be under pressure next week and for 30 minutes a day, I can take over and inspire and energise the kids to get active, bounce around and have fun.
‘You can even join in with the kids. Please share away. This is going to help millions of children and parents feel happier for 30 minutes and beyond every day.’
Wicks, who has a daughter Indie, 20 months, and three-month-old son Marley with his wife Rosie Jones, has also recorded easy tenminute workout videos for the elderly to keep active in isolation.
Known as the Body Coach, he found fame with his Lean in 15 cookbooks and 90-day plan of recipes and workouts to get fit. Wicks has also built up a fanbase online with his videos of home workouts and easy recipes.
Several other fitness coaches have also turned to YouTube to help keep the public fit during the coronavirus crisis.
They include Nineties favourite and former GMTV regular Mr Motivator who hosted a live workout on Monday lunchtime on the Truck Festival’s Facebook page.
Those taking part were encouraged to donate to The Trussell Trust, which supports more than 1,200 food banks nationwide.
Strictly Come Dancing professional Oti Mabuse has also been live streaming daily dance classes for children and adults of all levels so everyone can have a ‘good old boogie’. Meanwhile Coronation
Street veteran Bill Roache offered advice on wellbeing as he led a meditation session yesterday on This Morning.
The actor, 87, who plays Ken Barlow, appeared via a live link to his conservatory at home.
He told viewers: ‘There are certain basic things to wellbeing.
‘We all know you need enough water, sleep, fresh air and exercise, and vegetables and we can do things about that.’
But, he added, two things which are ‘pretty difficult to deal with’ are the stress of modern life and the ‘fear’ of the current situation.
Roache described meditation as ‘a discipline whereby you learn to only think about what you wish to think about and get into your inner, true, loving self and radiate that out.’
‘I can inspire them to get active and have fun’