Joe Wicks kept the fun and fitness flowing during the dark days of COVID-19. Now the Body Coach is back on Kew with a family festival, making all the right moves. Jane McGowan limbers up...
This summer, the sleepy splendour of the Royal Botanic Gardens is set to be shaken into life as Joe Wicks, the ‘nation’s favourite PE teacher’, returns for the Joe Wicks Festival at Kew.
RBG Kew
The day-long event is built around four key themes
- ReEnergise, ReTreat, ReConnect and RePlay
It will feature sessions and appearances by notable names from the world of wellness, including cold therapy pioneer Dan Bosomworth and the founder of the Insomnia Clinic, Kathryn Pinkham – all carefully watched over by the workout wizard himself.
RBG Kew
All the fun you can have at the festival
The Joe Wicks Festival takes place at RBG Kew on July 6, from 9.30am – 6pm.
- ReEnergise: Join Joe as he leads a live PE session with DJ Goldierocks – aka Sam Hall – or take part in an energetic, uplifting Pilates class with the renowned instructor Lottie Murphy.
- ReTreat: Try vedic meditation techniques from the London Meditation Centre. Let your little ones learn with Lucy Sesto’s kids’ mindful yoga or release stress through laughter yoga with Sara Kay.
- ReConnect: The Lifestyle Medics explore the powerful health benefits of spending time outdoors. Meanwhile Dr Leke, NHS GP and gut health specialist, explains how chronic stress affects the body.
- RePlay: Crafts, games and face painting to keep little ones entertained and energised
For tickets head to: kew.org.
RBG Kew
Catching up with Joe ahead of the festival
“Kew is such a wonderful location – we just thought it would be a beautiful place to do it,” enthuses the 39-year-old. “We did it last year and it was a great success.
“It’s essentially a family health and activity day. There’s loads of things for people to do and it all ties in with my aim of getting whole families outdoors to experience beautiful places. Getting out into nature is so good for children’s mental health, and for parents too.”
It was Joe’s efforts at enhancing not only the fitness, but also the mental wellbeing of the nation that saw him embraced as its favourite PE teacher during the Covid pandemic in 2020.
His daily 20-minute YouTube routine not only offered an easy way of exercising, but became a vital source of connection for the hundreds and thousands of people separated from family and friends.
And while it undoubtedly boosted Joe’s already impressive Body Coach brand – which includes books, tours, podcasts and much more besides – more generally the activity emerged as one of the few positives of that dark period, earning Joe an MBE later in 2020.
It is an accolade of which he is justly proud.
RBG Kew
“To be honest with you, I didn’t think the routine was such a big thing at the time,” he says. “I did it to give children a way of burning off energy before lessons. But then I found out parents and loads of adults were joining in too.”
Joe started his ‘PE with Joe’ lessons at 9am on March 23, 2020. Within the first week, 15 million viewers around the world had watched the morning fitness class, as the number of his subscribers jumped from 800,000 to 2.2 million. The sessions ran for 115 days during the first lockdown, and Joe followed them up with a three-day-a-week plan following the announcement of a second stay-at-home order in November.
At its peak, more than 955,000 people were exercising together, breaking the world record for the largest streamed workout on YouTube.
Not only that, but Joe raised £610,000 for the NHS before amassing a whopping £2m later in the year by completing a 24-hour workout for BBC-backed charity Children In Need.
“Literally millions joined in,” he says with a genuine air of gratitude. “I just love the fact that, during such a difficult time, people stuck with it and the sessions helped them keep together. It is my proudest achievement.”
RBG Kew
The benefit of collective exercise is a passion for Joe and a cause he is keen to espouse. One thing lockdown taught us, he says, was that you do not need to sign up to an expensive gym membership, nor acquire extensive equipment, to get on the path to better fitness. All you need is a little encouragement.
“That is very much what the festival is about,” he explains. “You can come along and try a yoga session or a breath-work class, or you could do an HIIT [high-intensity interval training] workout with me on the stage. There are talks on wellness and gut health and how to get started. You can even try a sauna or an ice bath. It will be a lot of fun!”
While Joe may have gained global fame through his Body Coach exercise and diet plans, he has never strayed far from his Surrey roots.
Now based in Virginia Water, in a home he shares with his wife Rosie and their four children – Indie, Marley, Leni and Dusty – he was born in Epsom and attended NESCOT (North East Surrey College of Technology), before studying sports science at St Mary’s University in Twickenham. The latter awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2022.
The second of three brothers, Joe has been candid about his upbringing, even taking an honest look at his familial past in a BBC programme, Joe Wicks: Facing My Childhood.
RBG Kew
He has talked openly about his father’s addictions and his mother’s struggles with mental health, which included eating disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
And although there was never any shortage of love and affection from his mum, his dad’s issues left Joe determined to steer clear of both drink and drugs.
“I just want my kids to have a stable life,” he says. “I want them to feel secure because I didn’t have that as a child. I felt completely anxious – I was always worried about everything.”
It was physical activity that offered Joe the release he needed, learning the principles that have guided him through his career as a personal trainer and his online success. But with the new trend for quick-fix diet treatments such as Ozempic and Mounjaro now grabbing the headlines, might the public appetite for wellness be on the wane?
“People are more stressed than ever – they’ve got less money and less time for themselves. And so yes, absolutely. Very often the first things that people neglect are their training, their exercising and their food.
RBG Kew
“Sometimes it feels like it’s getting tougher for me to reach and motivate people. I have to work really hard to get them to listen. I say: ‘I know you’re stressed out and tired, but actually, if you exercise a little bit today, you’re going to feel so much better for it.’
“People know what they should be doing and that exercise helps them, but life just gets in the way. There are pills available and it’s a quick fix to diet, but it’s all short term. The truth is, everyone knows that health and fitness take work, but it’s really hard to stay consistent with it.”
Even Joe is not immune to the occasional dip. During his decade as a fitness guru, he admits, there have been times when all he wanted to do was to stay in bed and watch TV.
“Sometimes you just have to do that. You just accept that it’s one of those days. I am no different and I always try to be open about it. Some days it’s like: ‘Right, I’m just going to sit in with the family and watch Netflix.’ It’s completely normal.
“But exercise is what makes me happy in myself. Diets, well, I find them much harder to stick to,” he laughs.
Luckily for Joe, there will be plenty of people on hand at Kew to keep him on the straight and narrow.
“We’ve got talks on nutrition and gut health – there’s a real chance to build knowledge,” he says. “We just want people to come along, try something new and leave feeling a little bit healthier and happier.”
Sounds like a plan.
