OHMYGOSSIP — Joe Wicks turned to fitness because he was worried about becoming a drug addict or alcoholic like his dad and granddad.
The Body Coach has opened up on his path to exercise and healthy living admitting that he first started training as a teenager rather than hang out in the park boozing with his friends because he feared he was heading down the same path as his family.
Speaking to Men’s Health UK, he said: “I still have a drink. I’m not teetotal but definitely, as a teenager, I was scared, because my granddad was an alcoholic and my dad was a heroin addict. I thought, ‘If I drink, I might like it.’ I used to think I might become an addict.
“When everyone else was drinking down the park, I was doing two hours in the gym and the sauna. It was a safe space.”
Joe, 34, got the UK active during the coronavirus lockdowns in 2020 with his three times a week online PE lessons and from hearing about the positive effects the workouts had on people’s mental health as well as their physical health he is now as focused as much on people’s psychological wellbeing as much as their fitness.
He said: “The more people I worked with – the thousands of people who do my plans, my YouTube workouts – the more I realised that the thing they celebrate most is not the before-and-after but the story behind it … It’s about how they’ve overcome anxiety, or certain illnesses, or depression. We need to talk about that more, because that’s the thing that keeps you coming back. The reason we keep returning to exercise is that it makes us feel good.”
When asked by the publication if he worries about the mental health of the nation, Joe – who was shot by Chris Floyd for his Men’s Health cover – replied: “I do worry about it. It is something I think about. I’m in tune with so many people through social media. I am aware of the energy of the nation. I am aware of the fact that people are struggling. That’s why I’m always promoting communication, talking about how you feel. I did an Instagram Live where I burst into tears. I didn’t mean to. But I had messages afterwards from people saying they felt relieved that I’d shown that side, that it’s OK to feel emotional.”
Read the full Joe Wicks interview in the July/August issue of Men’s Health UK (Menshealth.com/uk/) on sale from 30th June.

Source: VacationHunter.Online
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