Thousands join UK fitness coach's virtual PE class amid school closures

As schools across the world shuttered their doors to lessen the spread of the novel coronavirus, one United Kingdom-based fitness coach started streaming free physical education (PE) classes for children looking to exercise inside their own homes.

Joe Wicks, a fitness enthusiast known online as The Body Coach, said he will be hosting “PE with Joe” every weekday at 9 am on his YouTube channel. The first class of the series kicked off on Monday, March 23, and racked up more than two million views on YouTube.

While bars, restaurants, and leisure venues shuttered, schools and childcare facilities were also closed, except to children of essential workers and vulnerable children.

This video, filmed by Ian Stapleton, shows his two children exercising to Wicks’s virtual workout at their home in Warrington, England. Stapleton, who encouraged through their workout, said his children “loved” the class.

Wicks said on Twitter that “our kids need this more than ever.”

As of Sunday, 5,683 people had tested positive for the coronavirus in the UK, including four in Warrington, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.