What Joe Wicks did Next

He’s a best-selling author, socialmedia sensation and upcoming TV star… so howdoes JoeWicks have time to stay lean – and so cheerful? MF catches upwith the biggest name in British fitness

- Joel Snape

If there’s one thing Joe Wicks knows about, it’s working at high intensity. Obviously, that’s how he’s made his name – those all-out 15-minute HIIT sessions that regularly rack up millions of views on YouTube and form the backbone of his best-selling 90 Day Shift, Shape and Sustain plan. It’s still how he trains himself, fitting in bursts of burpees and mountain climbers on beaches and in hotel rooms as his schedule takes him jet-setting around the world expanding his empire one emoji at a time. But it’s also how he operates from day to day: high energy, always on, ever ready to meet and greet, create content or build the brand. It must be exhausting. But Wicks doesn’t seem to mind.

Case in point: this Men’s Fitness photoshoot. Though the real-life Wicks dials the intensity a notch or two down from his super-exuberant Snapchat persona, he walks through the door ready to go – there are handshakes all round, a bit of banter with the crew members he’s met before, and then it’s shirt off, pump up, and camera ready. In between shots, he’s talking to the gym owners – we’re in the London Bridge branch of new franchise F45 – about how business is going, their approach to training, what they’re doing on social media. At one point, we see his hour-by-hour schedule on a flawlessly colour-coded spreadsheet, and there’s barely a glimmer of white space among all the red, blue and green. Even for a man who’s made millions from being high-energy, isn’t it ever… a bit much?