My guest for today’s episode is the energetic and optimistic Joe Wicks. He's a global fitness star with more than 4.5 million followers on Instagram and 100 million views on YouTube, but he has recently started sharing a very new element of his life publicly – his strained childhood living with parents suffering from mental illness and addiction.

Joe gets intimate with his early experiences, reckoning with his father’s repeated relapses and mother’s dual-fronted battle with OCD and eating disorders. We swap stories on this front, in a shared effort to normalize the pain, and more importantly, the growth and recovery we’ve both experienced since.

We also talk about exercise’s link to mental health, the power of forgiveness, and how he is committed to staying in the moment as a father to his own kids. A fellow fitness innovator, we don’t miss the opportunity to touch on some of the latest trends in the space: ice baths, saunas, the Wim Hof method, meditation, and more.

Joe is another impressive individual who’s faced extreme challenges with their parents only to reach the height of their industry – giving a shining positive example to so many kids out there living though similar circumstances. I’m so happy for him that he’s opened up about this part of his life, and proud that he’s shared it with us here today. Enjoy!

Resources:

• Follow Joe Wicks on Instagram: @thebodycoach
• Follow Joe Wicks on Twitter: @thebodycoach
• Subscribe: The Body Coach TV YouTube Channel
• Subscribe: The Joe Wicks Podcast BBC
• Download: The Body Coach Fitness Plans App
• Read: The Big Silence: A Daughter's Memoir of Mental Illness and Healing
• Follow Karena Dawn on Instagram: @karenadawn
• Follow The Big Silence on Instagram: @The.Big.Silence
• Subscribe: The Big Silence YouTube Channel

Donate to The Big Silence thebigsilence.com/donate to be a part of the movement to break the silence and make noise with us!

“The Big Silence” theme song written and performed by James Nicholas Kinney.

Executive Handyman, Bobby Goldstein.

The Big Silence is produced by Crate Media.