Joe Wicks blames social media for his struggle with 'self-confidence'
Joe Wicks has blamed social media for giving him a body confidence crisis - admitting he hates being bombarded with images of other men with perfect bodies.
Joe Wicks has blamed social media for giving him a body confidence crisis.
The 40-year-old fitness coach has confessed he has "got the lowest self-confidence" of his life and he's put it down to being bombarded with images of other men with perfect bodies when he's scrolling online.
In a question-and-answer session reported by the Daily Mail, Joe explained: "I'll be honest with you, like right now, at this moment in my life, I'm 40 years old, and I've got the lowest self-confidence in my body ever because I'm seeing videos every day and reels with guys who have the most amazing bodies, doing testosterone and peptides.
"And I start to think: 'Why don't I look like that?' You know, I've been training so hard, I'm really strong. I can do, like, heavy squats and pull up to heavy weights around my waist, and I do not really grow. Do you know what I mean?"
He added of social media: "It does change your view of, like, what is normal, what's kind of healthy, what's fitness. But I always believe that, you know, just focus on the basics sleep, the exercise, nutrition, and don't get sucked into, like, this vision of what you think is health and fitness, because usually it's not natural, you know, and that's what's happened to me in a recently with the algorithm."
However, Joe has a love-hate relationship with social media because he's previously credited sites like Instagram with giving him a whole new career and a higher profile.
Joe used to run his own work-out bootcamps before social media propelled him to fame and allowed him to publish his first book.
He previously told the Guardian newspaper: "I was 25, happy and pursuing something I loved. Then: boom! Social media came along and my career turned into something bigger.
"My intention was never to be an influencer, but by 2014 I had 50,000 followers on Instagram. That’s when a publisher reached out and said: 'I love what you’re doing and I really believe you could do a great book.'
"I didn’t have any confidence that I could be a successful author – especially considering what I was like at school – so I was amazed when Lean in 15 ended up selling 1.4m copies."
