FITNESS favourite Joe Wicks’ attempt to keep the nation’s children fit during the coronavirus crisis got off to flying start on Monday morning with his first workout racking up hundreds of thousands of hits on YouTube.

At one point, The Body Coach’s first PE With Joe session was getting around 800,000 streams.

Parents, grateful for some help to get their offspring burning off some energy on what was for many the first day of school closures, posted pictures and comments on social media of children taking part.

It was announced last week that he would be running the sessions five days a week, Monday to Friday, pledging to “get your kids moving, feeling energised, positive, optimistic”.

At the start of Monday’s almost 40-minute session, Wicks said: “I’m going to be your PE teacher for the nation”, before adding that, while he thought it was just going to be for the UK, “it’s turned out to be so much bigger”.

He could be heard saying that there were 614,000 viewers at the start of the class.

He added: “This is so important, I’m a man on a mission.”

He's not the only coach offering to help keep the UK fit.

Nineties favourite Mr Motivator was due to host a live workout on Monday lunchtime on the Truck Festival’s Facebook page.

Those taking part are being encouraged to donate to The Trussell Trust, which supports more than 1,200 UK food banks.

How you can get involved with the next PE lesson

To join in next time, all you have to do is visit The Body Coach TV on YouTube from 9am.

Make sure your kids are in clothes that are easy to move in and you've moved all furniture from in front of the TV so you've got plenty of space to move around.

Check this afternoon if you've got the YouTube app on your TV or at the very least you can find it on your phone and prop it up in the corner of your room to follow the work out.

If you got involved this morning, we would love to see your pictures.