April 24, 2024 – Weightlifting, aerobics and… Wegovy? Some within the fitness industry are moving to dispense the favored GLP-1 drug to club members, combining the brand new, easier approach to losing a few pounds with the old, tougher one.
Take Life Time, for instance. Late last 12 months, Jeff Zwiefel, Chief Operating Officer, said The gym chain desires to launch a pilot program that can prescribe weight-loss drugs to its members. It plans to bring medical professionals into the gyms to manage the drugs and work with its members, GPs, trainers and nutritionists to create a “comprehensive plan” that features not only the drugs but in addition exercise, weight-reduction plan, counselling and social support.
Life Time, which has 170 stores nationwide, hopes to roll out the offering nationwide. The goal is to supply a long-term solution for individuals who struggle with obesity but don't need to depend on medication, said nutritionist Jim LaValle, a registered pharmacist who’s working with Life Time fitness centers on the pilot program.
“There are a lot of people who struggle with their weight. They go to the gym and try to eat right and still don't lose weight,” he explained why he hopes offering GLP-1s will fundamentally change things.
Following the announcement of Life Time equinox made similar headlines in People Magazine.
“We are seeing an increase in members using or interested in using GLP-1 weight loss medications, including Ozempic and Wegovy,” Equinox club trainer Michael Crandall, who’s leading the brand new program, told the publication. “We are creating an internal training program at the Equinox Fitness Training Institute and adding the GLP-1 protocol to educate the many members who use these medications.”
“The drugs work so well, but we felt that our patients were missing something really important. For best results, weight loss interventions should always be done in combination with an exercise program.”
But if losing a few pounds is as easy as taking a drug, what does that mean for the fitness industry? Industry leaders hope the drugs shall be a gateway to fitness and lasting lifestyle changes.
“A lot of people are embarrassed (about going to a gym) because they're overweight,” LaValle said. “This changes their whole mindset” because they will drop extra pounds before they go to the gym, then find support and learn to exercise and eat right, reasonably than simply taking medication and staying home.
Some people lose muscle tissue together with fat, and a few regain weight after stopping the medication. Life Time and Equinox say they will help people develop healthier habits throughout their lives.
LaValle says smaller fitness businesses can become involved by constructing relationships with local healthcare providers, allowing them to extend their very own membership while bridging the gap between the fitness and health worlds.
Medical Health and Fitness' Eric Durak, a clinical exercise physiologist and health educator, said this might be useful for users. Gyms and trainers could educate their members about body composition (body fat versus muscle) when taking Wegovy or similar drugs.
But questions remain. For example, can gyms help people develop healthy lifestyle habits that prevent them from having to take these drugs without end or risk regaining the burden?
“The industry needs to step up in this space and say, 'Okay, if we have this, what's next?'” Durak said, adding that if Life Time and Equinox start offering these programs soon, “everyone else will join in, too.”
“But instead of giving someone this drug for 40 years, we should give them it for 6 months, develop a really solid strength and conditioning program that allows them to increase muscle mass and bone density, change their diet and then stop it altogether because we don't yet know the long-term effects,” he said. “We know how effective it is, we just need to introduce it into mainstream gyms.”