If you happen to be sitting next to Mima Mendoza on the train or standing behind her at the checkout, you will hear about the benefits of weight lifting. “I’ve become like that person at the train station who says, ‘Have you heard the word of God lately?’ Except, ‘Have you thought about strength training lately?’ she tells SELF.
The 34-year-old from Severna Park, Maryland, began lifting in earnest in 2024, when her doctor prescribed the GLP-1 drug Zepbound to aid her weight loss efforts. “I wanted to maintain this weight loss long-term and manage metabolic conditions like type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure that I was genetically predisposed to, and the answer was to actually build muscle,” he says.
Mendoza is one of many people who hit the weight room soon after starting GLP-1 medication. And the trend seems to be affecting gyms across the country. Between 2024 and 2025, the use of free-weight equipment increased significantly in US gyms, with members 6.7% more likely to use barbells, 3.8% more likely to use barbells, and 3.6% more likely to use kettlebells, according to a forthcoming report. Health and Fitness Associationfitness industry trade organization. Compared to 2021 (when Wegovy received FDA approval), dumbbell use has increased by 28%.
“Available data suggest that the growing interest in strength training is part of a structural, long-term trend, fueled in part by the growing popularity of GLP-1,” Anton Severin, vice president of research at the Health & Fitness Association, tells SELF.
It is important to note that it is not only weight loss drugs that matter here. Trends in the area longevity and functional strength had already gotten more people into resistance training, Severin says, but GLP-1s made it clinically urgent because are connected by losing lean muscle mass, which strength training can help alleviate.
Here’s a look at how these drugs are affecting gym culture—and some tips to help you start (and stick with) weight training.
Why is strength training on GLP-1 controversial?
To put it a little more precisely, any form of weight loss – be it diet, surgery or medication – leads to muscle loss, Jyotsna GhoshMD, an obesity physician at Johns Hopkins Medicine, tells SELF. “The most protective thing you can do to prevent a higher percentage of muscle loss is to eat enough protein and do consistent resistance training,” he says.
