It is 10am on a Friday at Surfcore Fitness, a boutique gym in Los Angeles, and a 52-year-old woman is following an exercise circuit as her trainer watches on.
The fashion consultant, who is squeezing in a session before work, lifts relatively light weights while doing simple movements to build strength: goblet squats with a 3kg (6lb) kettlebell, then bicep curls with a 5kg weight.
You would never guess it, but this is the latest exercise craze in action: the Ozempic workout.
The class of drugs โ GLP-1 receptor agonists โ has been around for two decades as a diabetes medication. The drugsโ popularity as a tool for weight loss skyrocketed after the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Wegovy for weight management in 2021.
But these drugs have also created new challenges. The weight loss they spur often comes with a reduction in lean body mass that includes muscle, making people physically weaker.