A new client walked into my gym six weeks ago looking like he’d aged five years overnight. He’d lost 22 pounds in two months on Mounjaro. By the numbers, a success story. But his face was gaunt. His shoulders had narrowed. His grip strength had dropped so much he could barely hold a 40-pound dumbbell. […]
Three different clients on three different medications causing three very different conversations in the past month alone. The first was a 46-year-old man on Ozempic, prescribed for type 2 diabetes, who wanted to know why his gym performance had dropped off a cliff. The second was a 43-year-old woman on Wegovy, losing weight rapidly, but […]
I’ve trained clients in New York City for over two decades. Hedge fund managers, Broadway performers, new parents running on four hours of sleep. And here’s what I’ve noticed across hundreds of body transformations: the leanest people in my gym almost never touch a treadmill. That should have woken you up. Good. The fitness industry […]
I can usually tell within ten minutes of a first consultation whether a new client over 40 has been through the cycle. The cycle looks like this: restrictive diet, aggressive cardio, fast initial weight loss, plateau, frustration, quit, regain everything plus a few extra pounds. Most of them have done it three times. Some five. […]
I watched a guy in my gym grind out a set of barbell curls until his face turned red, his lower back arched like a bridge, and the barbell was moving about an inch per rep. He racked the weight, looked at himself in the mirror, and said to his training partner: “That’s how you […]
I watched a woman in my gym spend 55 minutes on the elliptical. Heart rate locked at 128 beats per minute. Eyes glued to the screen that read “Fat Burn Zone.” She’s been doing that four days a week for the past three months. Same body. Same frustration. Same misplaced effort. The fitness industry has […]
I noticed it for the first time about two years ago. A client who had been training with me for over a year, consistent, strong, progressing on every lift, started showing up to sessions looking drained. Sets she used to handle comfortably were grinding her down. Recovery between sessions stretched from 48 hours to 72. […]
I watch it happen every week in my gym. A new client walks in, 30 pounds lighter than they were six months ago, thrilled about the number on the scale. Then I ask them for a dexa and it turns out mostly fat was lost. GLP-1 receptor agonists like Ozempic and semaglutide have changed the […]
Cardio does not preserve muscle and muscle preservation is the single most important fitness goal for anyone on a GLP-1 medication. I have trained clients in New York City for over twenty years. The past two years have brought a wave of clients on Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound. I have watched what happens when […]
Here is a scene I witness at least twice a week. A new client walks into my gym in Manhattan. They have been on Ozempic for three months. The weight is coming off. Twenty pounds, sometimes more. They feel good about the number on the scale. Then I ask them to do a set of […]