Yes, You Can Maintain Muscle on a GLP-1. This Plan Shows You How.

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IF YOU’RE TAKING a GLP-1 drug, you probably have questions about everything that comes along with your weight loss. These medications can make exercise—particularly the type of training meant to build and maintain muscle—more challenging. But if you have the right plan, it’s not impossible to stay strong and lean.

That’s why we designed the new Men’s Health program, the GLP-1 Muscle Growth Plan. The 4-week workout series is informed by experts to provide you with a roadmap to keep your gains while considering the unique needs that come with weight loss drugs, because you can’t just let the meds do all the work. “The goal with weight loss is to maintain muscle, and the best indicator of muscular levels is weight room performance,” says exercise physiologist and strength coach Dr. Pat Davidson.

Rather than pushing for huge gains, though, your goal will be to keep what muscle and strength you’ve already got. That can’t be achieved through marathon weight room sessions that push you to beyond the brink of exhaustion—since you’re working with a lower calorie intake, you need to be more strategic than that. Here’s what you need to know about the program that will give you the blueprint.

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What to Know About Training on a GLP-1

GLP-1 DRUGS HELP to make users feel less hungry, get full faster, and have fewer cravings. That means you’re probably eating less and in a caloric deficit, which is essential for losing weight—but not the best for consuming the high-protein diets people typically associate with strength training. You’ll need to make these four adjustments to your workouts to have success.

Decrease Your Training Volume

Lower calories in means less energy out. You won’t be able to push the same types of daily training programs than you would if you weren’t on a GLP-1. In this program, you’ll train three days per week, with two to three working sets per movement.

Increase Your Training Intensity

Since you won’t be doing a ton of reps, you’ll need to make them count. “If
volume goes down, then intensity becomes more critical,” Davidson says. When you take on these workouts, you’ll do so with an aggressive reps-in-reserve (RIR) approach.

Prioritize Progressive Overload

Even though you’re taking your foot off the gas pedal compared to standard training plans, you should still aim to make gains throughout the program. That means adding more reps, weight, or time under tension from one week to the next.

Train on Fewer Days

You can’t live with a no-days-off mentality on a GLP-1. You’ll need the extra time to recover from those intense training sessions—which will be more productive in the long run.

What the GLP-1 Muscle Growth Plan Looks Like

YOU’LL USE AN easy-to-download PDF for this plan, which includes all of the introductory information, exercise descriptions and reference images, and an editable table of the program you can use to track your progress when you’re in the gym. Just pull up the file on your phone, and you’ll be ready to take on your workouts.

Also included: A fully breakdown of each exercise in the program, complete with cues to help you keep your form on point.

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What You Need for the GLP-1 Muscle Growth Plan

YOU’LL TRAIN FOR three days in this program (with an optional fourth day, depending on your energy levels). You’ll need access to a full gym’s worth of equipment—trap bars, benches, dumbbells and machines—are all on the docket. Even if you are training smart, you’re not limited.

The program runs for four weeks. After that, if you’ve put in the work, you should be on the road to results. Ready to take on the challenge? Get access to the plan here.

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