Gyms need to evolve to tackle peptides

Jim LaValle wrote the book on peptides, literally.

Working with Andrew Heyman MD, LaValle penned the Peptide Handbook in 2024, back when the only peptides consumers outside the weight room would hear about were the "P" in GLP-1 weight loss drugs.

The people who knew about peptides then likely learned about them at a gym, and probably a specific part of the gym: the weight room. That left LaValle uneasy at times, he says. “Peptides have been in the bodybuilding culture. That's who kind of led the charge on this from what I would call performance health perspective. I'm not saying that was right or wrong. It's just that's what happened.”

Now, with a wider population accessing a far wider range of peptides, LaValle says he wants to think that a transition is being approached and that more medical expertise is entering the conversation. “Has it had a history of being in the parking lot? Yes. Is it moving towards something we could call ‘med fit?’ Yes. It’s happening at the intersection of med and fitness. That’s where it's moving.”

Let’s dive in.

The gym owners who haven’t reached the intersection LaValle describes are treading a pathway that is not without peril. The US compounding pharmacies that are manufacturing peptides are not doing it legally. One lawyer who spoke to Peptides Business Wire on another matter described such pharmacies as “the Rosa Parks” of peptides—providing a safe alternative to the “research only” peptides widely available online—but that doesn’t mean gym staff can sell, prescribe, or in some states even recommend peptide use legally. It also doesn’t mean it can’t be done more responsibly than has been seen in the past.

Still, peptide prohibition at the state and federal level isn’t even the whole problem. Civil suits are a looming risk, LaValle notes. “I know for a fact there are fitness trainers that have affiliate codes that they give to their client, and they know their client's buying them,” LaValle says. “Once again, it's a dangerous drug. You're telling someone to inject something into their body. Where's the liability at? What's going to happen if something goes wrong?”

It’s that financial motive that troubles Harsha Moole MD. Moole runs FindMyDoctor.com, connecting patients with concierge doctors who operate on subscription. He looks at the relationship between gyms and peptides and sees the financial  motivation LaValle talks about—the trainers handing out affiliate codes to get a slice of the sale—and worries about more than how profit colors the process. There needs to be a doctor in the equation, Moole says.

“When a physician or some healthcare professional is not in the room for the decision-making process, that's where the question becomes ‘How can we increase our sales volume? How can we increase our revenue?’ And that's when you go down the slippery slope.”

The first step toward a solution, Moole says, is simple: put a doctor in the boardroom. He’s seen it in spas and it could easily happen in gyms, he contends. “I know at least seven or eight spas where physicians are a part of either the founding team or they run it themselves. Even though they sell these medications, the claim verification and marketing practices are 100% accurate because they know they don't want to hurt their patients.”

A doctor in the decision loop is how Tony Saxby approached peptides for his W.O.L.F. gym.

Weight room and waiting room

Saxby founded the gym as a community. W.O.L.F. stands for Work Out, Live Fierce. He knows people in that community are looking for peptides and not only the GLP-1s. To make that safer, the W.O.L.F. holding company created Live Fierce Medical, with Mike Ellis MD as the medical director. The clinic, which has both a brick-and-mortar location and a telehealth operation, is led by osteopath Mike Ellis. The clinic prescribes hormone therapy,  also works with peptides.

Saxby describes it as a safer path to peptides than his members would find on their own. He’s troubled by the wave of peptide use that’s done without medical supervision. “People are asking about peptides, and they're showing me Instagrams of research-only peptides that they're dumping into the body,” he says. He saw a need for a safer alternative. "The worry for me is that people are putting stuff into their bodies that haven't... they have no certificates of authenticity. They have no COAs. They have no doctor-leading panel inspection to make sure that what they're putting into the body won't be counterproductive or ineffective, or in worst case, dangerous to the person."

At W.O.L.F., the alternative was the clinic. Saxby’s trainers and gym staff don’t talk about peptides with members. They refer those members to the Live Fierce Medical clinic. "We don’t want the gym owners to be the people educating. We want the medical professionals to be the educators,” Saxby says. “By no means, way, shape, or form will anybody in our system, at least on the ownership side or franchisee side, step on the toes of the medical director. That's his purview."

The W.O.L.F. model, as Saxby describes it, appears closer to the "intersection of med and fitness" that LaValle sees. If peptides are coming to the gym, that’s how it needs to happen, LaValle says.

“You start using compounds that are very powerful. You have to think about it. A peptide usually is in micrograms, really small doses, and yet it's having a global effect on your body. That's a pretty powerful compound.”

Gyms can evolve to reach that level of responsibility, insists LaValle, who has worked with the Life Time gym chain and speaks highly of their model. "When you look at Life Time, they work with healthcare providers. You've got a medical director; you've got nurse practitioners and physician assistants that are recommending peptides,” LaValle says. “Then you have smaller chains that are utilizing telemedicine as their partner instead of it being in-house."

Responsible gyms, LaValle says, are “looking for solutions.” Gyms have become places where people come not just to build muscle or fit cardio into their lives. Gyms are where people go to improve their health, boost their vitality, and manage how they age. A medical practice dovetails nicely with that, LaValle says. The weight room and a healthcare professional’s waiting room might share the same hallway. Peptides might play a role in both.

"It's not just going to be a single peptide that you take. It's not going to be a single super nutrient,” LaValle says. “It's going to be establishing a way of living your life, and that means you need a coach. And why not have that at your gym?"