Weight Watchers partners with Jennifer Aniston’s favorite fitness app to offer strength workouts to members—here are four essential moves to try at home

Weight Watchers has teamed up with the Jennifer Aniston–fronted fitness app Pvolve to offer strength training to its members.

Subscribers to Weight Watchers Core, Core+, Med+, GLP-1 Success and Menopause programs will get exclusive access to many of Pvolve’s classes with the option to upgrade to unlock over 1,700 on-demand workouts.

Members will also get a Pvolve starter kit with fitness equipment, including gliders, heavy ankle band and Aniston’s favorite “must-have”—the P.band—for a reduced rate.

The partnership reflects the recognition of the benefits strength training can bring for weight loss, particularly for people using GLP-1 medications.

“This is because when the body loses weight—particularly significant weight loss—some of it can come from lean mass, including muscle,” Weight Watchers’ chief medical officer Dr Kim Boyd tells Fit&Well.

“In some studies, lean mass can make up about 30% of the total weight lost, including during GLP-1 treatment, if muscle isn’t actively preserved [by doing strength training].

“Muscle is critical for overall health—it supports metabolic health, physical strength and long-term weight maintenance. Losing too much muscle can reduce metabolic rate and make it harder to maintain weight loss over time. That’s why strength training is such an important part of the equation.”

There’s more to it than that, though. Strength training is also essential for longevity, whether you’re taking weight-loss medications or not.

“We naturally lose muscle mass as we age,” Pvolve head trainer and VP of programming Maeve McEwen Myers tells Fit&Well, “so it’s extremely important to incorporate heavy weights and resistance training into our weekly routine to help build and preserve muscle.

“Muscle mass supports our metabolism, insulin sensitivity (which helps regulate blood sugar levels), bone density, and overall health and longevity. At Pvolve, as well as lifting weights for muscle growth, we incorporate movements that improve mobility, stability and train the body in all planes of motion.”

To give you a flavor of what Weight Watchers’ members can expect, and to help everyone get started with strength training at home, we asked Myers to recommend some of her favorite beginner-friendly moves. Here’s what she came back with.

1. Hinge to single-leg march

Sets: 2 Reps: 8-10 each side

• Stand holding dumbbells by your sides.
• Engage your core and tap your left foot lightly on the floor in front of you.
• Step your left foot back and hinge forward at your hips as you bend both knees to lower slowly.
• When your knee is just above the floor, push through your right foot to stand upright, bringing your left foot forward and raising your knee to hip height and bending it to 90°.
• Go straight into the next rep.
• Do all your reps on one side, then switch sides.

“Hinging is a functional movement pattern that we do many times throughout the day,” says Myers, “and adding weights helps build strength and muscle in the glutes.”

This move is also good for boosting balance, she says, adding: “As we lose muscle mass and with age, we naturally become less stable. The stability and balance training we incorporate at Pvolve can help reduce risk of injury, especially later in life.”

2. Alternating row

Sets: 2 Reps: 8-10 each side

• Hold a dumbbell in your right hand.
• Step your right foot back and bend your left knee so that you are in a split stance.
• Lean forward slightly and extend your arm to the floor.
• Keeping your legs and pelvis stable, bend your right elbow and draw it past your torso to lift the dumbbell to your right hip, while extending your left arm towards the floor.
• Hold the weight at the top for a second, then slowly reverse the movement to the starting position.
• Do all your reps on one side, then switch sides.

Myers says she recommends this move because “strengthening and building muscle in our back helps support our posture. The alternating arm movement helps improve mobility in our mid and upper back, which is an area that tends to get restricted.”

3. Kneeling lunge to overhead press

Sets: 2 Reps: 8-10 each side

• Adopt a half-kneeling position with your right knee on the floor and your left foot flat on the floor diagonally to the left in front of you, holding a dumbbell in your right hand by your right shoulder.
• Extend your left arm out to the side at shoulder height.
• Lean forward into the kneeling lunge to stretch the inner thighs
• Return to the starting position and press the dumbbell overhead.
• Slowly lower the weight down and repeat.
• Do all your reps on one side, then switch sides.

Myers says this move helps to open up tight hips, adding that “it also helps to maintain strength and functional mobility in our shoulders as we often need to reach overhead in our day-to-day.”

4. Biceps curl

Sets: 2 Reps: 8-10

• Stand in a split stance holding dumbbells in front of your thighs, palms facing forward.
• Keeping your shoulders back, chest facing forwards and uppers arms close to the side of your torso, bend your elbows to lift the dumbbells to your shoulders.
• Slowly reverse the movement to the start.

“This is a functional move that builds strength and muscle mass in your arms,” explains Myers.