Just after bariatric surgery in Albany or Macon, fitness will probably be fairly new to you. It takes time to adjust to regular exercise and the early days of your routine will be full of challenges and sore muscles. But after a while, the same workouts will not produce the same results—to continue improving your fitness you’ll need to continue upping the intensity and find ways to make your exercise time more productive.
When your results start to level off, it’s known as a fitness plateau, and the experience can be frustrating. To avoid fitness plateaus, you’ll need to continuously update and modify your routine by adding tools and techniques that continue to challenge your body in new ways. There are many ways to do this, and you can start by:
- Introducing intervals. If you feel you just aren’t getting the same results from your walks, try adding short intervals of jogging to the mix. Jog two minutes for every ten you walk and slowly work your way up, adding a bit more jogging to the ratio every week until you’re capable of phasing out the walking intervals entirely. You can also use intervals in other ways—try mixing short intervals of strength training into your cardiovascular workouts to build lean muscle and promote full-body fitness.
- Finding your balance. Because we use many different muscle groups when trying to keep our balance, instability exercises can be a great addition to any routine. BOSU balls, stability balls and wobble boards can recruit muscles in your core that the same exercises on solid ground will not. There are countless ways to use these tools—if you have access to a trainer at your gym, don’t hesitate to ask for some help finding the right form.
- Keeping yourself guessing. Your workout should never be ho-hum or predictable—if your body gets too comfortable, you won’t get the same results. You should always be introducing new activities to your arsenal. This can be as simple as trying a different machine at your gym every week, but you may also want to take fitness classes and try your hand at fun outdoor workouts. When you do more varied workouts, you’ll exercise more varied muscles, and this will mean better results for you whole body.
As you start to adjust to your new fitness routine after bariatric surgery, remember: a constantly changing, always-challenging workout is the best way to reach your goals. What other strategies have helped you build your fitness after bariatric surgery in Albany or Macon? Tell us in the comments below.
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