Just after gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy or Lap Band in North Florida, every step of your exercise routine will be a challenge. All the hard work you’re doing will be evident in sore muscles and buckets of sweat, but the same exercises won’t continue to pay off as your strength and stamina improve. To continue seeing results in your workouts, you’ll need to constantly update the intensity of the challenges you give yourself during exercise.

When your fitness routine starts to deliver diminishing returns, you may have reached a fitness plateau, which means that your body has become used to the difficulty of your workouts. In some ways, a fitness plateau is a good thing—it shows that you’ve progressed substantially since you began your routine. But to keep strengthening your body, you’ll need to address every fitness plateau by upping the ante in your workouts.

You can boost the intensity of your exercise routine easily after gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy or Lap Band in North Florida by:

• Tracking your progress. It’s tough to remember the exact number of reps you do every day. Recording your workouts with a journal or fitness app can help you see how much you need to do to keep challenging yourself. When you prepare for your workouts, consult your record and think about how you’ll do more or do better today.
• Losing your stability. You can get more out of simple exercises by doing them on an exercise ball, wobble board or BOSU ball. These tools challenge you to keep your balance during the activities you use them for, which will recruit more core muscles as you work to stay upright. You can also get a similar effect from doing strength training without a weight machine—using free weights will burn more calories and use more muscles.
• Working in circuits. Circuit training involves moving quickly between exercises that work different muscle groups, providing an intense and efficient workout without overburdening one area of your body. You can include both aerobic and resistance training exercises in circuit training, so try switching quickly between intervals of weightlifting and cardiovascular activities on the treadmill or exercise bike.

Your workout routine can’t stay the same indefinitely after weight loss surgery—to continue building the strength you need to keep weight off, you’ll need to add more intensity to your routine regularly. Remember to check with your bariatric surgeon before changing the intensity of your workout.

What else has helped you keep workouts rewarding after gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy or Lap Band in North Florida? Share your recommendations in the comments below