After undergoing weight loss surgery, your body needs a break from strenuous activity. Taking good care of yourself is your number one priority. However, after following your surgeon's guidance for recovery time, it will become important to start moving again to strengthen your body and prepare for the exercise regimens you will eventually adopt. Starting an exercise regimen, particularly if recovery has been difficult or if you were not accustomed to exercise prior to surgery, can be an adjustment. The following low-impact exercises provide excellent, strengthening workouts without taxing your body:
1. Walking: Walking is stress-free, relaxing, and an excellent way to get your body moving, increase your heart rate, and gently strengthen muscles. Over time, you can incorporate ankle or wrist weights or dumbbells to increase your strength and cardiovascular fitness.
2. Swimming: Making a splash is a great, low-impact way to get cardio and strength-building benefits. Swimming not only revs your heart rate but tones your shoulders and legs and improves your lung function, all without putting pressure on your bones and joints.
3. Water aerobics: Love the water but sick of laps? Try the pike scull or encourage your fitness center’s aerobics teachers to host one class per week in the pool. Add an aerobic element to your swim time by joining a friend in the pool and tossing a beach ball. “Running” to catch it is a low-impact challenge!
4. Yoga: It’s relaxing! It’s also low-impact and boosts strength. Yoga is not merely a sequence of movements that tones the body but a way of life that includes healthful eating, positive thoughts, and gentleness, as well as providing strength-building and mind-soothing benefits.
5. Playing in the yard: Playing in the yard with your kids or grandkids is always a very fun option for improving activity! You can also do other things, such as gardening or anything else you enjoy, to help improve your activity! The benefits of being in the sun, as well as finding something you enjoy, are enormous.
6. Golf: Getting outside and walking the course and even swinging a golf club combines the benefits of all of the above exercises: walking, lifting light weights, and fluid movement as well as being outside. Plus, learning the rules of the game provides an intellectual and competitive element that makes it fun and engaging.
Getting up and moving after weight loss surgery does not need to strain your body. Gentle movement, as found in walking, swimming, yoga, low-impact sports, or simply being active outside, can increase your circulation, heart rate, muscle strength, and mood, all of which will support more strenuous exercise efforts in the future. Use this list to help give you ideas while trying to find different activities that you enjoy and will be easy for you to stick to long-term.