VE on GaiamLife: Top 5 Ways to Lose More Weight with Your Existing WorkoutYou’ve established a healthy workout schedule, working up a sweat three to five times a week—but why aren’t you losing weight? Depending on how much weight you have been trying to lose, you may have hit your fitness plateau.

The solution isn’t necessarily longer workouts. We consulted two of our favorite fitness professionals to find out their favorite strategies for kicking up your workout. The best part? Their methods won’t make you add more sweat sessions!

1. Vie for Variety

If you’ve been doing the same moves for months on end, your body is probably bored. “Each time you perform an activity, your body gets efficient at that activity and it remembers the movement and gets better at doing it. This in turn allows the body to go on autopilot, which decreases the number of calories burned,” says Patricia Moreno, a fitness professional for more than 20 years and the founder of intenSati™ fusion exercise techniques.

Adding variety can be as simple as doing your usual workout in reverse order or picking out a few new moves from a fitness magazine. When working on your cardio, vary the incline and don’t hold onto the handles—your glutes will work harder than ever. “If you love to go fast, slow it down and add some resistance. If you love to go slow, increase the speed and lower the resistance,” Moreno advises.

Feeling adventurous? Try a new exercise class! Curious about yoga? Longing for the days of ’80s step-aerobics classes? Replace one of your usual workouts with a class you’ve wanted to try or one you wouldn’t normally take.

2. The Joy of Jump Ropes

Not only will adding jump-rope intervals to your workout shock your body into burning more calories, it may shorten the time you spend sweating. Jumping rope between lifting weights “creates an interval workout with bursts of energy, and you will burn many more calories,” says Tanja Djelevic, Los Angeles celebrity trainer, fitness writer and founder of Loud Teenz health and self-esteem program.

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[Image courtesy of mikebaird on flickr.com]