Quick Fit with Cassy

- Welcome back to another Quick Fit class.

If you're new here, I'm Cassy, and this is a place to find easy and effective fitness so you can remain strong and keep doing what you love.

In today's class, we'll be focusing on toning and strengthening your upper arms.

So grab a chair and we'll begin.

[upbeat music] For today's class, just make sure you have a chair handy.

We won't be using it a lot, just for a few moves, and have your shoes off, and they'll get a little bit of exercise and stretching at the same time.

We'll begin with really just simple, easy swings to warm up.

Inhale, exhale, [inhales] using your feet.

[exhales] Shifting side to side, switching arms, across and open.

Stomach in, [inhales] posture nice.

All right, and two arms.

Reach it across, just slapping the back of your shoulders.

[inhales and exhales] Start your breathing nice and deep, long inhales, extra long exhales.

Circle, just letting gravity and momentum take your arms, warming up the shoulders.

Other side, and you can mirror me as we do these.

So this would be your right arm, lift, [inhales and exhales] good, and two arms, lift.

Let's just do a few bends in the knees.

Good.

All right, and right at shoulder height.

Okay, bend those wrists, tiny little circles, always thinking about moving the arms a little bit more to the back, not towards the front.

[inhales and exhales] Good, keep it going, arms nice and wide, little circles pressing through the wrists, and now squeeze the hands open and closed.

Working the forearms, working the hands, opening up the palm.

[inhales and exhales] Good, squeeze, open, squeeze and open.

Standing nice and tall, trying not to push forward at the hips, nice posture, long neck.

All right, and we'll continue bending the wrists and just moving forward.

Little circles, maybe your shoulders or your arms are getting a little tired just from having your arms in the air for so long.

Our arms do have weight.

Now squeeze and open.

You got more weight than you realize, and so that'll get your heart up a little bit.

[inhales and exhales] Forward and up, squeeze, open, squeeze and open.

And circles again, bend at the wrist.

All right, you're ready for a change.

We'll just scissor the arms across the front.

Still nice and high.

Try not to drop your arms.

[inhales] Keep breathing, [exhales] nice posture, stomach in, take the whole inventory.

All right, circle stretch again.

Nice and wide, to the back, opening up the chest, small circles.

Bend the wrists down this time.

Good, and open, press it back, press it back.

A little higher, little higher, a little lower.

[inhales and exhales] As we... gives you a little break as we change it up just a little bit.

Now I'm gonna turn to the side just so you can see, we're going to do these lat presses.

This is that bit of your body behind your arm and your back.

Squeeze your back, good, the top of the arm.

So it can be so frustrating.

Pull it back, nice, long arms.

Okay, keep pulling.

Pull your stomach in.

Imagine that you're pinching a pencil between your shoulder blades as you do these.

Now tiny little ones, stomach in, straight arms, putting your energy out through your wrists, press, [inhales] stomach in, exhale.

[exhales] Bigger ones again.

Keep pulling back, don't just flap the arms around.

Try to purposefully press and press.

Engaging.

All right, now bent elbows.

Let's pull them back.

You might be feeling the blood filling in here a little bit and your skin rubbing a little more because you're working that area.

And if you're not sure, you can actually push as you pull the elbow back or pull the arm back, and you'll feel those muscles engaging.

Let's do some circles.

Stomach in, chest is stuck out, try not to be hunched over.

We're working all these back muscles that feed into the upper arm.

All right, back, back.

All right, now let's just work on the triceps.

Notice that my elbows are anchored in place.

I'm only moving the forearm.

All right, two arms at a time.

[inhales and exhales] Now hold them back there, squeeze this upper part of your arm, one arm at a time.

So the arm that's not moving is still working, it's still tight.

Press, start feeling that muscle, making a knot in the top of your arm, press and press, keep going.

Now hold it here, other arm, and squeeze that upper arm, stomach's in, [exhales] supporting your cores, we're on this angle.

Good, now squeeze that upper arm, extra little tweak of the wrist here, and you might feel these really knotting up up in the back of your arm.

That's right, keep it going.

It takes lots of repetitions.

[inhales and exhales] Good, all right.

We're gonna be using the chair here in just a moment.

Keep going, great.

And hands on the chair, nice, long body.

[inhales and exhales] Now try not to get your butt up in the air.

Use your arms to lower yourself.

Good, the ideal position would be about right here.

Hopefully you have a very sturdy chair, no wheels, that would be a disaster.

Press and down, press and down.

If you find the chair is too difficult, you can always use the wall.

Very good, now let's hold about halfway down, a little lower, a little push, a little lower, a little push, and stretch it out.

All right, little bit of isometrics for our biceps.

So I want you to pull your left arm up, your other arm is going to resist, you ready?

[inhales] And lift, lift, lift, squeeze your bicep, lift it up into your hand, both arms are working, but we're really focusing on this one, the bottom one.

So if you're mirroring me, it'll be your left arm.

Lift, release, let's do the other arm.

Ready, shoulder down, and lift, lift, lift.

[exhales and inhales] Your arms might be shaking, that's okay.

Lift and shake it out.

Let's do it again.

Ready, and pull it up, lift, lift.

Keep going.

Nice, and switch sides.

Ready, and lift, lift.

Almost done, getting close.

All right, and hold it out, big circles.

[exhales] Not bad.

All right, let's just use the back of the chair to stretch out.

Okay, stretching out your triceps, we'll sit it back, [inhales] lengthen the arms.

[exhales] Very good, I love that stretch.

I love using the chair.

It really is such a great tool.

And then up, hand behind the head.

This one you'll really feel.

And pull, shake it out, lift it up [inhales] and down, [exhales] and pull.

That was great.

You might feel a bit of soreness in the next day or two, and that's a good thing because it means you've challenged yourself.

Just stretch and move your arms to move out that soreness.

Consider doing this class two or three times a week for strong and sleek arms.

Just come back to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where in just a few minutes a day, you can feel refreshed, loose, and strong.

See you next time.