Quick Fit with Cassy

- Let's get that heart rate up.

Thank you for joining me here at Quick Fit .

I'm your host, Cassy Vieth.

As you know, our heart is a muscle that needs to be trained regularly to remain strong.

So when life calls upon you to work harder and faster, you can meet that challenge with ease.

So have a chair handy and join me for a quick and effective workout.

[gentle music] If you work out in bare feet, you'll also be improving your balance because the sense receptors in the bottoms of your feet will be stimulated and communicate more efficiently with your brain.

Let's just begin by shifting left and right.

We'll have a little bit faster tempo today.

[inhales] Start using that arm, [exhales] and start breathing deep, okay.

Long breaths in, [inhales] long exhales out.

Switch those arms.

Just let it go with the momentum.

[inhales] Loosening up your shoulder.

[exhales] All right, and step it.

Step, hands on your hips.

Warming up your hips.

[inhales and exhales] Okay, get ready now with your arms, have them long in front of you and lift, lift, lift, lift, lift.

Take your time to get the coordination down.

[inhales] We'll be working on coordination today.

Try not to get frustrated, but that's important to work on too.

Lift, lift, lift, keep your arms up and back, back.

[inhales and exhales] I hope you have a nice, smooth surface to work on so you don't get hung up on a rug or a mat that's not laying smooth.

Okay, keep it going.

[inhales] And up, up, up, reach it up.

[inhales and exhales] Control your breathing; don't let it come too fast.

Maybe breathe in for four beats and out for four beats.

Keep it going, almost done, and stand in place.

Backstrokes.

[inhales] Good, nice, big twist through the spine, catching your breath.

[inhales] Breathe it in and out.

And in, and out.

So I hope you have your feet at least shoulder-width apart.

And now a little lunge, little lunge.

Good, and stand in place, and lunge it back.

Lunge it back.

Get ready for a little bit of a change.

Gonna lunge it back.

Bring the knee up, lunge it back, knee up.

Okay, find your base.

Make it wide enough so you feel stable.

Good, let's add some biceps, squeeze, knee up.

Squeeze, knee up.

Five, little faster, four, three, two, and we'll switch sides.

Okay, a little lunge back.

Get used to it.

[inhales] You can let your arms swing forward as you lunge back, knee up.

Lunge back, knee up.

Lunge back, knee up, add the bicep.

Squeeze, up.

[inhales and exhales] Lunge it back.

Five, four, three, two, last one.

We'll catch our breath again.

Little toe touches again, right and left.

Anytime you need to catch your breath, just come back to this.

[inhales and exhales] All right, hands are on your hips.

Get ready for a change and kick your butt.

Feet are nice and wide.

Knees are slightly bent so we have a little bounce, okay.

[inhales] Once again, we're still controlling the breathing.

We're gonna add some arms.

Ready, and wide, wide, wide.

Make sure that this doesn't hurt your shoulders.

Find a height or a movement that feels good for you.

Maybe it's lower.

Maybe it's more in front.

Okay, but if you can go wide, out from your shoulders, do so.

Keep it going.

[exhales] And small lunges, right and left.

Make sure you're moving your butt to the back so that you knee doesn't go too far over your toes.

Okay, they shouldn't go past your toes.

Left and right.

Let's do about eight more each side.

Well, about five more.

And four, [inhales] three, catching your breath, two, and last one.

Now reach, lunge it, reach, lunge it.

And if this seems too complicated, just make sure you keep moving.

Reach and out, reach and out, reach and out.

Let's do three, two, last one, and we'll switch sides.

So this time, we're going to go down to the opposite side, knee up, opposite side, reach, [inhales] reach, reach.

Good, let's do about six more.

Five, four, three, if you need a break, just count to four or five and join us again.

All right, coming up.

[exhales] Catch your breath, touch your toes.

[inhales] Good, exhale, [exhales] breathe it in [inhales] and exhale.

All right, bring in your feet a little closer, right under your hips.

And let's reach to the back with this left leg if you're mirroring me, and lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, switching legs, reach it back, and lift.

You can always have your hands on the chair if you need it to help you stabilize.

Switch legs and reach, reach.

[inhales and exhales] Still catching our breath again.

Last time, extend that leg to the back.

All right.

Now we are going to use your chair for this next bit.

Let's just put your hands right on the seat.

So have you shoulders right over your wrists and your ankles under your hips.

And let's lift that left leg up behind you.

Touch the floor, stomach's in.

Bracing that lower spine.

Now a little quicker.

Okay, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one.

Now, even though it looks like I was just throwing my leg around 'cause I was going quickly, I wasn't.

I'm lowering and squeezing the butt.

We're not just throwing the leg around haphazardly.

You don't wanna hurt your low back.

So squeeze the butt and move as quickly as you can control.

Four, three, two, switching legs.

Let's do a mule kick.

All right, extend and bend.

Let's do six, five, stomach pulled in, bracing that low back.

And switch, and eight, squeeze, straight out from the hip, flexing that foot.

Couple more.

Good, all right.

Reach it to the sky.

[inhales] Left leg, kick, reach it to the sky.

Same leg, reach it to the sky, that's three.

Reach, two.

[inhales and exhales] Other leg for five, four, [inhales] big breath, [exhales] two, and last one.

[inhales] Good job, now we're gonna slow it down.

Just march it in place, okay.

Breathe it in for four steps and blow for four steps.

Okay, in [inhales] and out.

[exhales] Big arms.

Slowing it down.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] Big inhale.

[inhales and exhales] Widening those legs.

Good, [inhales] breathe it in and out.

And in, [inhales] and out.

[exhales] Now reach it over.

[inhales] A little bounce with the knees.

Good, inhale, exhale.

Breathe it in, [inhales] blow.

[exhales] And blow, reach.

You guys are doing really good.

Time has gone by so fast.

Finish it up with nice, wide legs, big circles with the arms.

[inhales] Bend those knees.

[exhales] Inhale.

[inhales] Last one.

[exhales] Excellent.

I hope your heart rate got up and you're breathing a bit more heavily.

Your blood is the waste management system of your body carrying away toxins, but it also brings cleansing oxygen to your brain.

Classes like this always lift my mood and clear my head.

So join me here again tomorrow at pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where together, we'll actively participate in our own health care.

It's not luck, it's daily action.

Until then, keep on moving.

– Announcer: Funding for Quick Fit with Cassy is provided by Greg and Carol Griffin, founders of ElderSpan Management, Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programming, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.