Quick Fit with Cassy

- Welcome to another Quick Fit class with me, Cassy Vieth.

Your heart is a muscle, and the long list of benefits from strengthening this muscle are compelling, so join me now for a short but enjoyable routine that will get your heart rate up a bit, and maybe even encourage you to do more.

[gentle music] Clear a space around you, but have a chair handy, and set your feet free.

We'll be starting with our feet about shoulder-width apart.

Let's get your breathing going with some nice, long inhales and extra long exhales as we start leaning left and right.

Touch your toes, breathe in for four, and exhale.

[exhales] Very good, starting to get the heart rate up gradually.

Let's just start swinging a tennis racket.

You can start involving the torso, bending through the legs a little bit more.

[inhales] Don't forget the breathing, nice and deep, [exhales] and let that momentum stretch your muscles, warming it all up.

Let's switch arms and back hand and forward hand or however this is.

I think I need some lessons.

All right, but it feels good just to swing that arm, warming up the whole body.

[inhales and exhales] All right, we're gonna throw, big throws, follow through with the arm.

Big throws, follow through.

Big, big inhales, extra long inhales, extra long exhales.

[exhales and inhales] Don't be afraid to breathe as heavy as you need to.

We're not holding our breath.

[inhales] Supplying oxygen to all your muscles, all right, side to side now.

[inhales and exhales] Let's add an elbow pull, pull, pull, pull.

Good, about eight, seven, [exhales] and four.

Little lower, pull it up.

Make sure nothing's catching in the elbow or the shoulder.

If anything catches or doesn't feel good, adjust your height, adjust what you're doing.

Pull it a little higher.

Good, all right, big arms, up and up.

[inhales and exhales] Keep the breathing going, but control the breathing.

Make sure you're not breathing very fast.

Match it to the movements.

All right, medium height.

Pull it back.

Take your time so you get a nice stretch through the chest with the arm pull back.

Pull back a little higher.

[inhales] Good, nice, tight moves.

Pull up, pull up.

[inhales and exhales] Hopefully your heart rate's getting up.

Now go back to medium height, open and open, and low to shoulder height.

Keep going.

[inhales] Let's do eight and seven and six and five, four, three, two, good job.

Now put your hands on your hips, keep it going.

[inhales and exhales] All right, get ready for a little change.

Kick the butt.

Good, feet are still fairly wide.

[exhales] Little bounces, soft knees, absorbing.

You know, flexible muscles absorb force.

All right, so every time we're making a step here, the ground is actually putting a force on your body, but flexible muscles are more absorbent of the forces, okay?

Lift, lift, lift, stomach in, lift.

Have your arms wide if you need to for balance.

All right, and once again, butt kicks, butt.

Add some hands and lift, lift.

Maybe this is a little more awkward 'cause we have arms and legs both moving.

That's okay, no one's watching.

Keep it moving.

And knees, knees, good.

[inhales] Use your arms any way you need to just to help you feel more stable and in control.

Lift, we're still breathing in a controlled way, in and out.

All right, find that chair and we'll do a little series.

[inhales and exhales] Take a moment to catch your breath and exhale.

[exhales] Very nice.

All right, let's put your hands on the seat and then you'll be stepping it back.

Then I'll have you do four mountain climbers, so that's touches of the toes up by the chair.

Four of them.

Then we'll stand up, arms up, then bring a knee to an elbow.

That's two, three, and four.

And we'll repeat this four times.

So hands down, step it back, mountain climbers.

One more.

Stand it up, arms up, elbow to knee.

Let's pick up the pace.

We got three more of these.

Hands down, step it back, mountain climbers, two, three, four, stand up, arms up, knee and knee.

Ready, hands down, feet back, mountain climbers.

Two, three, four, stand up, arms up, four of these, three, two, one.

Hands down, feet back, mountain climbers.

Stand up, arms up, knee to elbow.

Let's do one more of these.

Hands down, step it back, mountain climbers.

That's it, stand up, arms up.

Four, three, two, and one.

Very good, [inhales] catch your breath.

[exhales] Make sure you're controlling that breath, okay?

So let's say four beats to inhale, [inhales] four beats to exhale.

Very nice, let's do some plis.

Still controlling the breath, taking your time to catch your breath, we'll come down into pli position, making sure you've got a nice, vertical shin and the knees and the toes are going in the same direction.

Even if your toes and knees have to be a little more forward, we want to make sure that we're not like this, okay?

So some of you might have to go a little wider than you're comfortable with, but give it a try, your legs are stronger than you think.

All right, so we're just holding it here, catching our breath, [exhales] conditioning those legs, those glutes.

Reach, reach, reach, and reach and overhead.

One, two, three, squeeze your bottom.

Keep pressing those knees open.

All right, elbow to knee.

Overhead, three, two, other side.

Elbow to knee, to the sky.

That's two, three, and four.

All right, up, back down, and up.

Good job, three, four, squeeze those legs.

Five and six, keep it going.

[exhales] Halfway done, hang in there.

If you need a break, count to three and join us again.

It's amazing what a three-second break can do.

All right, hold it here.

Press, now lean into it.

Press and press.

Squeeze your bottom, open the knees.

Overhead, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and done.

Good job, stretch those legs.

We'll be going back down into plis momentarily.

[inhales and exhales] All right, nice and wide, but this time we're going to come up to one leg, okay?

So you ready, explode, we'll do five.

Four, three, press down.

Last one on this side.

Let's come down and explode.

Five, four, press down through this heel.

Three, two, and one.

Good job, everybody.

Step it out to cool it down.

[inhales] Catch your breath, nice and controlled.

Widen those legs, and we'll just do a few lunges.

Now make sure that your behind is moving back to create this nice bend in the knee.

[inhales and exhales] All right, good, good job.

Now that wasn't bad, was it?

If it wasn't enough, just hit the replay button a time or two to really improve your mood and clear your head.

But if it was a challenge, plan on repeating it a few times a week until your endurance improves.

Just log back on to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where stretching, strengthening, and balancing the whole body is an enjoyable way to get results.

Until next time, 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.