Quick Fit with Cassy

- Hello, everyone.

Thank you for joining me today; I'm Cassy Vieth.

For today's Quick Fit class, we'll be performing moves to keep your balance sharp.

If you struggle with balance, don't worry.

You can improve it.

It just takes a little patience and consistency.

So let's get started.

[upbeat music] Many components have to work together at the same time for good balance.

So you'll see, we'll be working on leg and joint strength and reflexes, along with standing in place and active balance moves.

We'll just begin by warming up the hips, little side-to-side steps.

We'll start small and we'll get larger and larger as we warm up.

[inhales] Even though these are short classes, we still have to take a little time to warm up and prepare your muscles.

A little larger, a little larger, [inhales] adding a little bit of a knee bend.

[exhales] Start taking deeper breaths, [inhales] getting your lungs prepared to breathe heavier and heavier.

All right, one leg at a time.

Let's just take a nice, wide step or even just a little step, but make sure your shoulders stay inside your knee, okay?

Push your hips to the back.

I hope that makes sense.

This can be one of those moves where if you do it wrong, you can put too much pressure on your knee.

Getting a little bigger, making sure the knee is wider than where your shoulders are.

Sometimes I instruct people to turn towards the straight leg.

All right, we'll switch legs.

All right, so out to the side, just mirror me.

This would be your left leg.

Look at your non-moving leg, keeping your moving leg nice and wide.

All right, so this leg has to stop you from going all the way down to the floor, so working on those muscles right now.

All right, let's do one more each side.

Nice, big over to the side, and other way, over to the side.

Very good, now we'll just work on this leg.

So if you're mirroring me, this is your right leg.

So out to the side, nice and big.

Now explode, hold that knee in the air.

Down, explode.

Good, down, explode.

[exhales] Inhale.

[inhales and exhales] Try to control it.

Try not to go over to the side just because you're losing your balance.

Down, explode.

One more, down, explode.

Good job, let's switch legs.

So catch your breath, over to the side, down, and hold in the air.

Depending on how thick your mat is, it might feel like you're more wobbly than you thought you would be.

[inhales and exhales] And hold.

And explode.

One more, over, and explode.

A couple more.

If your standing leg is wiggling around, that's okay.

It just means those muscles and the brain are communicating.

[exhales] Okay, very good.

All right, shake that off.

Let's extend your right leg out in front of you.

Catch your breath.

[exhales] Nice, slow, controlled lifts.

They don't have to be large; just control it.

[exhales] Go as slow as you need to, and now a little faster.

It's more of a challenge when you move fast.

So if going fast makes you feel like you wanna hang on or you're not accomplishing the move, then just go slower.

All right, and to the back.

[inhales] Slow for a few.

Squeeze the behind muscle to lift the leg.

We're not bending the knee.

Okay, now fast, two, three, four, five.

Out to the side.

[inhales] Just moving it, the act of moving it around is challenging your balance reflexes.

Now slow.

Do anything you want with your arms.

All right, fast, two, three, four, and five.

All right, this last part is more of a challenge.

Goes, try not to put that foot down.

All right, out to the front.

[inhales and exhales] Now, if any of the first three were hard and you keep having to put your weight back down on your leg, then don't do this last one.

This is for those of you that need a little bit more of a challenge.

Arch, moving across the body.

[inhales and exhales] There you go.

[exhales] Oh, yeah, and depending on how thick your mat is, it's going to make it even harder.

I have a nice cushion under my rug.

All right, let's do the other side.

So this leg gets tired, the joints and the hips and the knee, because it's got to stabilize you, as well as the ankle.

All right, so to the front.

[exhales] Stabilize before you try to move, lift.

Use your stomach to help lift the leg, slow and controlled, not dropping the leg down until you're ready.

Lift, fast, fast, and to the back, trying not to put that leg down.

Lift slow and hold.

Tall.

Another squeeze, and fast, two, three, four, five.

All right, swing it around to the side.

A couple slow holds.

[inhales] Lift.

[exhales] Lift fast, two, three, four, five.

All right, if those were fairly easy for you and you're ready for the next challenge, arch across in front of your body.

[inhales and exhales] Breathe deeply, all right?

We're exercising our lungs as well.

All right.

Ah, try not to put it down until I'm ready.

All right.

[inhales and exhales] Other leg.

Extend that right leg out in front of you.

Stabilize, your foot and ankle might be shaking around.

We're going to draw the numbers one through ten with our toes.

Ready, one, two, [exhales and inhales] three.

Hopefully your heart rate's getting up like mine.

Four, [inhales and exhales] five, six.

And the circles are hard, and going across is not easy either.

Seven, [inhales and exhales] eight, and your quad is getting tired, it's burning.

And 10.

All right, other leg.

[inhales and exhales] Extend, start with the one, two, three.

You can just focus on something in your room, all right?

Just kinda let your eyes glaze over as you do this.

It really, really helps.

I don't know what number I'm on, maybe five.

Six, seven, eight.

We just want it to be over, right?

That's what our thighs are telling us.

All right, I'm not perfect.

I have two more numbers to do.

Nine and ten.

That's why we have to keep doing it and keep practicing, just like any other athlete.

All right.

Nice, quiet move now.

We're going to do the yoga tree pose.

We want to make your base as small as you can, all right, not me or your neighbor.

So we'll start with our toes still on the floor.

Just move that leg out to the side.

Draw yourself nice and tall and have your arms out.

Good, now, don't rush this part.

If you try to go, just like a child trying to go to sixth grade before they've mastered second grade, you're just not going to succeed.

So don't lift this leg up off the floor until your body feels like it's ready.

Otherwise, you'll just end up putting the foot down over and over, and I can hear you saying, "Oh, I just have bad balance.

"I can't get back my balance that I used to have."

But you can, you just have to progress properly.

Okay.

[inhales] All right, hang in there.

[exhales] When you think you're going to have to put your foot down, just stop, freeze.

All right.

Let's switch sides to finish this workout up and be nice and balanced in both sides of our body.

So I'm going to get the leg out to the side, have a nice, small base to begin with.

Let my standing leg stabilize, that's the key.

And as you feel stable, your other leg will just start to lift up higher, practically on its own.

You won't have to tell it to.

[inhales and exhales] But you're probably getting tired, and when your legs get tired, they don't perform as well.

So, lift, lift, hang in there.

[inhales] If you think you're going to have to put your foot down, freeze.

It really, really helps.

[inhales and exhales] Balance involves many elements working properly all at once.

[inhales and exhales] That's why we do such a variety of movements, and it requires practice.

So repeat this class as often as you like, right here at pbswisconsin.org/quickfit to stay balanced, loose, and sharp.

See you soon.