Quick Fit with Cassy

Thank you for joining me. I'm Cassy and this is Quick Fit, your place to find gentle, healing classes. A shuffling gait is one of the telltale signs of loss of strength and balance. But be encouraged, you are in the right place to regain lost balance and agility, so let's work on that.

gentle music

Please have a sturdy chair handy, preferably without any wheels or arms, and take your shoes off because we really wanna stimulate all those sense organs in the bottom of your feet, but maybe only do half of the repetitions that I suggest if you're very new at having your shoes off. Let's begin with some very simple heel lifts, just alternate one and the other, taking your time, letting your feet have to do the work of not just letting your heels fall down. All right, and then let's just grip the mat with your toes, waking up the toes. Very good, let's lift that heel. We'll work on one foot. Lift the heel, press that heel down into the ground. Put your weight as straight down as you can, gripping the mat, pushing your weight down through your knee, ankle, and into the ball of your foot. We don't want the foot to go sideways, that's not really good for your ankle. All right, lift, grip the mat, press your weight down through the knee and the ankle. All right, grip and press, grip and press. A little bit wider feet, and we're gonna push off and land. It's a controlled land, we're not just flopping down, okay? It's control with the foot muscles, push off and land, and we're using your foot to do the pushing, we're not just not just leaning away and lifting the leg and the hip, okay? Push off and control the land. This might take about a year for you to reconnect the brain and the muscles in the feet and to actually feel like your feet are getting stronger, but please don't give up, don't be discouraged. A year is gonna come anyway; you might as well arrive there stronger. All right, let's go back to a few alternate heel lifts. All right, two heels up and down. Heels up and lift just the toes. Heels up, heels down, just the toes. Notice the ball of my foot is on the ground. Heels up, down, lift the toes. This is really good for the arch in your feet. Now lift the whole foot. Real good, all right, some nice points. When your feet are stiff, that really adds to a shuffling gait, and then your balance gets affected, so we want strong feet. We wanna keep the brain and the muscles in the feet connected. Keep them trained so you feel sturdy and confident as you move about. All right, a little faster. We're working the slow twitch and the fast twitch muscles in the feet. Fast, all right, now pull, pull, and hold, and do a few faster if you can. Good. I think you'll find that one foot is much more easier to control than the other, and now fast. I always imagine I'm ringing one of those bells. You know, it takes a little bit of a quick movement and a little bit of force. Now pull, pull and hold.

inhales

Do it again.

exhales

Now if you can do each one quickly. This is the side I'm always not as good at. All right, let's do some long reaches right from the hip, so see a spot on the floor and try to reach beyond it, add some circles. So we're continuing to lengthen and do small circles. All right, keep it going. Lengthening and reverse the circle, then come back around. I think you'll find the front easier than the back. Let's do the other side. And part of the shuffling gait is being weak in the back, so we'll be getting there next. Extend, circle. Nice and controlled. Standing tall.

exhales

If you feel like you need to breathe a little faster, go right ahead. This is some work, so. Reverse. And your standing leg is getting a lot of practice with balance. All right, very good. Bring this knee up and let's just do some lifts. Working on these hip flexors. Now hold, try to hold it a little higher than you think, and then lift into the hand, lift, lift. Use your stomach to help you generate some more strength and force and relax, press it back. We'll do that leg again. Bring that knee up, a few lifts, the hold, just holding it up in the air and then lifting it up against resistance. And switch sides. Great, go ahead and get stable, lift your leg in the air, a few repetitions, hold.

inhales and exhales

And resistance, you ready? Lift, squeeze your stomach, squeeze your hind end. It'll help with balance if you need it. And stretch it back a moment, and lifts. Let's hold. And lift into the hand. So good, all right. Turn and face your chair, and we wanna just pull a straight leg to the back. We're not swinging the leg, we're just pulling it. So from straight down, to hold. No momentum, using the back and the glutes to pull the leg back. This is one of those exercises that really is meant to help that shuffling gait. Your legs need to be able to move backwards as well as forward. Bend that knee and do a few presses with the bent knee, just pressing through the heel. Standing tall, and then we'll lean it over.

inhales and exhales

Two knees side by side, extend, side by side, extend. Keep going. Your standing leg is getting tired too, and leg down, lift, down and lift. You could have a slightly bent knee with your standing knee. All right, now we're not quite done yet. Extend this leg forward, step it back, and enjoy that stretch to your hamstring. Come partway up, inhale,

inhales

exhale, lengthening that leg out in front of you. It feels so good. All right, before we're finished, we better balance it all up with the other leg. Stand nice and tall next to the seat, pull it back. Good, we're not swinging the leg. It's a purposeful pressing back. There's something behind you and you want to push into it. Inhale

inhales

and press.

exhales

Squeeze the back, the glutes. Sometimes if you've lost feeling in those muscles or your brain doesn't seem connected, you can actually just push against your muscles to wake them up. Bend that knee, still standing tall, squeeze back. There's something right behind your heel imagine, and you just wanna kick at it. A few more and then we'll bend over, and a few donkey kicks. Your knees start side by side, extend, side by side, extend.

inhales and exhales

Your heart rate's probably up a little. There's nothing wrong with that. Take a few deep breaths, breathe as heavy as you need to. Leg down and up. We're not swinging the leg, it's a purposeful lift, down and up, lift, lift. One more, we'll stretch it out. Stretching is just as important as the strengthening. You do not want tight muscles, inhale. So we're sitting back on this back leg, lengthening through the front leg, one more.

inhales and exhales

Very, very good. You have done a great job today, and I mean that. Deciding to take control of your health takes determination. Add to that consistency, and with those two qualities, you are sure to experience great results. I've included many more effective classes right here at pbswisconsin.org/quickfit. So come back tomorrow because I'm excited for you to see how great you can feel.