Quick Fit with Cassy

- I'm Cassy, and today's Quick Fit class is all about taking care of your hands.

This routine is excellent for anyone who works with their hands, especially musicians.

But even if you don't play an instrument, join me to help prevent pain and stiffness in your hands.

Let's get started.

[bright music] As I said, today's class is about the hands, but we need to look upstream to the muscles that have an impact on the hands, such as the forearms and even the shoulders.

Let's begin with the shoulders.

Some simple shrugs, just lift those shoulders up by your ears, and then press them down.

Lift them up and press them down.

Now, as you lift and press, palms are forward, and let's start with some circles.

[inhales] Lift it up.

And as you press your shoulders down, pull those shoulder blades together, drawing a nice circle.

Up and back.

Let me see those palms.

Breathe it in [inhales] and exhale to stretch.

Reaching towards the floor.

Shoulders up, and reach towards the floor.

All right, now roll it forward.

Roll it back.

Just that left arm to begin with, breathe it in.

[inhales] Roll the shoulder forward and back.

Exhale.

Breathe it in, and out.

Let's switch sides.

Roll it forward.

Roll it back as far as you can.

Good.

[inhales and exhales] Last time.

And let's extend that left arm out to your side.

Let's have that palm up.

And then turn your neck away and move that arm behind you a little bit more, stretching through that front of your shoulder as well as the bicep.

[inhales] Take a big breath in, and now I'd like you to flex that wrist and exhale.

Again, breathe it in [inhales] and exhale.

Looking over that opposite shoulder, flexing that wrist.

And relax that arm and we'll switch sides.

All right, palm up.

Turn and look the other way.

Move that arm behind you as much as you can.

[inhales] Breathe in.

And as you exhale, flex that wrist.

Again, breathe it in.

[inhales] Open that chest a little more.

Keep that arm at shoulder height, as long as everything feels good.

And relax.

Good job.

All right, let's start by massaging your forearms now.

So just take your thumb and your fingers, and move along between your elbow and your wrist, and look for spots that are tender.

So you might have to, you know, really press in there deep and find those spots.

So, say you find one and you're like, "Ooh, I didn't know I had a knot in there."

Press down on it.

I mean, you don't have to make yourself cringe, but press with your thumb, and now move the hand.

And you'll feel that muscle moving underneath that thumb.

And it's like going to the massage therapist, all right?

It's gonna work that knot, unsticking it.

All right, and then once you've done that several times, you can look for the next spot.

It's a great strategy for finding those adhesions and loosening them up.

Another spot.

Guess I'm finding some for sure.

All right.

And of course, you can do it on the other side.

And then we'll switch arms.

Okay, dig that thumb in there.

Put some pressure on it when you find a spot, and flex that wrist.

Flex and extend.

[inhales] Good.

If you play tennis or golf, chances are you're going to find some of these.

If you work on the computer and you're constantly in this extended position, all right?

And you can take your time and do this really any time while you're maybe watching TV.

And you can spend more time on each tender spot, which is really what you're going to wanna do when you find them.

All right, good job.

All right, next, let's twist an imaginary jar open.

Okay, so just go through that action as if you're twisting.

If you can do it with two hands at the same time.

Okay, let's do about 15 or so of these.

Good job.

So ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one.

Good job, now let's strum, sort of like you're strumming a guitar, and then pull the fingers back one at a time.

So one.

And you're really reaching and extending these fingers as far as you can, okay?

Breathing nice and big.

Breaths in and out as you do these exercises.

Let's start with the thumb, first finger, middle.

And undo it again.

Good, down and out.

Down and out.

Good.

And now let's press the hands together in front of you.

And now one at a time, or one set at a time, pull the fingers away.

And as you do that, try to keep the knuckles together though, okay?

And the other fingers.

Good, now middle finger.

Keep the entire palm of the hand together.

Good, and open.

Ring finger's not that easy.

I don't have much range of motion with that one.

And then your pinkies.

Good, now little quick.

Five, four, three, two.

Next finger, five, four, three, two, one.

Middle fingers.

And pointer.

And thumbs.

Pull them away, press the rest of the hand together.

[inhales and exhales] Good job.

All right, let's make like a duck, sort of like we used to do when we were kids and making shadows on the wall.

So duck hands, duck mouth.

Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze.

[inhales and exhales] And you might as well pay attention to your posture while we're going through these.

You're standing nice and tall.

Your hips are not pushed forward.

They're right over your ankles.

Your head and neck is nice and tall, right up above your shoulders.

Not pushing forward.

All right, now let's do the tabletop hand, and this is a little bit harder to control, okay?

So start with your hand straight up and then try to just fold it over right from the knuckles.

And if you need to use your other hand to try to get this nice and flat.

Okay, press it down.

Press, press, press.

[inhales and exhales] This is a harder one to control for sure.

All right, and the other one.

Okay, so press it down.

And down.

Let's do about eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one.

Good job, let's work those thumbs.

Just go around the world.

And then we'll go the other way.

And then reach that thumb across as far as you can.

I imagine by now, you're starting to feel a little, your muscles getting a little warm in your forearm.

And then open and reach it across again.

Keep stretching across.

Stretch, stretch, stretching.

And now, pull those thumbs.

I know I used to do something like this when I did those puppet shadows, maybe a alligator.

Okay, thumbs up and down.

All right.

Let's make a fist and curl those wrists.

Okay, press 'em down.

Press.

This is the opposite of what you do all day when you're typing, right?

Usually we're typing.

We're in this extended position.

Let's flex.

Let's pull 'em up.

Imagine you've got a dumbbell in your hands and you're lifting, lifting, lifting.

[inhales] Let's do ten, nine, eight.

So we should be really working this forearm here.

Lost count.

Let's try for three, two, and one.

Good job, all right.

Let's loosen it up.

Chop some onions.

Just flop around, okay?

Try not to control this.

Just let 'em flop very relaxed.

And then, like this.

Flop 'em this way.

[inhales] Breathe it in and out.

[exhales] We're finishing up here.

This actually feels so good.

And done.

Good job.

I'm not sure why, but we don't really think about our hands needing to be fit until they hurt.

Whether you have hand pain from aging, playing an instrument, or physical work, these exercises and stretches are a great way to care for your hands.

Even if your hands don't hurt, taking a proactive approach is a great idea.

Take this class regularly by logging in at pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where we'll take care of your entire body so you can live better, longer.

Until then, remember to keep on moving.

– Announcer: Funding for Quick Fit with Cassy is provided by Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.