Quick Fit with Cassy

- Efficient movement patterns sometimes need to be relearned.

Perhaps somewhere along the way you've begun moving incorrectly, but it feels totally normal.

Hello, I'm Cassy, and in today's Quick Fit class, we'll make sure you understand how to properly move your pelvis to stretch the hamstrings and feel more comfortable on the floor.

If you struggle reaching your toes, don't skip this class.

It may be just what you need.

[gentle music] If you find it tough to sit on the floor or reach your toes, then use some yoga blocks or a few books to get your bottom up off the floor.

This works to get the pelvis into neutral position.

Then we can tip the pelvis anteriorly to stretch the hamstrings.

What do I mean by this?

First of all, let's talk about some points of reference on your pelvis.

You have your hip bones, which we'll refer to quite a bit during this class.

You also have your tailbone down at the bottom of your spine, more towards the back of your behind, and the pubic bone at the bottom in the front.

So let's sit down on the yoga blocks, first of all with your knees bent.

All right, this is going to make it much easier for you to lengthen through the spine and work with your pelvis.

Now put your fingers on your hip bones, and I'd like you to move them forward towards your thighs.

Okay, if you can feel your fingers get pinched between your hip bones and your thigh, then you're doing it the way I'm asking you to, and you are going to be able to reach further.

If you do not feel your fingers getting pinched between your bones and your thigh, then you're mistakenly moving your pelvis away, making this distance so much greater, and really no wonder you can't reach your toes or stretch your hamstrings.

So let's start by sitting nice and tall again, hands or your fingers on your hip bones, and we'll rock forward and back.

I call this rocking forward and back on your sit bones or on your tailbone, okay.

Rock it back, rock it forward.

Rock it back, rock it forward.

[inhales] Inhale and then exhale, and you can do a little pull on the back of your legs.

But make sure you're moving your pelvis correctly, which will stretch your hamstrings and help you to reach your toes.

All right, so we have our hips tipped forward, or anteriorly, because your hip bones are moving towards your thigh.

Now we're gonna reach towards the feet again, okay.

Sometimes we need to relearn this movement.

I've seen it quite a bit on clients.

When you ask them to reach towards their toes, they'll actually move the hip bones backwards, okay.

So let's extend your right leg, okay.

Once again, check to make sure that you're tipping your pelvis correctly.

[inhales] Breathe it in, exhale.

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

So hopefully, we've solved a couple problems for you here.

We've helped you to relearn a movement, and we've helped you to lengthen through your spine by having you sit on the blocks.

Okay, let's lengthen your other leg and reach.

Okay, sit up, check that you're tipping your pelvis, those hip bones towards your thighs.

Exhale; breathe it in for four seconds, all right.

And then exhale for about six or eight.

[exhales] Good, hopefully you're finding you're getting more movement than ever before.

All right, let's extend two legs, and you can have a little bit of a bend in the back of your knees.

That's just fine.

I like to also push on my legs to get a little leverage to help me lengthen the entire spine, especially at the bottom 'cause remember, we're hinging forward right at the hip.

If you have a band handy, this is also a great way to improve your flexibility, okay.

You can pull.

[inhales and exhales] Make sure you're reaching forward like from your ribs, sticking your chest forward as opposed to dropping the shoulders, okay.

We want to hinge forward from the hips.

I'm gonna just put this down aside, and we're going to point and flex, point and flex, point and flex.

Let's take a little break to stand up, sit up tall, right from your tailbone.

Check to make sure the hip bones are forward towards the thighs.

[inhales] We'll do that again.

We'll point the feet and flex, keeping that gentle pressure with your torso pressing forward.

Long spine; I can't repeat that enough.

Long spine and moving right from the pelvis.

[inhales and exhales] Okay, let's reach up and up.

Inhale.

[inhales] Move the pelvis forward, those hip bones forward.

And now reach across, like past your opposite leg and past the opposite leg.

[exhales] Again.

[inhales] Okay, imagine there's a rope, and you're reaching and pulling and reaching and pulling and reaching and pulling.

[inhales and exhales] Good, all right, let's reach your right arm up over your ear.

[inhales and exhales] Good, and let's go the other way.

Lift.

[inhales and exhales] All right, next, bend the knees just a little bit more.

Lean it forward.

I like to pull to help me make sure I'm pulling the pelvis forward along with my spine, and reach across for a little bit of a twist.

Come up.

[inhales] Check the hip bones.

Move 'em forward, reach across with the other arm.

[exhales] Exhale.

Good job; do that again.

[inhales] Check the form, check where your pelvis is.

Reach across, exhale.

[exhales] Sit up, [inhales] breathe it in.

Reach across, exhale.

[exhales] Good, all right, this time, let's have your legs long and twist.

Now notice that one leg is able to reach further than the other.

Try that.

[inhales] And do it the other way.

Twist, let your hips shift enough so you can really lengthen through one leg, and reach, reach, reach.

That one feels wonderful.

All right, let's cross one leg over [inhales and exhales] and twist.

Do that again; we'll do this a couple times, okay.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] All right, finishing up.

Oh, this feels great.

You might even be able to tip forward a little bit more than when we started.

That feels great.

[inhales and exhales] I hope you learned something today about your body and gained some flexibility.

Sometimes, something so small can make a big difference.

And now that you know a little bit more about how the body moves, come back to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit to practice these new movement patterns and gain even more mobility.

Until next time, keep on moving.

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