Quick Fit with Cassy

Welcome back to Quick Fit, I'm Cassy Vieth. To me, the definition of a long, full life means being able to move pain-free and having a sharp mind. Join me for today's class to stimulate the brain and actually help it grow, all with simple and enjoyable moves.

gentle music

As we go through today's class, remember to mirror me as we do lots of right and left movements. If you've never considered yourself coordinated, be extra patient as your brain tries to interpret what it's hearing and seeing. And definitely take your shoes off so we can exercise the feet. All right, let's just start by kicking your left leg across, letting momentum take it, nice and easy, trying not to turn in the same direction as the leg. Look at that hip that's kicking. We're gonna start adding the arms, moving them towards the hip that's kicking. Nice and loose, start your breathing, deep inhales, extra long exhales. Couple more.

inhales and exhales

Good job, we're gonna switch legs, starting with just your leg, right leg kicking across, trying not to turn with it. We're twisting the torso a little bit. Now let's move the arms towards that kicking hip. Few more. I'm warming up the hips to get ready for what's coming later. All right, arms at about shoulder height, and let's start twisting.

inhales

Definitely matching your breathing

exhales

to the stretches, lifting up that back heel to make it a little more gentle on your knees. Little lower. We'll come up before we go back down,

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twisting at every level. One more time back down,

inhales

and then I'd like you to just hang down at the bottom, very relaxed like a ragdoll, shifting your hips left and right. Let your torso just follow in a real delayed fashion,

inhales and exhales

and then tuck your chin and we'll roll up. Chin coming up last with a nice big, big stretch at the top, making yourself as tall as possible. A little stretch through the shoulders and the ribs. All right, bring those arms down, and let's go into some nice hip sits. Now, notice my legs are not too close, quite wide and just pushing the hips back, stretching that inner thigh. Real good. All right, turn it toward your right. Have your one leg behind you, and we're going to squeeze the butt under, squeeze the biceps, tuck the chin. We're rounding the spine top to bottom.

inhales and exhales

Good. Now, don't use much force if you have a history of back pain, move very gently, sort of like the way you would hold a butterfly in your fist without squeezing. All right, force would be as if you were trying to crack a peanut in your hand. So just go through the moves, loosening up, [inhales exhale,

exhales

little extra tuck, heels up, helping you squeeze the bottom, and arch. Okay, opening up that chest, very nice. All right, switch sides, legs to the back, heels up, and tuck the tailbone. I know at first this is one of those moves that are very complicated or seems quite complicated because it's so new and it involves the whole body. It's not just a bicep curl. All right, so let's take a little inventory. Tuck that chin, relax the upper back. Squeeze the biceps, tail tuck,

inhales

big inhale,

exhales

open the chest, arch the spine. And one more tuck. Very good, coming out of that, facing forward. And let's just shift and shift. Good, left and right, getting ready. Do a little no impact aerobics. All right, just touching. Use your foot, push, push. Working those toes without having shoes on your feet can really expand and begin to become stronger. All right, let's add some arms, kind of low. Reach it, reach it.

inhales and exhales

Little bounce in the knee. Getting arms up a little higher and pull the elbows. Pull, pull, now go as slow as you need to. If you feel really uncoordinated, don't let me rush you. Pull,

inhales

and don't forget to breathe. Don't hold your breath. Don't be embarrassed about breathing harder.

inhales and exhales

All right, then overhead. Reach, reach. Stomach's in, reach, reach.

inhales and exhales

All right, we're getting some fresh blood to the brain, bringing fresh oxygen. Nice deep breaths, it carries away waste as well, the blood does, brings in nutrients and oxygen and carries away waste. So it's part of how we stimulate the brain. All right, and now touch, touch, stretching through the hip. Catch your breath, your arms are down at the moment. Touch, touch, we're gonna add the arms in a moment, nice and low. And press, press, press, press. Little higher.

inhales and exhales

Good job. Working the arms, working the back to move the arms. We're not just flopping the arms around, we're working the back muscles, opening the chest. Keeping the arms up high. All right, now we're going to press across. And press, press. Still using the feet, they're moving, stretching that hip, creating a big stretch from your arms all the way down to your hip. Reach across, reach.

inhales and exhales

All right, get ready to reach up high and over. Extra big stretch, reach it.

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Feels good to do a quick little routine like this each day.

inhales and exhales

All right, and kick your butts. Hands on your hips. Get a little bounce in the knee. Adding arms again, just like the first two. And back, back, squeeze the back. All right, few more.

inhales and exhales

I'm gonna switch it up, bringing the arms a little higher and squeeze this beach ball, all right? Squeeze, squeeze. There's a little resistance in that beach ball, right? So you got to squeeze the chest.

exhales and inhales

You guys are doing good, hang in there. All right, get ready for another change. And over the head, over, over, over.

inhales and exhales

Reach it tall. Few more deep breaths as we get ready to finish up.

inhales and exhales

All right, two feet down, okay, ready? We're gonna do a little squat into a push-off, catch. Push off, catch you, or catch your weight. Prevent yourself from going all the way down to the ground, which is important to keep your muscles trained that way, in case you stumble, you can catch, okay. Catch yourself. All right, let's do the other leg, you ready? Push off and land, push and land. Nice, tight stomach.

inhales and exhales

All right, last one. Very good, all right. Let's just extend this right leg out in front of you. We'll do a little hamstring stretch. So just sit your hips backwards. Your weight's going back, your back knee's bent. Straighten and lengthen the front leg. You can push, lifting up the chest, deepening the stretch in that front leg. Very good, all right. Let's put the other leg back.

inhales

Big inhale, catching your breath,

exhales

sitting back. Your back knee's bent. The other leg is straight out in front of you.

inhales

Inhale, deepening the stretch. You can support your upper body with your legs. Very good, all right. That's about it for today's workout. We'll just circle your hips to finish.

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Still lowering the heart rate.

inhales

Go the other way. Really, really good. Thank you so much for doing that class with me today. Did you know, as little as 10 minutes a day of gentle exercise has been proven to prevent loss of brain mass? It contributes to new brain cell activity, and it improves your mood. That is a lot of value for quite a small investment of time. With that information, these classes should be the most important item on your daily to-do list. So come back first thing tomorrow to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit to start your day off right, maintain great habits, and enjoy life to its fullest. See you next time.