Quick Fit with Cassy

- Welcome to Quick Fit .

I'm Cassy Vieth.

Congratulations on making fitness a part of your day.

We'll be loosening the joints of your spine and hips with some simple, yet effective moves.

Please take a moment to remove your shoes and join me to improve your mobility.

[upbeat music] I think you're going to feel instantly less stiff with these moves.

Let's begin with a pli position, taking care to line up your knees with your feet.

As you lower your hips, make sure your feet are wide enough so that you have this nice, vertical shin.

And as you go down and up, make sure that your knees are moving towards your toes.

So you have to squeeze your bottom and keep those knees nice and wide.

The tendency for some of us is to let them fall in, and that's really hard on your knees.

[inhales] Breathe it in and exhale.

Whoops.

I was letting my knees come together.

Drop it down.

And lift.

Squeeze your bum.

Exhale, squeeze your legs.

[exhales] Good.

[inhales] Don't forget about your breathing.

And we need to be in this nice, upright position.

And drop it down.

I think my feet are a little close.

As you warm up and you start getting lower, you might need to adjust where your feet are.

Lift.

[inhales] And lower.

Now let's lift a heel up and down.

And when my heel comes up, I want it in a nice line between my knee and my toes.

So I pulled my foot in a little closer.

Lift, lift.

Your legs are starting to get warm, holding yourself in this lowered position.

And the other one.

Lift.

And if you need a chair to just kind of put your hand on to help you stabilize, that's just fine.

[inhales] Lift.

Lift.

Now let's try for two heels at the same time.

A chair right here would be perfect.

Lift.

But I'm gonna work on my balance a little bit.

Lift and lower.

Lift.

Lift.

Good.

All right, now from here, let's just do a few twists.

Just a little bit.

[exhales] Breathe it in.

Exhale.

[exhales] And go the other way.

So our feet were stable or stationary; now, we're going to move that back leg.

Okay, pivoting on those toes.

So you lift that back heel.

Get a little bit more movement.

[inhales] Good, exhale, let's do that again.

[exhales] Breathe in.

Get ready, and exhale.

[exhales] Wonderful.

All right, let's get reset.

And do some deep side bends.

So with these, your legs are stationary.

We're just trying to find movement through your sides and the shoulder.

Okay, exhale.

[exhales] Let's go the other way.

So as you're warming up, it might not be a very deep move.

Then you're gonna go a little further.

Inhale.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] Other side again.

Reach it over.

One arm up, one arm down.

I bet you can go a little further than you think.

Good job.

Other way.

Reach.

Pull in.

Exhale.

[exhales] Terrific.

Those aren't easy.

It's a lot of work for those legs.

Go ahead and stand up.

And we'll bring our arms up.

[inhales] All right, have a comfortable position with your feet right under your hips.

And now kind of bear down.

Tighten the front and the back of you.

And then exhale.

Straight over to the side.

Okay, up.

Over.

[exhales] All right, when you start to feel at your limit, I want you to extend through the shoulders.

Try not to turn through the torso, okay?

Face forward.

Again, inhale, exhale.

See if you can get a little further.

Reach further with the hands too.

Okay.

[laughing] Other way.

[inhales and exhales] Bear down.

Squeeze your butt and gut together.

[exhales] Extend.

And up.

[inhales] Again, bear down through here to support this heavy move.

Torso is heavy as you get lower.

And up, good job, guys.

Let's go down to the floor next to stretch the groin and more.

And I suggest, if you struggle sitting on the floor, that you have some blocks to lift you up a little bit.

All right, so... One, two.

Good.

And first, let's stretch the groin by having the bottoms of your feet together and letting the knees just fall open.

And you see, the benefit of sitting on a block is it lifts your spine up a little higher, so that you can tip the pelvis and get it in a more neutral position.

Some of us when we're on the floor, the pelvis is tipped back so far, it's very uncomfortable and it's hard to get into good positions for stretching.

So now let's alternate between sitting tall, okay?

So I'm pulling on my legs a little bit.

Taking these hip bones and rocking them forward as much as I can.

Lengthening through my entire spine.

And try not to find movement through the neck.

That's not what we're after.

We're talking about from the shoulders to the tailbone.

Now let's exhale and relax your spine with your elbows in your knees to stretch that groin.

When it begins to get uncomfortable, I want you to take some of the pressure off with an inhale.

[inhales] And then exhale and relax into it.

Of course, this can be done on the floor, if you're more flexible.

We'll sit up one more time, nice and tall.

Using the legs for leverage.

Pulling those shoulder blades together.

Shoulders back.

Neck is neutral.

Stomach's pulled in.

Lengthen.

And now exhale.

And we'll work on the groin stretch.

Let your weight sink into those knees.

Good job.

Now we'll do another couple moves.

For this one, we're going to press the knees together and then your legs are going to try to open.

Okay, so you're ready.

Get your hands on the sides of your knees and use all of your muscles, your stomach, your glutes, your legs, your arms.

Ready, open those knees.

Go.

For eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two.

Release.

And we'll open the knees again.

But this time, we're going to try to lift the knees into the hands, into my elbows.

Ready, lift, lift.

You can feel your abs engage, your inner thighs.

[inhales and exhales] Let's do it for five, four, three, two, release.

Okay.

Again, we're going to open the knees, hands are going to resist.

And go.

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two.

And switch again.

Once again, we're trying to lift the knees into the elbows.

And go, lift.

Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two.

And done.

And that's it for this workout.

Those simple moves are very effective when they're done consistently.

So make plans right now for tomorrow's workout and log back in at pbswisconsin.org/quickfit to remain loose, mobile, and pain-free.

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.