Quick Fit with Cassy

- Imagine you're backing out of a parking spot.

You're going slow.

Just hoping no one is behind you because your neck has become too stiff to turn and see behind you.

If this has become your experience, then today's Quick Fit class will be just the thing to help loosen your neck so you can move and drive safer.

[upbeat music] Feel free to either stand or sit today.

Let's begin by just making a simple plus sign with your face.

Just lifting that chin up and down.

[inhales] Inhale, exhale.

[exhales] You know, neck stiffness from age or working long hours staring at computer screens that are too high or too low are very common.

But today's moves will work to relieve that stiffness and improve your range of motion.

Let's do a couple small circles each way.

And reverse, inhale.

[inhales] Good.

[exhales] Now turn your neck and look at the back chair leg.

Inhale on the way over.

[inhales] Let's look at the other one.

Inhale, exhale.

[exhales] Come up and then look to the right.

Take a big inhale and then exhale.

See if you get a little more movement.

Let's nod three times, once.

[inhales] Exhale, nod, [exhales] come back up.

And one more time.

All right, slowly, take as much time as you need.

Look the other way.

[inhales] Big inhales and long exhales.

Do the nods, down and up.

[inhales] I know you're starting to feel this wonderful stretch down the back of your neck.

[inhales] And one more time.

[exhales] Good, slowly come forward.

Now let's look to the right and extend that left arm.

Good, and drop that chin.

Enjoy the stretch.

[exhales] Lift the chin up, up.

You can put your hand behind your ear.

Press the head into your fingertips.

[inhales and exhales] Good, go back into that stretch.

So you'll extend the arm, drop the chin.

[inhales] And a nice exhale.

[exhales] Your arms should be at shoulder height.

The longer you hold it here, the more lengthening you get through that neck.

Try not to lean over with the torso, like I think I'm doing.

Lift that chin.

Put your fingers behind the ear, slightly above and behind the ear, and press the head into your fingers.

All right, we'll release that and we'll slowly switch sides.

Good, look the other way.

Extend the arm.

[inhales] Prepare with that deep breath in and exhale as you lower the chin.

[exhales] Good, let's lift the chin.

Still looking to the side, get your fingers just behind the ear.

Pressing with just a little bit of force the head into the fingers.

Release, extend that arm, exhale.

[exhales] Good, one more time, up.

Press.

And release.

Squaring it up again.

[inhales] All right, now this time, you're going to extend the right arm and look to the right.

[exhales] Lift your chin.

Now if you need to support the back of the head, you may just put your fingers right behind, kind of behind and above the ear.

We're not pressing.

We're just trying to get a good stretch through this side of the neck.

But if your head's a little too heavy and you feel like you might get a spasm, then you want to support that head a little bit until your muscles get stronger.

All right, release and extend the other way.

Slowly rotating through the neck.

Breathe it in and out.

[exhales] And slow as you need to, with or without the fingers supporting the back of the neck.

We want to stretch right through here.

But if you feel like it might lock up, take measures to protect and just put your fingers behind the head to support some of that weight.

Terrific, come on out of that, facing forward.

One more time.

[inhales] All right, extend that right arm.

We're going to drop the same-side ear towards the shoulder slowly.

[inhales] Good, and up.

And over.

Good, now let's go to the other side.

And then reach this hand up.

Press the head into the hand.

Good, let's do everything same on the other side.

Extend that arm.

Let's drop it towards the same-side shoulder first.

And then press this side of the head into the hand.

Then we'll release and allow the stretch.

Good, going straight to the sides is not easy.

So take your time, as much time as you need.

All right.

Let's lift the shoulders up and then bring them back and down.

Drop the chin.

[exhales] Just the chin, okay, not the neck.

And lift.

[inhales] Now I'd like you to press your forehead into your hand.

Ready, press.

As if you want to drop the chin, but the hand is in the way.

Using about 75% of your strength.

And release; good job.

All right, now we're going to not bend through the neck or the chest.

Just drop the chin as if you were looking down at your knee.

Kind of on a diagonal, then you'll reach your hand up.

And I'd like you to try to lift the head.

The fingers are preventing.

[inhales and exhales] And release.

And let the neck stretch.

Coming up.

[inhales] Then we'll angle your neck so that when you drop your chin, you're looking at your other leg.

[inhales] Don't forget that wonderful breathing to release.

Reach up, hanging onto the back of the skull.

Lift your head into your fingers.

Your hand is keeping the head in place, providing just enough resistance to exercise those muscles.

And release with a nice exhale.

[exhales] And then facing forward one more time.

All right, let's pull your chin back like as if somebody was pushing right at your chin level.

Five, four, three, two, release.

We'll do it two more times.

Pull the chin back, straight back.

We're not lifting, just pulling it straight back.

And release.

[inhales] Good, let's do a few shoulder circles.

Lift.

Lift, pull 'em back, and down.

Good, make a couple Ws.

Elbows are down.

[exhales] Shoulders are back.

Extend up to these nice, big, like a letter Y. Elbows are down, towards that back pocket.

Then reach it up, right above your back pockets.

One more time, down.

[exhales] Stomach's in to support your back so you don't overarch, but I'd like you to pull those arms back.

And now extend the arms down to shoulder height.

Now keep your face forward and I'd like you to twist.

One arm forward, one arm back, knees are nice and wide.

Lengthen through the spine and go the other way.

[inhales and exhales] These stretches should be done periodically throughout the day, especially if you work at a computer or anything that puts your neck in like this forward position.

Let's do a full body twist, including the hips.

You can let that knee drop in and turn, even through the neck.

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

Inhale, [inhales] exhale, dropping that knee, turning with the hips.

Don't forget the head and neck, looking even with your eyes all the way down your arm.

That feels so good.

Let's finish up with some of those circles that we started with and see how much looser we are.

And reverse.

[inhales] Inhale, exhale.

And a few of those plus signs.

Chin up.

Chin down, one more.

All right, and right and left.

Now let's remember that motion is like lotion for your joints.

So let's keep moving in all the directions we're meant to move.

Don't avoid things when you can take action to age well.

And because there are more muscles involved like your traps and your chest muscles, come back here daily to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where we'll work together to keep your whole body mobile and feeling great.

Until next time, keep on moving.

– Announcer: Funding for Quick Fit with Cassy is provided by Greg and Carol Griffin, founders of ElderSpan Management, Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programming, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.