Quick Fit with Cassy

- Your feet are full of muscles and joints that need care, just like the rest of your body.

When neglected, they hurt.

Hello, I'm Cassy with today's Quick Fit routine for your feet and the muscles in the calves that contribute to healthy feet.

So take off your shoes, have a nice mat to work on, and we'll make your feet feel great.

[gentle music] Begin with lifting your heels.

Just alternate them nice and gently.

If you already have painful feet, you can do these moves seated, and don't use much force.

I also recommend that you only do half the class, or at least half the repetitions.

Weak and painful feet need time to get stronger like any other muscle.

A few more of these, we're stretching your toes.

Breathe it in, [inhales] exhale.

[exhales] Breathe it in deep and exhale.

Try to do nice belly breaths.

Now, two feet flat, let's just press your toes down into the floor.

Let's count for about 10 seconds, pressing.

You can even lean forward slightly.

All right, now let's just lift the toes.

The rest of the entire foot is down.

Lift, lift.

[inhales] And don't hold your breath.

Remember to keep the breathing up.

Now, press the toes down again, all of them.

Try to be conscious of all 10 toes.

That slight lean forward.

[exhales] And lift.

Let's do about 10 of them.

Six, five, four, three, two.

Press all 10 toes down again.

Try to stretch them apart.

Be conscious of each toe, from the pinky to the big toe.

Slight lean forward.

And 10 lifts, quick as you can.

About five, four, three, two, done.

All right, put one foot back slightly, and I would like you to put all your weight on your back foot, and turn your front foot gently to stretch the side of the ankle.

It's a gentle stretch.

I'm not putting any weight down through the ankle, just enjoying the stretch.

You can put some weight down through the chair.

Breathe in, [inhales] exhale.

[exhales] Really, really helps your muscles to relax and lengthen as opposed to having a tightening reaction.

Stretch, breathe in, and stretch.

I don't like to do stretching that makes you frown and cringe from the pain, okay?

We want this to feel good.

Last one.

And put all your weight on your right leg.

Just mirror me.

And extend the other leg and point all the way through your toes.

Stand up nice and tall.

Be conscious of your posture.

[inhales] Don't hold your breath.

And actively point and stretch that leg, ankle, top of the foot, and toes.

Now, flex and enjoy that stretch through your Achilles, the bottom of your foot, back of your calf.

[inhales] Keep pulling.

I know you're probably starting to feel it in this muscle that's holding your leg.

And you can lower if you need to.

Count to three, lift it again.

Now, quickly flex.

Flex as quickly as you can.

Each one should be a snap, a quick pull.

And as you get more control, then you can repeat quicker.

But at first, you might need to go one at a time, concentrate on making each one snappy before you repeat quickly.

Pull, pull.

[inhales and exhales] And posture.

And switch legs.

All right, point all the way down through the toes, check your posture, keep breathing.

[inhales] Enjoy that stretch.

[exhales] It takes a little time for the muscles to lengthen.

In fact, your skin, fascia, and muscles are all involved.

And flex.

[inhales and exhales] Breathe in for four seconds and then exhale for about eight.

Okay, that long extra exhale is important.

Do that again.

Breathe in for four and exhale for twice as long.

That feels good.

All right, flex, quick.

It's a snap of the muscles.

I think of this particular exercise as an anti-trip exercise.

Being able to flex that foot quickly when you need to.

Pull, pull.

[inhales] There are times when I do this exercise and it just click, click, click, but that's reduced quite a bit.

It doesn't hurt, so.

[inhales] Pull.

A few more.

All right, all right.

Shake that off and let's have a staggered stance.

Just put your heel in front of your toes.

All right, and lift up, and down, hand on your chair for stability.

[inhales and exhales] Try not to push down on the chair much.

Just have it there just so you don't waste a lot of time working on balance at the moment.

We wanna work on that foot strength.

And up.

Last one, and we'll switch.

Put the other foot in front of the other, heel to toe, and up.

So we say we're going up on our toes, but we're actually going up onto the ball of your foot, the big pad just beneath your big toe.

And you wanna take care that you're not letting your ankle turn sideways so that you're going over more of your pinky.

That's pretty hard on your ankles.

So straight up to the ball of the foot.

Just a couple more.

Lift, and down, and up.

Good job.

All right, let's stand in more of pli position.

The heels are fairly close together, toes are toed out a little bit, and just sit straight down, letting those knees go forward over the toes to stretch the calves and the Achilles.

Good, go down as far as feels good.

[inhales] Enjoy that stretch.

Come up and back down.

[exhales] And up.

One more.

Exhale and come all the way up onto the balls of your feet.

Heels are nice and high, and down.

[inhales] And exhale, [exhales] and up.

All right, turn a little bit more towards your chair so you can use the chair.

And two heels down and up, down and up.

Nice and slow at first and then we'll start to increase the speed, okay?

And up.

Only use the chair to help you get up if you need to.

Try to do it fast on your own.

The chair's here for stability, of course, but this nice, quick moves to work your fast twitch muscles is important.

You'll find you just feel a little zippier going up and down the stairs and when you walk.

And a little bit of a break and then we'll do one foot at a time, okay?

One foot behind the heel of the other and get as high as you can onto the ball of that foot.

And down.

If you need the chair to help you get up, fine, but then let's count slowly, lower, two, three, four, and up, and down, two, three, and four.

Let's do one more.

Up, [inhales] exhale.

Good job, let's switch, and up.

Hold and down, two, three, four.

Quick up, down, two, three, four.

Again.

[inhales and exhales] Last one, up and control it, control it.

Good job.

All right, next, we're going to sit down.

You can actually do this next exercise standing or seated.

We are going to use a band for some exercises for the feet, some foot presses, okay?

So just have a band, any kind of exercise band is fine, and put it under those toes, extend that leg, and press.

Make sure you have a little bit of tension on the band.

You need some resistance.

Press.

[inhales] Sit up tall, let's pull those shoulders back.

A little bit of back strengthening as we work the feet.

Okay, multitasking, press, press.

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

Now, this last one, I'd like you to hold and allow the foot to come back slowly.

So control it like we did when we were doing the up on our toes with the one foot.

So back, two, three, four, press, and back, two, three, four.

Press the toes away, then let them come back towards you.

Four, three, two, one.

Last one, four, three, two, one.

Good job, let's switch feet.

[inhales] Good, extend.

Make sure you have enough resistance with the band.

Sitting tall, shoulders back, and press.

Do nice, complete repetitions, as big of range of motion as you can without letting that band come off your foot and snap you in the face.

That would be very uncomfortable.

So make sure you have it in the right spot.

And press, press, press.

A band like this is a little better than those round tube bands.

And press, press.

And press and hold, and then let your toes come back controlled at about four seconds.

I'm gonna adjust this 'cause I feel like this might come off.

Press and then four, three, two.

Press, four, three, two, press.

Control it.

Last one, four, three, two.

Enjoy that stretch.

[inhales] That felt really good.

This class had a lot of strengthening moves and it may take a while, but with consistency, you will notice strength returning to your feet and ankles, along with better reflexes.

Repeat this class by coming back to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit to find all your favorite classes and more so you can remain strong, loose, and pain-free, because life is movement.

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