Quick Fit with Cassy

- Thank you for joining me today for another Quick Fit class.

If you're new here, I'm Cassy Vieth.

Taking care of your health is as important as saving for retirement.

Wisdom suggests you begin investing in your retirement from an early age, and the same holds true for investing in your health.

Taking simple measures each day will go a long way to preventing needless surgery, weakness, and pain.

So join me now, and reap the rewards.

[gentle music] I want you to remain strong and independent.

So today we'll be working on the muscles of the legs and glutes.

These are the muscles that are responsible for getting you up and out of a chair and moving with confidence.

I do have a chair today, and I'd like you to have one that's nice and sturdy, no wheels and preferably no arms, and then take your shoes off so they have freedom of movement.

We'll start warming up, just easy leg swings, just letting momentum carry the leg forward and back.

Standing tall, stomach's in, [inhales] all right.

And let's go across, [inhales] start your breathing [exhales] nice and deep, long inhales, extra long exhales.

All right, and then some hydrants out to the side, we'll just bend the knee, and lift.

Take your time in these, especially if you're super tight.

[inhales] No reason to rush.

All right, and let's turn that toe in, and lift out to the side.

Still stand up, stomach's in.

All right, and then rotate that leg out, lift, squeeze the toes together, lift and squeeze.

Few more.

And then we'll do all of that on the other side.

So just swing your chair around, and easy forward back swings again.

Stand tall, head is up over your shoulders, and breathing, [exhales] stomach in, go through the whole routine, the whole inventory, top to bottom.

You can let your knee bend in the front, get a little more movement that way, and a few hydrants, so let's just bend that knee and over.

[gentle music] Couple more.

Very good, all right.

Let's toe in, and then move that leg out to the side.

Out, lift, try not to turn away, all right, keep your hips squared, toes turned in and lift it to the side.

Toe out and squeeze together, activating your inner thigh muscles, squeeze and squeeze.

Two more.

Good job.

All right, let's adjust the chair.

We're going to be doing some lunges right up over the chair.

So this is good whether you have confidence or you don't.

So if you don't have a lot of confidence in doing a lunge, at least you have the chair right under your behind so we're kind of half over the seat.

Bend that back knee until you can just feel the seat behind your leg, and up.

Good.

[inhales and exhales] [gentle music] Now if you're struggling with this one, maybe you'll need to start seated and just try to get up.

And if at first you can't get up, just the effort of contracting your muscles and pressing is going to start conditioning and getting you stronger.

All right, so never think it's too hard.

There's always a way to modify and start where you're at, and get stronger.

Let's go to the other side.

Line yourself up, one leg over the chair, and just start doing easy down ups, bending that back knee, keep your torso upright.

[inhales and exhales] All right.

Halfway down, notice I'm not actually resting on the seat.

I can just feel the seat behind my leg, but my leg muscles are in control, and lift.

Down and up.

All right, and popping up.

Very good.

Next, we're going to use the chair to do some leg lifts.

We'll just put two hands on the seat, all right?

All right, and bend the knee.

Imagine there's something right behind your heel, you want to press into it, [inhales] and press.

Press.

Good, make sure your shoulders are right over your wrists, your heels are over your ankles, long lines, stomach's in, your head is in line with your neck, not just hanging down.

All right, and now long leg lifts, down and lift.

Now, if this is too much of a pull on your back, you can always get your hands up, maybe on the back of your seat, just adjust so it works for you.

Lift, lift, very good, hang in there, stomach's in, and lower.

Good job.

Switch sides, do the same thing on the other side.

Bend that knee, [inhales] and it's a tiny, intense press 'cause you're keeping the knee bent, keeping the ankle bent and pressing through the heel.

Just a few.

Waking up these glutes, when you start having trouble getting off of a chair without a pull bar or pushing on your seat, that's a sign your glutes and your legs are getting weak, but you can do something about it.

Straighten this leg and lift, lift.

You've got many more muscles in your legs than in your arms, so let's not rely on our arms to get ourselves up out of a seat.

Lift.

All right, very good, and we'll roll up slowly, especially if you got some tension in your low back.

Very good.

All right, let's do some good mornings.

I'm gonna just adjust this seat a little bit.

We'll be lifting out this outside leg to the back, and you can just rest your hand for a little balance on the chair, okay?

So nice, straight line from the top of your head to your heel.

And back, now let's reach with this hand towards your opposite foot.

Nice, big stretch up the back of that leg, straight leg lifting, good job, let's do the other side.

Great, once again you're lifting the outside leg, your hand nearest the chair, just use that for a little balance.

[inhales and exhales] Don't forget to breathe nice and deep, and then reach towards the opposite foot.

Nice, good stretch, hang in there.

[gentle music] All right.

Really good.

Not hard, right?

By being consistent and doing these classes, before you know it you will have gained a lot of strength in just a few minutes a day.

All right, next thing we're going to do is line yourselves up in front of your chair, and probably about this much in front of the seat, and as I reach forward, I'm gonna move my hips back over the top of the seat, just about a half of a squat, okay?

Do a half squat and hold, stomach's in, now make sure you're pushing through your heels so your butt's back over the chair.

Good, and up.

Let's go a little lower, okay?

Until you can feel the seat right behind your hind end, and up, and back, and up.

This time we're actually going to sit all the way on the seat, [inhales] exhale, push through those heels and up, right?

Down, relax, push through those heels, and up.

Back, relax, well, not really relaxing, but resting on the seat and up, and back.

Last one, now we'll do one more, hold, right over the top, you don't wanna sit down on the seat, you wanna just hover.

Pop it up, very good, now all the way back down and we'll stretch before we finish.

All right, let's just bring this knee up, lifting, [inhales and exhales] very good, and push down.

Now I've got my ankle up above my knee, but if that's too high for you, that's quite all right.

Just do it below your knee.

The point is to just stretch this hip, stretch the glutes and the muscles we were just working.

All right, and the other side, lift it up.

[inhales and exhales] Cross that ankle and press it down.

And lift, press, and then just let them relax, one knee over the other or at a lower position, that's okay, and twist.

Reach around.

[inhales and exhales] Slowing your heartbeat down.

Very good.

Twist the other way.

Extend around the back, [exhales] inhale, [inhales] exhale.

[exhales] That one feels good.

Let's go ahead and do that on the other side before we call it a day.

Twist, extend, lift, dropping your shoulder, reaching over the head.

[exhales] That feels so good.

Congratulate yourself on taking one more step toward the fitness level you want to achieve.

For more easy and effective online classes, go to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit where my goal is to keep you moving and doing all the things you love.

And please, leave a comment.

I'd love to hear from you.