Quick Fit with Cassy

- All those hours working on your favorite projects or at your computer not only cause stiffness and pain, but it trains your brain to assume this forward head posture is normal.

I'm Cassy Vieth.

Thank you for joining me for today's Quick Fit class, where we'll be relieving those over-stressed muscles and reminding your neuromuscular system what correct posture feels like.

So let's get moving.

[upbeat music] Begin standing with your feet about shoulder-width apart.

I hope you remove your shoes so your feet have freedom of movement, and have a stable chair handy for later.

Start by rolling those shoulders up by your ears and to the back.

Good job, inhale, [inhales] exhale.

[exhales] And don't forget to breathe.

Nice, long inhales.

Nice, long exhales.

[inhales] A little bit bigger shoulder rolls.

Starting to bring that elbow up and imagining you can put that elbow in your back pocket.

Good, stomach's in.

All right.

Start bringing that palm up, elbow to the back pocket, shoulder, elbow to the back pocket.

[exhales] Just let it flow.

Okay, inhale.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] Wanna work our breathing muscles as well.

[inhales] All right.

Now let's push away towards your right, if you're mirroring me, and look to your left.

Big inhale.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] Try to move that arm behind you a little more.

Other side, push it away.

Big inhale, [inhales] exhale.

Look the other way.

And let that arm travel behind you a little more, stretching that chest.

Let's do that again, push it away.

[inhales] Look the other way.

[exhales] When you exhale, you might get a few more inches of movement.

Push it away and look away.

[inhales] Big inhale, exhale, stretch the chest muscle.

[exhales] And now arm to the ceiling, look up.

[inhales] Stomach's in.

Lengthen through the shoulder, hand behind the head.

Press the back of your head into your fingers.

Tuck that chin.

Good job, hold that other arm up to the ceiling, lengthen through the shoulder.

Look up at that hand.

Inhale.

[inhales] And when you exhale, push into the ceiling even more.

Good, face down, hand behind the head.

Tuck that chin, pressing the back of the head into your fingers.

Stomach's in.

Tight butt.

Nice, all right.

Easy backstrokes; let's just start kinda small.

[inhales] And as you loosen up, get a little bigger, inhale, starting to work into the spine a little bit.

Adding the twists, face is still facing forward.

Big inhale, [inhales] exhale, a little bigger.

Now let's move the neck.

Look at that hand.

Nice flow, switching hands, inhale, exhale.

[inhales] Looking at that back hand.

Do it again.

[inhales and exhales] Looking behind you, other arm.

Very good, nice and pretty.

All right, arms straight out from your shoulders.

Press.

Check the posture.

Is your head up over your shoulders?

Are your shoulder blades pinching together as if there's a pencil back there?

Squeeze your hind end, stomach's in.

And now without moving your hips, I want you to reach, stomach's in.

Squeeze your bottom.

Okay, inhale, [inhales] exhale, other way.

Imagine you're just kinda leaning out over a fence that ends about here.

Inhale.

[inhales] Legs aren't going anywhere.

Inhale, exhale.

[exhales] Now let's open the arms a little more, stretching the chest, pinch that pencil between your shoulder blades.

All right, slowly lower those arms.

Hands on your hips.

Soft knees, and imagine you can tuck your tailbone under sorta like a dog tucking its tail between its legs, okay?

Good, hang out here for a bit, pulling in your stomach.

[inhales] All right.

So now we're gonna make it a little more complex.

Left shoulder up by your ear.

Can you feel that stretch all the way down your ribs, down one side of your spine?

Let's do the other side.

We still have our butt squeezed, tail tucked between our legs.

[inhales and exhales] Breathing.

Right shoulder up.

There's a lot going on.

Your brain's getting a workout too.

Left and right, okay?

Now I'd like you just to gently reach a little lower, pull on the back of your legs.

Let your elbows fall forward.

Inhale, [inhales] then exhale to deepen the stretch.

[exhales] All right, very good.

All right, arm swings.

Easy, widen your legs.

Move your legs just, you know, a little bit.

Just naturally, let this be easy, loose, and lazy.

And then we'll do the other arm here.

You ready, and swing.

Just let momentum take that arm, stomach's in.

You know, you're probably familiar with the stress points in your muscles, what we commonly call knots.

But did you know your bones rebuild along points of stress?

And if they're rebuilding along lines of poor alignment, this will lead you to even greater degrees of misalignment and pain.

That's why daily, full-body joint movement is so important.

All right, we're just throwing that salt over the shoulder.

Switching arms, letting momentum stretch you.

[inhales] Don't forget to breathe.

And now let's do a few halos, okay?

Just circle, letting momentum take that arm.

And if you can't get as high or behind your head, that's okay.

The circular movement even in front of your body will work wonders to loosen you up.

Switching arms, around.

Good.

Soft knees, everything's just moving naturally.

All right.

Shoulder presses again.

Open that shoulder.

Now think about opening that joint.

You wanna poke a hole in the ceiling above you, and now let's draw a circle in the ceiling and the circle is slightly behind you, okay?

Elbow straight, [inhales and exhales] breathing to help facilitate the move.

All right, every time, lift through the shoulder and circle, lift and circle.

Think about opening the armpit.

Now if you've started to arch your back to you get more movement in the shoulder, let's correct that by squeezing your bottom, pulling in the belly, maybe your arm's here, that's okay.

Work with wherever you're at and improve from there, but don't try to compensate by hurting somewhere else.

Okay, other arm to the ceiling, stomach's in.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] Poke a hole in the ceiling, draw a circle, recheck your posture, [inhales] exhale, lots to think about, but you don't have to get it all figured out on your first time with me.

It takes about four weeks for your brain and your body to get it all worked out.

It'll start becoming easier then.

All right, two arms again.

I want you to twist one arm forward, one arm back and lift as high as you can through your spine.

All right, as if you're being pulled up right from the center of the top of your chest, okay?

Lift.

Stomach's in, long spine, and rotate and switch those arms.

All right, and lift, [inhales] lift, lift.

Are those arms in a line?

Are they straight out from your shoulders or as high as you can?

Lengthen is the best thing you can do for your joints.

So lengthen even if they're down here or slightly in front, get as big a move as you can.

All right, and down.

Now I'd like you to put your hands behind your head once more and press your head into your fingers.

Now try not to do it by lifting the chin.

In fact, I want you to tuck and pull the chin back.

Make yourself have a double chin.

[chuckles] All right, relax.

Okay, for this next one, I'd like you to put your left arm behind your back.

Once again, you're just mirroring me.

A big inhale, and I'd like you to gently move this ear towards your shoulder.

It could be a half an inch, it could be a centimeter.

Just whatever is your limit, just kind of stop there.

Don't force anything.

Big inhale [inhales] and an exhale.

[exhales] As you exhale, you might notice it just relaxes on its own.

Now, look at the ceiling and let your chin follow.

[inhales] Don't forget that breathing; it really helps.

And if you've started to copy me and you're leaning over, let's correct that.

Let's stand up and only have the neck do the move, stomach's in, and then let's gently start to turn the face and look at the armpit.

[exhales] Now we're stretching these muscles here.

Let's pause, inhale.

[inhales] And exhale.

[exhales] And the weight of your head might be too much and your neck might start to kinda cramp up.

Then you just need to ease off of some of it.

You can also support your weight of your head a little bit.

Okay, we wanna stretch, but we don't wanna cause you any grief.

Okay, let's do the other side.

So right arm behind you, [inhales] big inhale, exhale, and ever so slowly, move that ear towards the shoulder.

Try not to lift the shoulder to the ear.

Easy to do.

Relax.

And give your muscles time to relax, okay.

Now this is something you need to go very slowly with, but try to turn and look at the ceiling.

Oops, try not to tip the torso.

[inhales and exhales] And when you're ready, slowly move out of that and look at your armpit.

Still standing tall.

I gotta keep correcting myself, too.

[inhales and exhales] And let the weight of the head stretch these muscles over here.

Inhale, [inhales] exhale.

[exhales] All right, let's come out of that.

That's really good.

All right, a little bit faster movement now.

I'd like you to reach and pull, reach and pull.

We're moving around a little bit height-wise, a little lower, a little lower.

Elbows to the back, little lower, elbows to the back.

Little higher, stomach's in, reach it, reach it, like a Y and a W, a Y and a W. Lift, pull, lift, pull.

Slightly in front.

Front to the back, front to the back.

Just mix it up.

[inhales and exhales] Reach and pull, reach and pull.

One last, good.

Left arm across and then put your hand right behind that or above that elbow and look.

[inhales] If your shoulder's up, enjoy it for a moment and then press it down.

Good.

Other side.

Straight arm.

Put your other hand just above your elbow.

Pull, let the shoulder come up.

[inhales] Lots of breathing, then exhale, [exhales] press the shoulder down.

Good job.

All right.

Long arms, we're gonna work this area here, this armpit area from the triceps to your lats.

I'm gonna have one leg back behind me.

Imagine you have a couple dumbbells in your hand or even a band, band handles.

And they're, it's a...

The rest of the band is attached to a wall over there and we're gonna pull on them.

So you have to squeeze your back, good.

Partial release of the tension, squeeze the back.

Do you feel your triceps?

Do you feel this?

That's where I want you to feel it.

Good, little tweak of the wrist will help you get into that muscle a little more.

Press.

[inhales] No, it's not swinging; we're not using momentum.

This is a purposeful pressing back, imagining that you're pulling on some tension.

Press it back and squeeze, press.

Nice isometric.

So you're squeezing your muscles without moving the joint.

Like we're not doing this.

We're moving the shoulder, but we're not moving through here.

Press, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze.

Very nice.

Squeeze, squeeze.

And hold.

Good job.

Let's use the chair back now, and we'll stretch that out.

So many of you are probably familiar with a downward dog.

This will be something like that, but you'll let your knees bend as if you could put your ribs against your thighs and let your weight fall down or back so that you can feel the stretch all through your triceps and your lats all through here.

Good, inhale, [inhales] exhale.

[exhales] Now let's let one arm come down to the floor and then look under your armpit.

Feel the stretch, enjoy it.

We'll put that hand back up, inhale, exhale.

[exhales] Release the other arm, look under your armpit.

Terrific.

Okay, so next, we'll be going down onto our hands and knees.

We'll still be using the chair.

Okay.

So create some space here and then I'd like you to have your forearms resting on the chair and stomach in.

In fact, let's put one hand on the floor for support.

That's better.

And then we'll reach across, stomach's in, and lift that arm off the chair.

[inhales and exhales] Hold it there.

And come back down, stomach in to support your low back.

Press your hand into the floor.

Lift.

Good, I know these aren't easy.

Those weak upper back muscles just don't wanna do it, but do your best, okay?

Lift and down, lift, down, lift and down.

Slide off the front of that seat and do a couple rows.

Reach, pull, reach, pull.

Pulling some weeds.

Stomach's in.

[exhales and inhales] Reach, pull, reach, pull.

Imagine your shoulder blade back there.

And it's reaching towards the other shoulder blade.

Reach, pull, reach and pull, okay.

Put that hand on the floor.

Other arm, stretch it across the top of the seat.

Stomach's in.

Lift it off the chair, hold it for a moment.

Stomach's in.

Press that hand into the floor for leverage and lower.

Ready, stomach's in.

Push your hand into the floor, lift the other.

And down.

[exhales and inhales] Again, lift, lift, lift, and lift.

Very good, all right.

Stretching it out now, I'd like you to move your body a little bit to the right and your hands to the left and sit those hips back.

All right.

Inhale, [inhales] exhale.

Walk your feet a little the other way.

Hands go to the other side of the chair as you stretch.

Just enjoy that stretch.

You earned it.

Feels so good.

Thank you so much for doing that with me today.

I hope by now you can sense your body needs you to care for it a little each day and that you'll be rewarded with measurable improvements in your fitness.

Now when I say fitness, I mean fit to lead the life you want to lead.

So if you want many more enjoyable years doing your favorite activities, come back here daily to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit for easy and enjoyable workouts you can perform right at home that will leave you loose and strong because life is movement.

– 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.