Quick Fit with Cassy

- Hello, everyone.

Welcome to today's Quick Fit class with me, Cassy Vieth.

Painful joints in the hands and shoulders can keep us from doing what we love.

Perhaps you love quilting, or knitting, or woodworking.

Today's class will stretch muscles and soothe painful joints so you can get back to creating.

[gentle music] We'll be working today without shoes to give your feet a nice stretch, and have a towel handy, about the size of a bathroom hand towel, and never work into any bad pain.

Make adjustments so you can keep moving through as many ranges as possible.

All right, we'll start by just spreading those fingers as far apart as possible and completely opening them up.

All right, stretching them from side to side, and lengthen them as much as you can.

So widen your feet and we'll press forward.

Tuck that tailbone under.

Drop the head.

Now, grab an imaginary rope and pull, squeezing your fists, arching your back.

We work as many body parts as possible in these classes.

Press, press, press, grab, and pull.

Good, big inhale, [inhales] exhale.

[exhales] Working the breathing muscles too.

Grab and pull.

Arch your back.

Let's go in each direction again, press.

[inhales] Warming up the shoulders, warming up the hands, warming up the back.

We've got our legs fairly wide apart with a nice, easy bend in them.

And arch.

So a lot to think about.

We're working your brain at the same time, 'cause it has to think about all these body parts to make everything work in a cooperative fashion.

All right, press, all right.

And open.

Now let's work those wrists.

Good, all right, and let's just stretch your wrists.

Just push your fingers into the sides of your hips, and the other way.

Good.

You can use your hand and press it down.

Press and pull.

A little quick warm-up before we get into the rest.

[inhales and exhales] All right, stand tall now.

Roll those shoulders up and back and watch my hands.

We'll be rolling the thumbs completely forward and to the back.

[inhales] Good, lift, and shoulders down.

Pinch those shoulder blades.

Lift and roll.

Lift and roll.

Now start raising your arms out to the side a little bit with every roll.

Starting to come slightly to the front, and if at any point you feel something catching, make an adjustment.

You don't have to do it at that height or you don't have to roll.

Okay, adjust for your shoulder.

Find where you can get movement without any pain.

Good.

[exhales and inhales] Good, all right, let's lower them again.

Lift and lengthen, stretch.

Feel that stretch all down your neck.

Lift again [inhales] and lengthen.

One more, lift and lengthen.

We'll do the other shoulder.

Lift and lengthen.

Looking towards that shoulder.

[inhales] Big inhale, exhale.

[exhales] One more, lift.

And lengthen.

Very good, all right.

Let's just throw some salt, some nice, easy swings.

Throw salt over that shoulder.

Left arm, if you're mirroring me, nice and easy.

[inhales and exhales] Add that breathing, very long inhales, extra long exhales.

And now towards the opposite shoulder.

Just let gravity and momentum take that arm across and wide, stretching the front of your shoulder and your chest.

One more; these feel great.

All right, right arm, up and back.

Let that elbow get nice and high before you let the hand hit the back of your shoulder.

Okay, up and back.

[exhales] And now, watch how you're standing.

Hopefully, you're not letting your hips shift forward.

Hopefully, you're not letting your head jut forward.

This is like walking and chewing gum at the same time.

All right, reach across, reach across, and good.

All right, now, widen those legs, and we'll just mimic kind of a tennis.

All right, elbow up, elbow down.

Elbow up, elbow down.

Good, you can involve those legs.

Stomach in, your muscles don't work all by themselves.

They work with your entire body.

[inhales and exhales] And even if this seems a little complicated the first time you do it, it'll easily, quickly get easier, and it'll make sense.

All right, let's switch arms.

Your brain will catch up, so give yourself a little time, and be patient with yourself.

It'll get easier.

[exhales] All right, now, let's use this arm to do a little halo around your head, good.

And if you can't get behind the head, that's okay.

Start here, and every time you do this class, you'll get a little further.

Don't force it.

You'll get a larger range of motion without trying to force it.

Let's switch arms.

[inhales and exhales] And bigger.

One in front of your face.

One over the head, and one around completely.

All right, two arms, nice and wide.

Lift the shoulders, push two walls away.

Lift the shoulders.

Push two walls away.

Let's just do one arm.

So let's do your right arm, okay?

Reach, reach it long.

There's something you're trying to reach, but you're being prevented by a wall here.

Pull it in, lengthen.

Pull it in.

[inhales] Lengthen, [exhales] pull it in.

All right, lengthen.

Move it towards the back of you, and turn your face the opposite way.

Very good, all right, let's do the other arm.

Extend it, [inhales] pull the shoulder in, and reach for something you can't quite get to.

Shoulder in.

Extend.

Shoulder in.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] Reach, reach, reach.

And now move that arm towards the back and look the other way.

Big inhale and then exhale, and see if you don't get a little more movement.

Very good, and gently let that arm come down.

All right.

Now, take your left arm.

You'll be mirroring me; this will be your left arm.

Have your elbow at a nice 90-degree bend, and then tip your wrist.

Imagine you've got a tray in your hand and press.

Okay, so it's got a little weight.

So squeeze your back and shoulder muscles and press.

All right, press and press.

Can you get that shoulder back a little further?

And press.

Trying to keep the wrist at least above your elbow or maybe a little further back.

Press and press.

Good job, switching arms.

[inhales] All right, get that elbow up at shoulder height.

Bend that wrist, move it back as far as you can, try to get a little bit more movement.

Press.

Imagine you're carrying a tray with dishes on there and you don't want to spill them.

Press.

We've got a little weight, a little resistance.

Squeeze the back and shoulder muscles, lift.

And lift, very good.

All right, let that down slowly.

Good, shake it off, and now I'd like you to grab that towel.

So what I'll have you do with the towel is put it between your side and your elbow.

All right, so you've got this 90 degree bend in your joint here and squeeze the towel into your side with your elbow and rotate.

Bring it back to forward, rotate.

As you do this, do a gentle squeeze with your shoulder blade, the back of your shoulder, your upper back, anywhere you can feel those muscles engage.

Good, all right, now put your hand here so you have a little more resistance, and try that move again.

Good.

Hold and release.

Good job.

All right, now, move your fist across your body.

Don't drop the towel, and again, across and across.

All right, now, you're putting your fist here for resistance.

All right, now try to move it across again, and your other arm is resisting.

Don't drop the towel.

Squeeze that elbow into the towel and release.

Good job.

Switching sides.

All right, towel is stuck between your hip and your elbow, and squeeze the elbow into the towel as you rotate.

Good.

Trying to engage those muscles around the shoulder blade, the back of your shoulder, your upper back, squeeze them, and as you squeeze your elbow into the towel, it will help you engage all these rotator cuff muscles.

All right, now add a little resistance.

Do it again.

Good.

Five, six, seven.

Release, good job.

Now move your fist across without dropping the towel, across.

Still squeezing those rotator cuff muscles, squeeze.

And now with some resistance.

Press one fist into the other.

Press, press, press.

Watch your posture.

Stomach's in, head and neck is tall.

Hips are above your ankles.

They're not pushed forward.

Good job, all right, we're finished with the towel, but we're not finished with the class.

So let's make another 90 degree.

All right, and now this time, I want you to press your elbow down, but this fist is going to resist, you ready?

Pull it down!

Pull it down, pull.

Pull or press into your fist, however it helps you to think about it.

Good, and now we're going to try to lift, but this hand's going to resist, you ready?

Lift, lift, lift.

A little bit increment of movement there.

Lift, lift, lift, and once more, let's bring it down.

You ready?

We're working those muscles in the back of the shoulder, around the armpit area, and now, we're gonna work these, you ready?

Lift, lift, lift, lift.

Good job, let's switch sides.

All right, other arm, 90 degree.

First thing I want you to do is pull that arm down.

You ready, down, down.

Stomach's tight.

[inhales] Nice, big inhale, exhale.

[exhales] And, you ready?

We're going to lift.

Go, lift, stomach's in.

Pressing up into that hand.

Release.

We're gonna pull it down, ready?

Press, press it down, press.

Keep going.

And final one, you ready?

Lift that fist.

Good job.

All right, one more.

We're going to go across this time.

This arm's gonna resist.

So, ready?

Actually, they're going to go towards each other, and neither is gonna get anywhere, you ready?

Press, press.

You feel your chest engage.

Your shoulders are working.

[inhales and exhales] Press.

Now, let it go slightly towards your right.

Slightly towards your left, stomach's in.

Fists are up nice and high, kind of as high as the base of your neck.

Other way.

One more.

Good job, grab that wrist.

Pull it up and over, widen those legs.

[inhales and exhales] Nice shoulder pull; that feels good.

Switch hands, grab the other wrist.

Opening that shoulder.

[exhales] Very good, and down.

All right, let's get to those hands.

Double fist rolls.

Good.

Nice, big circles, and now bend at the wrist.

Press it forward.

Bend the other way.

Over.

[exhales] Extend those fingers.

Good, make some claw hands.

Good, and press.

Slide your hands along your fingers.

Opening those joints.

Nice and easy.

Sort of like when you go and get a manicure, and at the end, the gal puts lotion on your hands and just gives you a nice hand massage at the end.

I think that's my favorite part.

Okay.

Then we'll do the other, starting with that thumb.

Take your time.

Our hands really need care, and I think our hands and our feet are the parts of us that we just don't really think about when we're thinking about fitness.

All right.

Thumb rolls.

Nice, big thumb rolls.

Okay, open, cross, open, and cross.

A couple more circles.

Good.

Keeping your fingers stretched as absolutely big as you can, okay?

Wide and long.

All right, now pull down your fingers one at a time, and stretch the other fingers up as tall as you can.

Good.

Go through those again.

Pull down your pointer, your middle, ring, and pinky.

All right, make those claw hands.

So we're not making a fist.

Trying to touch the pads of your hands with the tips of your fingers.

Okay, you can do your thumb too.

Now, stretch your pointer finger up at the same time that you're touching the pads with your tips.

Okay, that finger goes down.

Now, let's do your pinky.

[chuckles] You don't have to make that face, but that's what happened to me.

[chuckles] Pinky down.

Now let's try your ring finger.

Oh, can't quite do it.

I have to have my other hand help, and that's okay.

You can do that too, but it's kind of important, okay?

So even if you can't do it without a little help, that's okay.

And then do your middle finger.

I think that's probably the easiest.

All right.

Just push one into the other for a nice stretch.

Very good.

All right, one more stretch with the wrist and the fingers.

All right, make your fingers into a claw, claw hands again, and open those arms nice and big.

We're working your forearms.

All those muscles in your forearms are responsible for moving your fingers.

Okay, and open, long fingers, up and down.

All right, finishing up.

Let's just do bicycle fingers.

You know, as if you're moving a pedal with your fingers instead of your feet.

All right, and chop those onions.

Loosen it up.

I hope this class has helped you see that you have the power and means to keep yourself flexible, manage pain, and prevent injury, and Quick Fit is here to help with that.

So keep up the good work by returning here daily to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where I've got many more easy and approachable workouts to keep you strong, independent, and pain-free, because life is movement.

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.