Quick Fit with Cassy

- When the muscles around your hips and pelvis are weak, they can be a source of pain in other parts of the body.

Hello, I'm Cassy.

And in today's Quick Fit workout, we'll be strengthening and stretching the typical problem areas that are known to affect your low back, knees, and even your ankles.

So join me now for a healthy hips workout.

[upbeat music] For today's class, we will be using a band, so take a moment to grab one.

And as always, try working out without your shoes so your feet have full range of motion.

Let's begin with just a few hip shifts.

Have your feet fairly wide so you can push them one at a time into the floor to help you lift one hip and then the other off of the seat.

And then, start your breathing, nice, deep breaths in for about four seconds.

[inhales] Extra long exhales.

Good job.

All right, now I'd like you to turn in your seat to the right and sit half on, half off the chair, hook your arm around the back, and the idea is to let your weight hang off the front of the seat.

And at the same time, reach over your ear and enjoy that stretch.

Right when it starts to feel tight, I want you to stop and take a big breath in [inhales] and then exhale.

Let that hip sink deeper and let that arm reach further over the ear.

Do that again.

Breathe it in, [inhales] exhale, and enjoy it.

Hopefully, your knee is right under your hip.

Nice, let's switch to the other side.

Hook that arm, knee's right under your hip.

Let it hang over.

Even let your neck relax.

Breathe it in [inhales] and exhale.

[exhales] Reach it a little further from the shoulder, feeling those ribs stretch.

One more time, and blow.

Good job.

All right, as you sit up, I'd like you to extend your leg straight out to the side and find the bottom of your foot, okay.

And I'd like you to put your hands on your hip and tuck that tailbone under, just like we do when we do cat and cows.

Okay, one more time.

Tuck that tailbone under.

You can tip it a little bit.

Elbow towards the leg, and then sit up.

And now, reach it forward towards the floor.

Good, let's try that one more time, a little smoother.

Tuck the tailbone, reach it to the side, come up, and stretch it to the floor.

Good, let's turn and do the other side.

Okay, so you're still half on, half off the seat, leg is extended straight out to the side.

Find the bottom of your foot so you feel stable.

And tuck the tailbone under and dip it towards the knee, and up.

Now, you don't have to do the tuck for this part.

Stretch it to the front, and up.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] Tuck the tailbone under, reach it, and over.

[exhales] Good job.

Push into the floor to help you get up easier.

And now, grab your band.

We're going to stretch the quads.

If you can easily grab your ankle, then you don't need the band.

But for those of you that struggle to grab your ankle or your pant leg, you can have a band or a towel and bring the knee up and get that band down around your ankle, and hang on very close, as close as you can.

Press that knee down.

Good, so you're pressing the knee down and you're pulling the heel towards your bottom.

So enjoy that stretch.

Big breath in [inhales] and then push the knee down and to the back.

Do it again.

Breathe it in [inhales] and press the knee down.

[exhales] Now, I'd like you to push your foot into the band, or your hand, squeeze your bottom for 5, 4, 3, 2, release, and pull the heel one more time.

Press the knee to the back.

And let's do the other side.

Good, so lift the knee, slide your band down to your ankle, and hang on close to that ankle.

And exhale as you're pushing the knee to the floor, hanging on to the ankle so the foot is near your bottom.

Press the knee back.

Right now, we're just doing a standard stretch [inhales] with lots of breathing.

And now, I'd like you to squeeze your bottom and press the foot into the band.

Let's hold this for 5, 4, 3, 2, release, [inhales] big breath in, [exhales] and pull the foot to then butt and press the knee down.

Good job.

All right, let's just put your band aside for a moment and face forward, and we're going to stretch those hips out.

Let's bring that right knee up to your chest.

As you do this, lift through your ribs so we're stretching the back.

[inhales and exhales] Good.

And cross that ankle over your knee.

Of course, you can always extend the bottom leg if having it up here is too tight.

You can also put the ankle below the knee.

Those are a couple of modifications if you need it.

Press that knee down.

Enjoy the stretch through the side of your hip.

And now, bring the knee across the center of your body.

You can hook your arm around, sit up tall, and add a twist.

[exhales] Good, now you don't have to hang out there very long 'cause we're going to do it again.

You'll feel looser the second time.

Breathe it in.

[inhales] Press the knee down.

Sit up tall.

Pull the leg across the center of your body, hook, [inhales and exhales] and extend.

Even look with your eyes 'cause where your eyes go, your face will follow, stretching the neck.

Let's bring that other knee up to the chest.

And pull on that leg for some leverage.

Breathe it in.

[inhales] [exhales] Great.

Let's do the figure four.

Press the knee down.

See if you can do it without your hand.

Breathe it in.

[inhales] Press down with the hand and cross the knee across the center of your body.

Now, let's sit up.

[inhales and exhales] Open up the chest.

Look with your face, your neck, your eyes, and come out of that, big inhale.

Press the knee down.

And bring it across.

Last time.

[inhales] Enjoy that stretch.

Shift in your seat if you find a spot that feels extra good for you.

Big inhale.

[inhales] [exhales] Get a little more movement as you exhale.

That's the trick of breathing.

And now, grab your band.

We're going to open the knees into the band.

So let's start by bringing that band under your legs, crossing, and pulling nice and tight.

Now for this, everything's going to be involved, your abs, your glutes, and your legs.

So I want you to take a big inhale and then try to open the knees against the band.

Squeeze your belly in and hold it for 5, 4, 3, 2, release.

Okay, take a little break.

We'll do it again.

Maybe it's too easy for you.

You can go ahead and wrap the band on a little tighter and open those knees.

Feel your abs activate.

[inhales and exhales] Okay, don't hold your breath.

For 5, 4, 3, 2, and release.

Good job.

We'll use these again in a moment.

But for now, turn to your right in the chair, and just like before, hang on half on, half off the chair, hook your arm around the back.

And make sure your knee is under your hip, not scooting forward 'cause then the quads are taking over.

We gotta use these weak things on the sides.

So straight out to the side.

Now, take a look and be kind of critical.

If your shin is not horizontal, if it's like this, your quads are cheating again.

So keep that ankle as high as the knee.

If you're struggling keeping good form, then push into these muscles so you can feel them activate.

And even if you can't get the leg up with correct form, you're starting to wake up the muscles and eventually, you'll be able to get the leg up.

Don't give up.

Okay, hold in your belly.

Let's do 5, 4, 3, 2, hold, and switch sides.

Same thing.

You're half on, half off the chair.

The knees are straight down, and lift out to the side.

Push on those muscles and sit up nice and tall, lift, hold in your belly.

[inhales] Some of you might need to even put two hands on the chair back 'cause I've seen it a lot.

People start looking forward, opening the hips, and the quads start cheating.

And your quads are probably already dominant, and we don't want that.

We want to be balance your joints by making sure that the muscles on the sides and the backs of the legs are all strong.

Last one with a hold.

1, 2, 3, 4, and done.

All right, last exercise, and we'll be using the bands again.

We've done get ups, getting up out of the chair, lots of times in these classes, but I'd like you to try something different, where you're getting up, but you've got a band around your legs.

So you really have to push, okay, as you're getting up.

So get that wrapped around there, and you have to push into the band the whole time.

[inhales] All right, and let's lean it out.

Find the right position for your feet.

You need to be able to push through your whole foot, not just the toes, and you need to be able to keep those knees as wide as your feet.

So take a look, see what's going on with a critical eye.

We want good form.

All right, next, we're going to hold in the air.

Check your knees.

If they're like this, we need to push, [inhales] and then we'll go down and up one last time.

Okay, down and then all the way up.

You ready?

And good job.

All right, just let go of those bands.

The body is all connected.

So when one area becomes weak, it causes other muscles to compensate.

Sometimes, the weaknesses allow for joints to become misaligned.

It can be difficult to discern the actual source of the problem, but by coming back here daily to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, you'll be sure to get the broadest range of exercises to keep you loose, strong, and pain-free.

So until tomorrow, 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.