Quick Fit with Cassy

- Welcome to another Quick Fit class with me, Cassy Vieth.

Today's class will be seated.

I think the chair is a great tool for those who can't stand for long periods of time.

And if that's true for you, make it one of your long-term goals to become strong enough to take the standup classes.

But no matter what your fitness level is, join me, and I think you'll find we've got some creative ways to gain leg strength.

[upbeat music] If you're new here, we work without our shoes so our feet also get a nice stretch.

Just have a nice mat or a rug to work on.

We do sit forward in the seat, have a nice V with your legs, and have your feet under your knees.

We don't want your feet tucked up under your chair, okay?

And let's lift the heels.

We're lifting onto the ball of your foot.

So the ball of your foot is the pad right under your big toe.

And now I'd like you to keep your heel down and lift the front of your feet.

Okay, two more times, heels up.

Front of the foot.

Heel up, front of the foot.

Now keep your foot down.

Keep the ball of the foot against the floor, and just lift the toes, okay?

So keep all of the foot but the toes down, and now make a little fist with your toes.

Real gentle.

You could get a charley horse if you're very new.

All right, toes up.

Grip with the toes.

One more, toes up.

Grip with the toes.

Now let's go through all of that a couple more times.

So heels up, and then dorsiflex, which means you're lifting the front of your foot.

Heels up.

Dorsiflex one more time, now just the toes, and grip.

Toes and grip.

Toes and grip.

One more time through, heels up.

Front of the foot.

Heels up.

Last time.

Now just the toes.

Little grips.

Toes, grip, toes, grip.

Good job.

All right, extend that left leg if you're mirroring me, and I'd like you to point as far as you can.

Feel that stretch all the way to your toes, and flex.

Pulling as far as you can.

Point and flex.

Now your leg doesn't have to be high, but do your best to get it off the floor, 'cause we're also working your quads at the same time.

Okay, now lift, lift.

Now you can onto the bottom of your chair.

That helps you get a little bit more leverage as your leg gets tired.

Circle.

Okay, you can lean back, but try not to recline against the chair back.

And then press down, down, down as if there's like a beach ball under your heel and you're pressing into it, down, down, down.

Good job and release.

All right, other leg.

Let's point and flex, point and flex, a little extra long stretch to the shin, the top of the foot, and a nice, long stretch to the Achilles tendon, your calves, bottom of your foot.

One more, point and flex.

Now lift.

Okay, we need to use your abs, so you need to roll back just a little bit onto the back of your hind end, but try not to lean against the chair back.

Pull on the bottom of the seat.

Circle.

Hang in there.

Tighten through your abs, circles, circles.

Press it down.

Squeeze your hind end.

Use your butt.

Pressing that imaginary beach ball a few more times.

Press, press.

Good job, all right.

Sit up nice and tall.

Stretch that spine for a minute.

And then I'll have you turn in your seat.

Go ahead and turn to your left.

Hook your arm around that chair back, and we're gonna work the toes.

Just real gentle, let them fold, and then let's get onto the top of the toes, fold.

Real gentle, just do a few if this is one of the first times you've ever worked without your shoes.

We don't want your muscles in your feet to get sore.

They're just like the rest of your body.

When you're new, you need to go slow and gentle.

Okay, now let's shift the heel so we get across each of your toes, and then we'll work your calves.

Let's line that heel up kind of right under your hip.

Okay, we're sitting half on, half off the chair, and we do have the foot right under your leg.

And the knee is going past the toes here, but we don't have a lot of weight.

We're just stretching the calf.

Now, if you can't get your heel on the floor, scoot forward just a little bit, okay?

Heel up.

Heel down, and if you don't feel a stretch, then you need to scoot your foot back just a little.

And one last thing to check.

Make sure your heel isn't moving to the inside.

Okay?

We want the heel right behind your middle toe.

All right, now let's reach back with that leg.

Find your toes, find your front heel, and now push and down.

Okay, let's start getting up.

Using your legs.

Don't use your hands except for balance.

And if you can't get up off the seat, be patient, keep working on this routine until you can get up with just your legs.

All right.

And one more time, working those toes, and we'll get up one more time, and make sure that that heel is behind your toes.

All right, and bend that knee.

Press the heel down.

Bend that knee.

Awesome, let's turn and we'll do everything on the other side.

Hook that arm, we'll start with the toes, letting them fold and tuck.

Real gentle.

Good, now let your heel shift.

So you get across each of your toes, big toe to your little toe.

And then we'll line that heel up under your hip.

Make sure that your foot is right under your thigh.

Lift that heel and press the heel down.

Now, if you can't get the heel down, you just have it back too far.

Let's move it forward just like a half an inch or an inch at a time so that you can feel a nice stretch as you get the heel down, making sure that the heel does not turn to the inside.

We want that heel lined up directly behind your middle toe.

Okay, up and down.

All right, now let's move that leg back.

We'll do that lunging get-up.

We've only got half of our body on the chair.

Find your front heel, find the back toes, and just using your legs for the power, hand only for balance, explode.

And come down.

Explode.

[inhales] And come down.

Good job, and lift.

And then we'll bend that back knee a little, adjust your foot so that you can press that heel towards the floor.

Okay, bend that knee, working the toes.

Press that heel.

Stretching the calves.

Okay, little bend in the knee, and awesome, all right.

Go ahead and sit down and face forward.

We're on the front edge of our chair again.

Remember that nice V with your legs from your hips, and your heels are under your knees.

Now let's extend the arms.

Okay, nice, long back, and up.

And let's just do a few get-ups, okay?

Explosively press through those heels.

Okay, we want to use your whole foot, not just the front of the foot and the toes.

That's pretty common.

We want to use the entire foot.

When you press through the heels, you activate your hamstrings.

One more.

All right, good job.

Okay, let's turn in your chair.

I'd like you to turn to your right.

And in fact, stand up right next to your chair, and be on the toes of your right foot and all the way on your left foot.

So pretty much you're just putting all the weight on your left foot, and your right foot is just barely touching the floor.

All right, and we're going to slowly sit back towards the seat as far as you can control.

If you feel like you're gonna fall, then just get right back up.

All right, if you have the strength to control it nicely all the way down to the chair, then do so, and then get right back up.

Your hand is for balance.

Try not to push with your hand.

We're working on strengthening one leg at a time.

So you'll have a little weight through this foot, but not all your weight.

Okay, and last one, good job.

And let's walk around to the other side, okay?

So you'll have all your weight now on your right leg, and just on the toes of the other.

So really trying to strengthen one leg at a time.

Good.

Few more down.

You'll walk better when you're confident in your individual leg strength.

You won't do so much shuffling.

Okay, couple more.

Getting down as far as you feel you can control.

Pop it back up, and at least the chair's there if you lose it and have to go down to the chair.

Okay, get as close as you can.

Hold it, hold it, hold it.

[inhales] Last one, explode.

Good job, let's just finish up with a few nice, tall stretches, okay?

Let's bring that outside leg behind you, press it down.

Push your hips forward.

A nice, tall reach up with that arm.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] I love that stretch.

Let's go around to the other side.

Take that outside leg.

Cross it behind you.

Find your toes.

Sink down into that back heel.

Okay, now push those hips forward.

Lift.

[inhales] Exhale.

And go ahead and look at the floor if you can.

[exhales] That is a wonderful stretch.

One of my favorite, favorite stretches.

Thank you so much for doing that with me.

I know some of those moves were challenging, and now you have a way to measure as you get stronger.

By repeating the challenging classes often, you'll soon find your strength improving and some of your aches and pains reducing.

So come back here tomorrow to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where together, we'll make sure you feel great and age well, 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.