Quick Fit with Cassy

- Thank you for joining me for today's Quick Fit routine.

I'm Cassy Vieth.

I've planned a class designed to strengthen those leg muscles weakened from lack of use.

Particularly those affected by all the sitting we do.

We'll begin with gentle strengthening work, gradually getting more difficult, then finishing off with my favorite multi-joint loosener.

So grab a sturdy chair and get ready to feel great.

[upbeat music] Sit forward in your seat; we don't recline during this class, and we'll start with a few heel lifts, just lift one at a time, putting some weight down through the tops of your legs.

All right, lift and lift, good.

Just a few, loosening those feet, shoes off now, stimulating those sensory receptors, and let's just lift the toes and the heels, toes and the heels, good.

Little tuck, little tuck, stretching those toes, stretch 'em out.

They've probably been bound up in shoes all week long.

Hands on your hips, and a few looseners, warming up.

I try to do a little bit of a warmup in every single class to mentally prepare you, physically prepare you to get the most out of these classes.

All right, very, very good.

All right, sitting back in your chair, this is one of those rare times we do sit back in the chair, but we're not gonna just be all relaxed.

We are gonna sit tall, and pull your heel into the chair leg.

It's just a little bit up from the floor, and pull back using about 75% of your strength.

Right away, you can feel the knee and the tendons around it get tight.

This is just an excellent leg strengthener, knee strengthener, especially if you have tender knees.

And extend, holding it here.

There's some small tendons and ligaments and stabilizing muscles in here that really benefit from strengthening exercises that aren't repetitive, especially if your legs are tender, we want to strengthen them gently.

And this is very gentle, so pull it in.

You can pull on the bottom of the seat if you need to for a little leverage, pull it in, pull it in, don't forget to breathe, don't hold your breath, and extend, good.

Hold it up, pull that foot toward you for about eight seconds.

We'll do it one more time with that leg, and you can even adjust the height.

Pull it in, pull it in, feel your stomach engage, and extend.

[inhales and exhales] And lift it a little higher if you can, and switch legs, all right?

Kind of down low on the chair leg, pull it in, pull.

Breathe, you can hang onto the bottom of the seat, pulling in your abs at the same time, and extend.

You guys are doing good, pull it in.

Find that comfortable spot on the chair leg, pull it in.

Pull on the bottom of the seat.

And extend, pulling that foot in, straightening, think about lengthening through the leg as well as lifting.

Pulling in that foot, pulling on the bottom of the seat, pulling in your abs.

And one more time, a little higher on that chair leg and pull.

You're pulling that foot against the leg, and you might find the different heights feel slightly different in your leg, in your knee, and the muscles contributing to your knee.

And last one, extend, pull that foot in, you guys are doing good.

All right.

Next, extend your leg and lift.

Slow and controlled, try not to throw your leg around.

[inhales and exhales] And a little wider, you can rotate and lift.

Ooh, that feels much different, doesn't it?

Just by slightly turning that leg, and now bend.

I'm gonna sit forward a little bit so I have a little bit more movement through the leg and lift, as if there's a string tied around your ankle and you're lifting.

Keep that knee out to the side.

Good job, switching legs, all right?

Extend, control that lift, lift.

Once again, a little bit of leverage by pulling on the bottom of the seat, and wider, rotate, lift.

You really feel that one.

[inhales and exhales] Lift, lift and lift, and then bend that knee lower and up, lower, up.

Turn in your seat to free up your hips so you can get more movement, and we'll switch legs and go through that one more time.

Ready, extend a little quicker now.

Lift, squeeze, think of squeezing instead of throwing, okay?

Squeeze, squeeze, widen, lift, two, three, four, and bend the knee, adjust and lift, lift.

Keeping that knee wide, the ankle to the inside, and switch, ready?

[inhales] Lift, two, three, four, five, rotate, widen, lift, two, three, four, five, bend and lift.

[inhales and exhales] You guys are doing good.

All right, turn in your seat; if you're mirroring me, you'll just be turning to your right.

We'll be letting your knee hang straight down from the hip.

And remember, this is where we wanna keep it.

We do this exercise a lot because these are the all-important hip stabilizing muscles.

Okay, lift.

And it's these typical dysfunction patterns occur where the side hip muscles, your glute medius, gets weak and other things take over, and it just leads to imbalances and pain.

So we do these a lot.

'Cause I know people need 'em because often in my classes, I see people changing positions so they can use these muscles instead.

And we don't want to do that.

All right, so extend that leg now out to the side, and I want you to press the inside of your foot against the floor.

Press, feel the inside of your thigh working, and now turn and grab the back of the chair and try to lift that leg up in the air.

Whew, I know it's hard, hold and down.

One more time, lift, hold, and down, and one more time, lift.

Even if you're not getting the foot off the floor, it's okay.

You're beginning to strengthen those muscles.

You got to start somewhere.

Now, reach it to the back and stand up, putting all your weight on that front leg, lift the back leg and hold, two, three, just touch your toes barely and squeeze the bum, lift, two, three.

This is great for your low back.

A lot of low back pain is because your glutes aren't strong enough.

And sometimes we get a very big arch in our low back because our glutes are not pulling down the way they should.

All right, and then we'll switch sides, all right?

Go ahead, sit down, one leg on and the other leg hanging.

You ready, two hands on your chair back, making sure your hips stay in the right place and lift.

And down, lift, lift, keep it going, long spine, stomach's pulled in, try not to be pushing the head forward.

Gentle pull on your chair back to help you lengthen through your spine.

Sitting nice and tall and pretty.

It helps everything work better when you have good posture.

Lift and hold, check your forearm, push that leg back, and now extend the leg, okay?

Press that foot into the floor.

[inhales] Sit up tall, [exhales] always sitting up tall.

We're stretching through that tight hip flexor, pressing the foot down still, turn and lift.

Whew, some of you I know got a charley horse.

You can put the leg down, try it again, lift.

[exhales] If you got a charley horse, then don't try to lift the leg up off the floor, just squeeze isometrically.

That means you're tensing the muscles without anything visible.

All right, very good.

All right, get this leg behind you now and get ready to stand up.

All right, put all your weight down through that front leg and squeeze your glutes, and lower.

Squeeze and lift, and down.

We wouldn't want to do just one side, that would very much leave you unbalanced, and don't throw your leg around.

Especially if low back pain is something you've been suffering from.

You wanna move slow and controlled, [inhales and exhales] very little force until things start getting healed.

All right, and sitting back down in your seats, facing forward.

All right, a few of these get ups.

We have our knees about shoulder-width apart, and ankles just slightly behind the knees.

Don't let your toes get behind your knees, okay?

Ready, and press, sit it back down, press, sit it back down, press a little higher.

Now make sure every time you go to sit down you're pushing through your heels, so that your bottom ends up in the chair, not in front of the chair.

[inhales and exhales] All right, press, good, and up all the way, fabulous.

All right, let's go to the side of your chair, and we'll finish up with my full body loosener that I was talking about in the opener.

Squats are fabulous for loosening up all of your joints.

We'll start by sitting the hips back and easing down into it.

As you warm up your knees, your ankles, the front of your shins.

Very good, your hips, and adjust your feet.

Find those positions that feel the best.

All right, and you can always use the chair, but do your best to make your legs do absolutely as much of the work as possible.

[inhales and exhales] All right, you guys are doing a great job.

The looser your ankles and calves get, the easier this will become because it's all connected.

All right, and that's it.

If you or someone you know is affected by sarcopenia, that's muscle loss, this is something you can actively do right in your own home to fight back and take control of your health.

And join me each day, right here at pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where I'll be here waiting to show you more easy and effective moves to keep you strong, loose, and pain-free.

Because life is movement.

See you next time, everyone.

– 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.