Quick Fit with Cassy

- Hello, I'm Cassy.

Welcome to Quick Fit .

Today, we have another easy, yet effective workout to keep you loose and mobile, using a broomstick.

I have a simple PVC pipe about five feet long, but the handle from your mop or broom will work great.

If you don't have that available, join us anyway.

Grab a sturdy chair too, and we'll get started on a fun workout that's sure to loosen up your shoulders.

[energetic music] As always, we're going to sit near the front edge of our seat and have your legs fairly wide so you have a nice three-point base.

Hang on to your stick with your arms nice and wide.

Okay, lift the shoulders [inhales] and exhale.

[exhales] Do that again; lift the shoulders.

Are your arms nice and wide?

I hope so.

And now let's just begin, twisting a little to the right and the left.

Nice and easy.

[inhales] I hope you're sitting up nice and tall.

Okay, and let's reach out a little further, keeping the stick nice and low, and your legs need to be in front of you so you can lean out and sit up.

Reach out and up; good.

Reach out and higher; good.

Now reach.

Let one arm come up and around.

Drop the one side, lift the other, and swing it around.

[inhales and exhales] It's already starting to loosen up your shoulders.

Drop it around, and now let's start going up over the head.

Good, and arch that spine as far as it feels good, and over.

Good, and around, and lift.

Arch, and now let's go back the other way.

Drop that arm, reach out with the other, and swing it around.

[inhales] Good.

Up and over, pulling in your abs nice and tight to support the movement, and up.

Good job, okay, stretch.

Now let's bring the hands a little closer so they're just about shoulder width, okay.

And press up.

Arch the back and down.

A little arch at the top just to open up the shoulder, open up the armpits and down.

Press it up.

[inhales] Good, and down.

Let the stick rest right in your lap, right at the corner between your legs and your belly and open up those hands towards the front.

Make sure your elbows are nice and straight, not just like this with the elbows bent, but look.

Make sure those elbows are nice and straight, palms are forward, and press the back of the hands into the stick.

You'll feel your back muscles activate.

In fact, squeeze those shoulder blades together.

Now release.

We'd like you to just take this inventory again.

Pull in your abs, okay, to support this low back, widen your hands, shoulders are down, and then press the shoulder blades together.

[inhales and exhales] You should feel that.

Okay, hold that for about five, four, three, two, release.

Good job, okay.

Now here's a very neat one that might seem more complicated than it is.

I'd like you to have your hands nice and wide, but have your palms forward before you grab the stick, okay, and we're gonna drop one side, okay.

So the hand that's closer to the floor, I want you to use to push the stick up towards the ceiling, and your other hand is hanging on.

Don't let the stick slide, okay.

Hang on so you feel that shoulder being stretched.

[inhales] Exhale.

Bottom hand's pressing the stick up, and release.

Okay, let's go the other way.

So you'll drop the other side down, okay.

And make sure, as the stick is pushing up, your hand is not sliding.

You really gotta grip that top hand and press from the bottom.

Feel that shoulder stretching and opening.

Good.

[inhales] And release, all right.

Change your hands and don't have 'em quite so wide this time.

When you have the stick right in front of your chest, your elbows should be down, creating like a W from your hand to your elbows to your shoulders, okay, and have it against your chest.

And now let's press right up past your nose, making like the letter Y, opening those armpits, stomach's in, lift those shoulders up by the ears, getting a little bit more movement, and then back down.

Okay, again, up.

[inhales] Press [exhales] and down, right in front of your face.

So pull that head outta the way so you don't catch your nose.

Stretch the shoulders and down.

One more.

[inhales] Lift and widen the hands so you can start moving the stick behind your head a little bit.

Bring it down to a W. Press it up.

Widen the hands.

Depending on how flexible you are, you might be able to get this bar much further behind you.

If you're flexible, your hands are nice and wide, you should be able to go all the way to the back.

All right, bring 'em a little closer as if you're kayaking.

Okay, and I'd like you to reach and dip.

Have your feet in front of you so you can reach forward and dip.

Reach, pull that bottom of the stick towards you.

It's the paddle, right.

Dip it in the water and pull.

Dip it in the water and pull.

Now as you're pulling the bottom hand, press with the top hand, right.

Pull with the bottom, push with the top.

Your stomach should be tight because you're reaching out, pulling back, reaching out, pulling back.

Good job.

Reach.

All right, now level, rows, reach.

Pull it back.

Now every time, as you lean back, you need to squeeze your bottom, pull in your belly.

Reach, pull it back.

Reach, pull.

[exhales] Reach, pull a little lower, reach, pull.

And a little higher.

Good job, all right.

Let's put one end of the stick into the floor and reach up near the top.

Have it near your leg.

So we're going to activate our core.

We're going to do it by using the opposite hand from the leg that's lifting.

So if you're mirroring me and this is your right hand, you're gonna press down, pressing the stick into the floor, and your left knee's gonna lift.

Feel your abs activate at the same time.

Lift, lift, lift.

Let's do about four, three, two.

Are you still pressing down with your hand?

Switching sides.

Reach it up, actively pulling down with the hand and lifting with the opposite knee.

Lift, squeeze your bottom, pull in your abs.

Push down.

Lift, lift.

Press that stick into the floor.

Three, two, last one.

Switching sides.

We'll do it one time more on each side.

Reach up and press and lift.

Lift, three, four, five.

Are you squeezing your abs by pulling them in?

Lift, lift, lift.

One more time on the other side.

[inhales] Okay, you ready?

Pull it in, pull it down.

Lift the knee, all together.

It's a lot going on; concentrate.

Lift and don't hold your breath.

So five, four, three, two.

Last one, very good.

I hope you enjoyed that and found some simple ways to loosen and strengthen, even while seated.

Plan tomorrow's workout right now so it doesn't get skipped.

Log back on to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit for more easy and effective ways to stay fit right from home.

Until then, get up and 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.