Quick Fit with Cassy

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

When your muscles are tight, you find yourself avoiding the floor, and that makes you vulnerable.

Let's fight back with this simple routine.

[upbeat music] If you have yoga blocks, please grab them, as we'll be using them quite a bit in today's class and for a great strategy later on for getting up off the floor.

We're gonna start with our chair and just get down to the floor slowly.

I'll just show you a little strategy, if you need it.

So just put your hands on the seat, drop down to one knee, okay?

And the other, and get down on your behind, and onto your butt.

Easy, right?

Hands behind your hips, and I'd like you just to drop your knees to one side.

Okay, and the other, loosening up your hips, just moving kind of like a kid would on the floor.

We're not gonna stay in any position very long.

The floor is just a natural stretching tool.

Now we're shifting our weight a little further with every repetition.

Breathe it in and exhale, continuing to push that hip, twist that spine and the neck.

Good job.

Breathe it in and out, [exhales] and get ready for a change.

This time, as we shift your weight, I'd like you to reach back with one leg and the other, stretching through the hip flexor, okay?

[inhales] Getting up over the bent leg.

Go as slowly as you need to.

Don't let me rush you.

If you're very tight, I know that you need to just work at it slower, and there's nothing wrong with that, okay?

All right, now let's extend that leg, shift your hips right and left.

Hold it here a little longer.

Good, you can add a shoulder up by your ear, and now I'd like you to extend and extend.

[inhales and exhales] And don't forget your breathing.

That's always the easiest way to make stretching better.

Okay, the other way.

And just to get your muscles to relax, extend.

All right, now keep this leg bent and we'll rotate towards it.

Put your weight on your hands.

Take some of that pressure off your leg and do your best, shifting right and left over the top of that foot.

And I know some of you are not getting as much bend in the knee, you've got your hips up higher, but that's okay.

All right, and let's push on the floor behind you, pressing those knees open.

Good, and press it open.

Good, now, shift over onto your hands and knees and we'll do just the basic child's pose.

So if you put your toes close together and widen your knees and just push with your hands to move the hips back, and then rock forward over the wrists.

[inhales] Good.

Back and let your hips fall as far forward as feels good for you, and shift it back.

All right.

Shift around, extend that leg, shift those hips around, and then we'll go back onto our behind.

All right, let's have those knees bent, but pull on your legs, all right?

The idea now is to lengthen through that spine, and I know many of you are seated back kind of like that.

I'm gonna show you a strategy for that in a minute, but pull on the back of your legs.

Lift as best you can, whether you're leaning back or you can move forward.

Very good.

All right, now, if you have blocks, they might come in a size like this, or they might be a thicker size.

Just grab what you have.

Because I have a couple varieties, I'm going to sit on this one.

I'm a little more flexible, but if you're less flexible, you'll need to get your hips up a little higher, you can put two blocks together like this and sit on them.

Okay, so I'm going to now stretch forward, extend one leg.

Good.

We wanna take out as much of the roundness in our lower spine as possible.

We wanna be able to use the low spine to stretch the legs, so reach it forward, a little twist, breathe it in, [inhales] and then try with the opposite hand.

Now, the goal is to be hinging forward from the hips, not from the upper back, okay?

I usually pull on my legs to help me accomplish a flatter back.

Good, and the other leg, extend it out.

[inhales] Now, if you can't really move forward very well and pulling's not enough, this is a great tool.

Put a block behind you and you can push from behind, okay?

Reach.

[exhales] Inhale.

[inhales] There's nothing wrong with using tools to make your stretching better, more effective.

Okay, one more.

All right, now here's another trick.

We're gonna press the knees open, but for a little leverage, I either push on the floor, but now that I'm seated up a little higher, I can't really reach the floor, so these blocks come in handy.

You can push on the blocks.

And it's funny how it gives you leverage to press the knees open.

It's kind of cool.

All right, press those knees open, release, [inhales] and one more time.

All right, good job.

All right, let's go back onto our hands and knees.

Good, hands and knees, and we're going to extend that leg out to the side and get a little inner thigh stretch.

So do your best to keep the whole inside of your foot, from your toes to your heel, against the floor.

[inhales] Good.

[exhales] So if that's your left leg, let's take your left hand and reach across, dropping that left shoulder.

Ooh, that really helps accentuate that stretch.

All right, let's do it the other way.

[inhales] So put your right leg out.

You're on the whole inside of your foot.

The toes are down.

Take the same hand, so right leg, right hand, reach it under or in front, wherever you feel comfortable, and drop that shoulder.

So you're really balancing on your left hand and left leg, and that inner thigh is getting a good stretch.

Terrific, all right.

Toes together, widen your knees, and we'll shift it back and forth.

Let your hips fall forward, supporting your weight on your hands.

Okay, and make sure your neck is out of your shoulders.

You're not sunk down, okay.

Now I have a couple options for helping you get up, and the first one's easier, so if getting up off the floor is difficult for you, grab your blocks.

I'm gonna grab the thicker ones, all right?

Now just have them there, put your hands at the sides, and I'd like you to, from your hands and knees now, get your toes under you.

Walk your hands back a little closer to your knees, push those knees up, getting the butt up in the air, and when it's hard to reach the floor, you've still got the blocks and you can push against them.

It's just a matter of practicing, making sure the blocks are where they need to be when you need them.

Okay, now, if getting up is fairly easy for you, come back down to the floor.

I have one final stretch for you.

We'll be down on our hands and knees.

Go ahead and make use of the chair and put one leg slightly out to the side and shift your weight so that your knees are going a little bit past your toes.

Heel is staying down; don't let the heel come up, okay?

This is a calf stretch.

Reach a little further away, and as you stretch your calf, you're stretching the inside of your thigh.

This is a nice one.

One more time, and then we'll switch legs.

Pull it in a little closer, press that heel down, exhale.

[exhales] Excellent.

All right, we'll swing the chair around so we can do the other side.

All right, get the leg up, slightly out to the side.

Let your weight sink towards that foot.

Remember, your knee needs to be in line with your foot, not to the inside.

Keep the heel down, inhale, exhale, walk that leg out a little further so you get a nice stretch to this leg.

Then bring it back in a little closer.

Final calf stretch.

Good job.

All right, now bring that leg in front of your hip.

Find your back toes, get them under you.

We're going to use both our feet.

You ready, pop it up.

Good job.

I hope you see the blocks and chair as great tools to help you get stronger and remain flexible and independent.

And please don't be afraid to make any adjustments you need to keep the movement safe and effective for your unique limitations.

Remember, by coming back here consistently to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, you're making a conscious decision to age well and to keep doing all the activities you love.

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.