Quick Fit with Cassy

- Welcome back everyone.

Thank you for making Quick Fit a part of your day.

I'm Cassy Vieth.

Helping people stay strong, move better, and feel better is what I love to do.

And in today's class, we'll be combining strength and balance exercises because that's how your body works.

So if you're ready, let's get started.

[upbeat music] Working in bare feet will help your sense receptors send the correct information to your brain so it can correctly interpret and give orders back to your legs and feet.

We'll be creating an unstable, yet controllable situation to challenge your balance.

For each move, you'll have options based on your ability.

Judge it this way.

If you can maintain the move about 75% of the time, you're at the right level.

So starting at the easiest, put all your weight on your right leg with the left out to the side, and the toes just barely on the floor.

And if that's too easy, then begin making the base smaller, even getting your toes right next to the standing foot.

Too easy still?

Take the foot completely off the floor.

Switching legs, we'll stand tall, pull in your belly button, and then exhale and bear down through your core, like you would if you had gas in your belly, or if someone was going to tickle you, you'd automatically tense.

All right, so find your comfort level or your slightly uncomfortable level.

And we'll start doing a hip hinge for four beats down, hinging at the hips, and then right back up.

Good, you're already working and learning and growing your brain.

It's called neuroplasticity.

And up, over, two, three, four.

Up, two, three, four.

Good, switching feet.

Find your best place for challenging your balance.

And one more time, over, two, three, four.

Up, two, three, and four.

Go as slow as you need to so you don't have to keep putting your foot down or make it slightly easier, okay.

Over, find one thing on the ground to focus on or a point in the distance and just kind of let your vision glaze over and think about your moves.

All right, very good.

Switching legs again, let's move on to the next.

Good, and over to the side.

One, two, three, four, up, two, three, four.

Again, over.

[inhales] Go as slow as you need to.

Focus on one thing, and back up.

Two more times, over, two, three, four, and up, two.

One more 'cause I cannot count and balance at the same time.

And up.

Good job, all right, find the balance with your other leg.

Stabilize before you start to move.

All right, now the deep core muscles attached to your spine and pelvis and your lowest ribs, these are stabilizing muscles.

And when they're strong, all of our movements are stronger.

You know, strength and power comes from your core and moves out to your limbs.

One more.

[inhales and exhales] Okay, over, over, over.

Good job, all right, switching legs.

Nice and slow, don't let me rush you.

If there's something you want to work on a little longer, then do.

Okay, stabilize.

Now we're going to power press across the body, okay?

So you'll engage, press.

Okay, inhale, [inhales] bear down, [exhales] engage, press, good.

Engage, press.

Two more.

[exhales] Engage, press.

Engage, press.

Good job, other side, draw that leg in.

[exhales] Try to relax, lose your focus on something in the distance.

Pull the belly in, bear down, exhale, press across.

Okay, again, bear down, press across.

Bear down, press across.

There's a lot of exercises that we can do in the gym or that we do in life that takes power coming from the core to the limbs.

[exhales] So this is good for practice.

It'll just make everything else in life easier.

Good job, come out of that.

All right, let's strengthen your legs.

We'll do a few side lunges.

Okay, so the leg needs to come out pretty far.

And then I'd like your hip to move back so that you're using your quads, not necessarily the knees.

Okay, so hips are back.

We'd like a fairly vertical, fairly vertical shin instead of a knee over the toes.

That's pretty hard on the knees.

So we'll do this move and then I'd like a slight reach down towards the ankle.

We're not trying to touch the floor.

I'd like you to maintain a flat back, and push it up.

We'll do that again a few more times.

So reach out with the leg, put the hips back, reach it down.

Explode, good.

Out, hips back, reach it down, explode.

Now more fluid for two more times.

Down, explode.

[inhales] Down, explode.

Good job, other leg.

All right, reach it out, do it nice and slow, hips back.

Reach for the ankle, explode up.

Out.

You might need to look at yourself in the mirror to check out your form.

It's a good way to be critical and for your eyes to see what your brain thinks is going on.

It's not always the same.

And it really helps to correct your brain's interpretation of how your body's moving.

Last one.

[inhales and exhales] Very good.

If you weren't sure if you were doing those moves right because you couldn't tell if you were engaging your core, don't fret.

It's normal and usually takes about four weeks to re-establish that neural muscular connection.

So plan your time now for tomorrow's workout at pbswisconsin.org/quickfit so it doesn't get put off and you continue to see gains.

And until next time, 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.