Quick Fit with Cassy

- Welcome back to Quick Fit .

I'm your host, Cassy Vieth.

Your core is tied together with all the muscles on the front and back of your body, as well as along your sides and down your hips.

Be prepared to be on the floor today as we work all of these muscles.

Let's get moving.

[gentle music] As we begin today, we'll be laying on our back with your knees bent.

The first move we'll be doing is called the vacuum.

And there's not a lot of movement happening, it's actually a hold.

Begin by gently pressing your feet into the floor and squeeze your behind, and you'll feel your back pressing into the floor.

And that's what we want.

Now take an inhale [inhales] and then exhale and getting rid of all the air out of your lungs.

Pull the belly button in towards your spine.

Continue to press the feet into the floor.

We're continuing to hold these muscles in your abs tight.

You're pulling the belly button in, pressing the back into the floor, pressing the feet into the floor.

Now you've probably started to release some of the muscles.

[inhales] Exhale, pull, pull in, make yourself as thin, narrow, squished in through here as possible.

What we're doing is we're working the deep abdominal muscles, deep in around your spine.

And this hold is very, very effective.

We've done this hold, the vacuum hold in a chair, we've done it standing, on your hands and knees.

I like this one because you can feel yourself pressing your back into the floor.

You can use your feet.

We're still doing it.

I know it doesn't look like we're doing anything, but continue to hold.

Pulling in, pulling in.

You can touch those muscles between your hip bones.

Feel that they're actually engaged, the lower abdominal muscles.

And if you don't feel like they're very engaged now, with practice, you'll get better at it and your muscles will get better and stronger.

All right, pull, pull, pull.

All right, press your right foot into the floor and lift the other leg.

At the same time as keeping everything tight and constricted, contracted in your abs, we wanna press this moving leg, okay?

Lift, press.

Lift, press.

Doesn't seem like there's a lot going on, but there is.

Your abdominals are contracted.

Your hind end is contracted, and you're pressing both feet, both feet towards the floor, both feet.

Keep it going.

Press and press, I call these marches.

And now we're going to take the same leg and extend it.

Okay?

[inhales and exhales] Continue to press the back into the floor.

Press the leg down.

Imagine that there's a balloon under your heel and you're pressing.

Press, press, press.

Keep going.

And now we're going to switch direction.

Lift, lift, lift.

Now, you can have your arm or your hand under the back of your head.

If you need a pillow under the back of your head to make this more comfortable.

Sometimes our upper back gets built up and you end up arching your neck too much.

So be comfortable while we do this.

Lift and lift.

Great, switching legs here, lift and press.

Did you see how my abdominals just engaged when I press my back into the floor and I squeeze the hind end and press both heels towards the floor?

Press, and you'll feel your abs and your back and your hips all engage as you do this too.

It might take four weeks if you haven't exercised much, but that's typical and that's normal.

So press, press, press.

Now extend that leg, ready?

Press down into like a balloon or a soccer ball.

It's resisting.

Press, press, press.

All right, you ready?

And lift, lift.

Imagine somebody's holding your leg down, lift into it.

Lift.

Very good, lift.

We're continuing to pull the abdominals in the whole time, pressing that back into the floor.

Very good, all right, bring that leg up and extend.

All right.

I'd like you to reach with your opposite hand towards your leg and down.

Reach.

Keep this other non-moving arm on the floor.

Down, press, down, and press.

Just reach and reach.

Is your back still on the floor?

And then switching sides here.

Okay, extend your leg, opposite arm, you ready?

And reach.

Try to reach past your leg.

Reach, reach, reach.

Few more.

Last one.

Good job, all right, now we're going to roll up and switch onto our elbow.

As you sit here, sit nice and tall, all right?

We don't want your shoulder up by your ears.

Extend the neck, get your ribs up, all right?

And these are called clams, and we'll do a few versions of them.

First, keep your feet together and just lift the knee.

As you do this, lean slightly forward.

This will keep your hips in the right place so that we do work the outer hip.

We don't wanna just work the quads.

They're already probably stronger than your hips and take over quite a bit.

Now keep the knees together and just lift the heel.

This one will be harder.

This requires muscles that are very weak.

Lift, lift, lift.

Keep going.

All right, lift the whole leg now, the ankle and the knee.

And check, is the knee higher than the ankle?

That's because the quads are trying to cheat.

Get the ankle as high as the knee, and let's bring it to the front and we'll drop it down.

Get that bottom leg out of the way.

Lift.

[inhales and exhales] And make sure you're not rolling back, okay?

Have your hand in front of you.

Where's your neck?

Is your shoulder up by your ears?

Get that elbow closer.

Lift, lift, lift.

It's getting tired, but that's good.

And extend.

Rotate the whole leg right in that hip socket.

Are you sinking down?

Lengthen the spine, lengthen your neck.

All right, very good.

Bring that leg in, little stretch.

[exhales] And then we'll switch sides.

[inhales] That stretch feels really good, all right.

Scoot around to the other side and we'll start again with all those clams.

So first things first, keep the ankles together.

Little reach forward, long spine.

Don't let your arm get too far.

[clearing throat] Let's start by lifting the knee.

Lift.

Well, I can feel my hip clicking.

There it goes, it's gone.

Guess I haven't done these very recently, but it feels good.

Cleaning out those joints.

Lift, lift.

All right, squeeze the knees together and just lift the ankle.

Lift.

How's your neck?

Is it down, sunk into your shoulder?

Where are your ribs?

Nice, long spine.

Lift.

All right, now the ankle and the knee lift together.

So take a look.

Is this a nice, horizontal shin?

All right, down to the floor and lift.

Don't roll back.

Make those weak muscles work.

And if they're already just too tired, then you take a three-second break and join when you can.

That's how you get stronger.

[inhales and exhales] Don't say to yourself, "Well, I just can't do it.

"It's just too hard."

It's not.

You build up slowly, but the thing is, you'd be surprised how quickly you will get stronger.

All right, and extend this leg.

It's tired, but don't stop yet.

[inhales] Big inhale, exhale, get ready, rotate.

Rotate the whole leg right in the socket.

Nice, couple more.

Almost done, one more.

And then roll over onto your stomach to finish.

We'll do a few supermans.

Start with your hands right under your chin.

All right, and you can leave your hands on the floor or they can follow.

Let's lift that torso.

[exhales] Exhale, down, and lift.

Squeeze your hind end to help lift, and down.

And up.

All right, right leg up.

Left leg extend.

Bring it on back, and down.

[exhales] Lift, other leg up, opposite arm.

Hold, bring it back in, and down.

Okay, let's do three of them, arms and legs.

And down, and up.

[inhales and exhales] One more, up and hold.

All right, let's bring those arms to the back.

Squeeze your hind end, hold it up nice and high.

And finished.

Very good.

Good job.

All right, get your hands under your chest or under your shoulders.

Push up to a seated position.

[inhales and exhales] A nice, deep inhale, and you'll exhale as we sit it on back, stretching it out.

Shift your hips around, left and right.

[exhales] Very good.

All right, I know many of you dread being on the floor, but trust me, you will be rewarded for your effort, and with consistency, you will find it easier and that you can last longer.

So be patient and don't give up.

You are taking back control of your health and that takes determination.

So determine to be here again tomorrow at pbswisconsin.org/quickfit where together, we can move one step closer to all your fitness goals.

Until then, keep on moving.