Quick Fit with Cassy

- This is Quick Fit , and I'm your host, Cassy Vieth.

Did you know the glutes, your bum, your backside, is large for a reason?

It's because it's a major muscle group for getting you up and propelling you forward.

Atrophy of the glutes is a common source of back pain, but I want to encourage you, even from a seated position, we can strengthen the glutes and reduce pain.

So join me now and I'll show you how it's done.

[bright music] Let's warm up by sitting forward on your chair and shifting the hips.

Notice my knees and feet are about shoulder-width apart.

And as you shift your hips, try to twist through the torso just a little bit, keeping the knees open.

You know, our modern society of sitting for long hours, driving as opposed to walking, and even those raised toilets all contribute to weakened glutes.

You may think, "So what?"

But did you know weakness and lack of use triggers muscle atrophy?

And atrophy is a very, very real source of pain.

Now let's tuck that tail and arch.

Still in the warmup.

[inhales] Inhale, exhale.

[exhales] Very good.

Stretching all of those muscles that are upstream and downstream from your glutes.

All right, very nice.

Now let's extend your right leg, if you're mirroring me, and it really does help to sit on the front edge of your chair so that your your hips aren't too bound up on the seat, and pull that foot towards you.

You can feel it stretching all along the back of that leg.

[inhales] All right.

And slight lean forward.

Make sure you're putting weight down through this leg so you just don't fall forward.

All right, and lots of breathing.

Inhale, [inhales] exhale.

You can relax the knee, relax the foot.

It takes a little bit of practice to figure out how to relax that knee cap.

And then try not to round, okay?

If you have a nice, straight spine, you'll get more stretching in the back of the leg.

Inhale.

You might not be able to go as far, but that's okay because we want to stretch the back of the leg.

All right, now let's switch legs.

Okay, at first, I just want you to pull that foot towards you.

All right, feel that stretch in the back of your calf.

[inhales] Nice and tall.

And get ready to lean forward by lengthening through your spine.

And now relax the knee cap and the ankle, pressing the back forward.

Inhale.

[inhales] Now, everybody's going to feel it in slightly different places.

You might be feeling it really tight behind your knee or up high.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] You gotta breathe deeply.

Exhale long.

One more, exhale.

[exhales] Good, good, good.

All right, now sit a little bit, about halfway back into your chair and widen your legs as far as you can.

Nice, tall arms.

Have your ankles under those knees, and I'd like you to press.

Press.

Press your knees wide, and press down through the heels.

Press.

You might even feel yourself come up off your chair a little bit.

All right, press and press.

Inhale, exhale.

And don't worry if you're not coming off your seat.

You're starting to activate long-unused muscles.

Muscles that haven't been used for a long time.

So they need a little time to acclimate and get conditioned.

All right.

[exhales] Press your heels, very good.

All right, shake that off.

And now I'd like you to sit sideways so you're about halfway on, halfway off the chair.

Just hook that arm around the back of your seat and let your other leg hang straight down.

Find your front heel under your knee.

Find your back toes.

And now, I'd like you to press down equally with two feet and come up off that chair.

Hands are for balance only.

And down.

Don't rest all your weight on the chair.

Get right back up, okay?

Down and right back up.

So a little bit of weight on the seat, but not much.

If you're strong, then as soon as you feel the chair at the back of your skin, you can come right back up.

And down.

Hold it right above the seat.

Little bounces.

Push through that front heel.

Check yourself.

If your knee is past your toes, you need to push back, okay?

Push through the back toes, so we're stretching your toes as well as working the leg muscles.

And now hold.

Hold about three inches above the seat.

Hold, hold, hold, balance.

Real good.

Hang in there.

And down and switch sides.

Okay, find your front heel under your knee.

Extend that back leg so you can find your toes, the ball of the foot.

All right, find your balance.

Stabilize and press.

Find a comfortable spot for your back leg so you have nice control and stabilization.

Maybe you need to widen this back leg so that they're not in line, making it really wobbly.

Nice, stable base.

Down till you feel the seat behind your leg.

And up.

[inhales] Good, and then, how's your posture?

If you're all hunched over, I'd like you to lengthen.

Head up over your shoulders.

Down and up.

[inhales] This is a great exercise with a little bit of a safety net under you.

Down and up.

[inhales] Down and up.

Okay, about an inch above the chair.

And I'd like you to just bounce.

Bounce.

[inhales] These are conditioning your legs.

Great.

And now, about three inches above the chair.

Adjust your feet and just hold.

[inhales and exhales] Find your balance.

You guys are doing good, hang in there.

And down.

Good job, good job, all right.

Stay right here where we are, and let's just lift that leg straight out to the side.

Now, imagine there's a wall right in front of your thigh.

If there was a wall here, then it would prevent you from doing this.

Your leg wants to cheat.

These are weak.

So you wanna go sideways.

Sideways.

Not forward, sideways.

Sideways.

And if your leg keeps cheating and drawing forward, then turn and put two hands on your chair back.

That'll help.

You can also consciously push the leg back and reposition it with every rep.

Lift.

This is getting those side glutes, the glute medius.

You have three sets of gluteus muscles, and we're trying to hit them all.

The side ones are some of the weakest ones.

Lift.

All right, lift and hold.

And down, let's switch sides.

Okay.

Hook that arm around, straight down, and straight out to the side.

Lift, lift, lift.

Turn if you need to.

Readjusting the leg, pushing it back if you find it's drawing forward.

Lengthen the spine.

We're pulling on the chair back for a little leverage.

Don't hold your breath.

[inhales and exhales] Lift and hold.

Ready, lift, two, three.

Stomach's in.

Nice, pretty, tall spines.

And down, good job.

All right, sit up forward in your chair with your feet about shoulder-width apart.

And don't have your heels too far back like this.

I want you to push through your heels, okay?

Lengthen your spine and get ready to get up.

Lean out over till you can feel your heels are pressing and your bottom is light on the seat, okay?

Reach, find those heels.

Lift the bum off the chair.

Lift.

Lift.

And lift, no hands necessary.

All legs, all glutes.

Lift.

Think press.

Press with the feet.

There you go, knees open.

Don't let this thing happen, that's really bad for your knees.

Lift, and lift and hold.

I didn't warn you, did I?

Hold, hold, stomach's in.

And down.

Good, let's just do a couple single legs.

Okay, you can put one foot on top of the other or you can cross your knees.

All right.

And you can use your hands just for a little stabilizing of balance, but don't push.

What I mean is don't use your hands to push off, just keep you from toppling over one way or the other.

Press through the leg.

Even if you don't get up out of the chair, that pressing is still conditioning your muscles.

All right, switch legs.

Press.

Press.

About four or five more.

Press.

I'm not pushing with my hands, I promise.

All right, one more.

Press and down.

All right, draw that ankle up.

Big exhale.

[exhales] Kinda short and sweet, but very effective workout.

Press it down.

And twist.

[inhales and exhales] Letting that leg relax as you pull the knee past center.

Now we'll do the other side.

Lift and exhale.

Pressing it down.

[exhales] These feel so good.

I love this stretch.

And pull it across.

Twist.

[inhales and exhales] Isn't that a great workout?

So many exercises we can do right from a seated position.

Now, you can expect some soreness, and this is good.

Get used to some discomfort as you exercise and know that you created more benefit by stretching yourself past your comfort level.

In fact, plan to come back here to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where I'll continue to show you how to care for yourself today so you can have a strong and more active tomorrow.

Until then, 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.