Quick Fit with Cassy

- Thank you for deciding to give this Quick Fit class a try.

I'm your host, Cassy Vieth.

Low back pain and hip tightness are common imbalances in the LPHC, or lumbo-pelvic-hip complex.

That pain can keep you from doing all the things you love.

So if you want many more years enjoying your favorite pastimes pain-free, then join me to see how great you can feel.

[upbeat music] To start, let's sit forward in your seat, and I really recommend you take your shoes off to set your feet free and give them a good stretch as well.

So relax your spine, roll it back, and press forward.

Very good, sit up a little bit.

We'll use one arm, just mirror me.

This will be your left arm, pull it back, inhale.

[inhales] Exhale, and we're rounding the back, pulling in the abs.

[exhales] Good.

Roll it back, the other one.

Roll it back.

[exhales] Good, now lift that shoulder.

Let's do the other side, press it.

Lift that shoulder.

Two arms.

Press against an imaginary object.

Exhale.

[exhales] Stomach's pulling in.

The back is rounding.

And then lifting one shoulder and then the other, stretching through your ribs, releasing the tension in that low back.

Now sit up tall as you can and arch the whole spine all the way from the shoulders through your tailbone.

Start widening your legs and fold over.

[exhales] Nice.

Let's do a little bit of a twist.

Two hands onto your left knee, big inhale, and then exhale.

Press that leg open, don't let it collapse.

Exhale, let the shoulder drop.

Very good, let's do the other side.

Big inhale.

Arching your spine, fold it over, reach across, and now inhale.

[inhales] Exhale to release those muscles, [exhales] dropping that shoulder.

I'm sure you feel the stretch through your legs.

And now widen those legs.

In fact, press against that right leg, stretching that inner thigh.

Okay, and the other one.

Press against it.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] Extra big inhales, extra long exhales.

All right.

Once again, lift, then round the back, pressing forward, drop that chin.

Lift one shoulder, then the other, getting a little deeper.

Good, and sit up.

Arch the spine.

Big inhale to prepare, folding over.

[exhales] Reach across.

Big inhale, switch to the other side.

[inhales and exhales] I hope this is feeling good to you already.

Now let's press that thigh open.

You can see if you can get that elbow to straighten out, just stiff arm.

And stretch.

Other leg, press it open.

Inhale when it gets too tight [inhales] and then exhale to get a little deeper.

Yep, that just feels perfect.

Let's draw that knee up, all right?

Now, as you draw it up, imagine you can touch your ribs to your thigh and lift that chest.

And now let's move that leg out and down.

Make little circles with it.

Grab your ankle and press the knee away.

Now, I know that's pretty tight, so don't make yourself grimace.

Just pause when it starts to pull.

Inhale [inhales] and exhale.

Do that as many times as you need to to get it to loosen up.

Don't let me rush you.

All right, other side, pull that leg up.

Let's arch the spine, lengthen, use the leverage of the leg to help you lift.

[inhales and exhales] And then move the leg around, nice, big circles.

Grab that ankle and gently push the knee away.

When it gets to start to pull and be too uncomfortable, lift the knee and then exhale, press it again.

All right, switching legs again.

Bring that knee up.

Very good, let's cross it across this time.

And you can let the leg relax.

Maybe it's above the knee.

Maybe it's slightly below the knee.

Find your comfort level.

And then we'll twist, a nice spine stretch.

Come partway out with a big inhale [inhales] and then go back into it as you exhale.

[exhales] Feels so good.

Other leg, bring that knee up again.

Lift into it.

Cross.

See how far you can get the knee and the thigh past the middle of your body.

Gentle pull.

[inhales] Let that leg relax.

Use your arm for a little leverage and open.

[exhales] Now I didn't get as far as I usually do, so I'm gonna pause.

Inhale.

[inhales and exhales] Exhale.

There we go.

[exhales] No need to force it.

[inhales and exhales] Just use that breathing.

Let's do that all again.

Let's lift the leg.

Circles.

Hang on to that ankle and gentle press.

You should be getting a little bit more move this time through that joint lift.

Good.

Circle.

Grab that ankle and a little gentle press.

All right.

One more time, knee up.

Cross the center, relax the leg, and twist.

Other side, leg up.

Cross the center.

Let it relax, [inhales] and twist.

Just beautiful.

[exhales] I know you guys are enjoying this already.

All right, now turn in your seat towards your right so you're half on, half off the chair, and we're just gonna let this knee, this thigh, hang straight down from your hip, okay?

Now, same arm is gonna lift [inhales] and then let your hip sink down towards the floor as you lean towards the back of your chair.

Now, when it starts to get tight, you'll pause, come out of it, inhale, and go back into it with a long exhale.

Feel your hip and your side release and stretch.

Very nice.

All right, now let's extend your leg, not directly to the side, but kind of on a diagonal, okay?

Do your best to straighten your knee.

You should be on the inside of your foot or on the bottom of your foot and twist away.

Twist towards your chair back.

Good, and just feel those hip flexors stretching, the deep groin muscles.

Nice, come out of that.

Very good, now I'd like you to squeeze your hind end.

It'll make your pelvis tuck under a little bit and then you're just going to feel different muscles altogether.

[inhales] Release it, inhale, and then exhale, squeeze again.

[exhales] All right, release.

All right, look at your knee and just see if you can reach a little bit further.

Try to relax through your kneecap and try not to turn your shoulder towards the floor.

So straight over.

Good.

Now come out of that and see if you can get your leg to extend more behind you.

We'll lift that arm, [inhales] squeeze your hind end, press your toes into the floor.

[exhales] Very good.

Reach to the ceiling and release.

Good job, guys.

Let's turn around to the other side and do it all on the other side.

So once again, we're half on, half off the seat.

Hook your arm around the chair back and just let your weight fall off towards the floor, but not going all the way to the floor, of course.

Just let it hang there.

Let gravity stretch.

And then reach over the top of your head.

Come partway out with a big, long inhale, belly inhale, and then exhale.

[exhales] Use your abdominals to push that air out.

That's such a nice stretch; let's do that again.

Inhale.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] Nice, very nice.

All right, come up and extend that leg out to the side.

Do your best to get that knee extended, all right?

Now, twist and reach towards your chair back.

Hold that as you breathe, don't hold your breath.

[inhales and exhales] Nice.

All right, now face your other knee and squeeze your hind end.

It'll tuck it under a little bit.

Adjust any way you need to to get a nice movement and to feel the groin stretch.

Hip flexors stretching.

These are the ones that get so tight from sitting for so many hours a day.

And now straight over, reaching beyond the knee if possible.

Just a little one there.

That's not an easy stretch.

And then draw that leg to the back.

Think about stretching those toes and stretching that heel, okay?

Sit tall as you can, arm up, poke a hole in the ceiling.

[exhales] Exhale.

And if you can keep moving that arm, you've got more room, more range, then do it.

Good job.

All right, come out of that.

Now we're gonna get up out of this chair because we all sit too much, but it is a good tool, so I like to use it.

We're gonna do some get-ups and some squats.

So first, we'll start with your knees at a nice V right out from your hips.

Your heels need to be just slightly back of your knees.

Not too far back, because we want to activate the hamstrings and the glutes instead of just all of the quads.

All right, so your knees are a little bit wider than shoulder-width apart, and we're gonna make a nice, long spine.

And we're going to reach forward as far as you can.

But of course, I don't want you dropping down like that.

We're going to reach forward.

There's something you wanna reach.

Start pushing through your heels.

Now, if your knees have started to come together, check that and keep your knees in line with the tops of your feet, okay?

So keep those knees open.

I don't mean for you to move your feet.

Just keep the knees from collapsing.

Press through the floor, press through your heels.

All right, we're going to get up, very good.

And then slowly reach the butt back, push through the heels, land on the chair.

Again, press through the heels and come up and then reach your butt back.

The chair is there.

You didn't move your feet.

The chair's there, very good.

Another one, up, back down, reach back with the butt.

And up.

And now this time, we're barely going to put our weight on the chair.

Just feel it in the back of your legs.

Get right back up.

Reach it back, back.

Feel the seat.

Come back up.

Two more.

Feel the seat, explode.

And last one.

Now we'll put our weight on the chair again.

Sit up, explode.

Very good.

Reach it back with the hind end, find your chair.

Reach forward, explode, and back.

And up and back.

And up.

Good job.

All right, let's go to the side of our chair and we'll do a few more exercises for the hips.

All right.

[inhales and exhales] Not too close to the chair.

And let's bring this leg out to the side for a few hydrants, okay?

See if you can get that knee up about hip height, stomach's in, lift, lift, lift, lift.

And a nice, long spine.

Stomach's in to support your spine and your core.

We're not pushing off the chair.

The chair's just here for a little extra stability.

All right, and toe in.

Lift out to the side, stomach's in, lift, lift.

Feel those muscles, those glute medius, all right?

They're your glutes, but they come around the side and they're really important for stability.

Okay, lift, lift.

All right, toe out, make a circle, squeeze.

Imagine there's a balloon between your heels.

Toe in, toe out.

Squeeze that balloon.

Toe in, toe out.

Squeeze the balloon.

Again, in, circle, squeeze.

In, circle.

[exhales] Don't hold your breath.

Breathe as heavy as you need to to do this work.

All right.

One more.

Toe in, rotate, squeeze.

Switch sides.

That was good.

All right, starting with the hydrants again.

All right, bend that knee, lift it up.

Start with a couple slow ones, lift, lift.

It feels good to use these muscles, doesn't it?

Lift, lift.

I always find it so fascinating that people can do work, you know, exercises that are work, contracting the muscles, and they'll say to me, "That just feels so good."

Your body wants to be strong, the muscles want to be used.

And when you find one that's not been used and then you use it, it just feels good.

All right.

Toe in.

Now lift that leg out to the side.

You might feel like you're gonna get a charley horse if the muscle's very weak, and so you can reduce the turn in and just go to the side.

Just adjust a little bit until those muscles are stronger.

Lift, lift.

All right, let's make that circle.

Let's squeeze that balloon.

Turn it in, make the circle.

Squeeze the heels together.

Rotate, circle, squeeze.

In, out, squeeze.

Let's do three more.

Three, two, and one.

Good job.

All right, a few calf stretches before we finish.

I like to use the chair leg to help me decrease the angle between my foot and my shin.

So just place the ball of your foot, your toes, against the chair leg, and then press the heel towards it.

When it's super tight, do what we always do, inhale and then go back into it, exhale.

[exhales] Feel your calves stretching and that Achilles tendon.

[exhales] Inhale.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] You can do this any time, working through any particular stretch that you like for a good 60 seconds.

[inhales] And you'll see great gains in a couple weeks with consistency.

Let's do the other leg.

Find the ball of the foot.

Inhale to prepare.

Exhale to stretch.

[exhales] No grimacing.

Inhale, [inhales] exhale.

[exhales] I want it to feel good so that your body says, "You know, do that again."

Inhale [inhales] and exhale.

Almost done.

My favorite full-body stretch are the potty squats, all right?

So we'll get into it gradually like everything else.

We'll have your feet about shoulder-width apart.

We'll start easing our hips down.

Now, if your calves, the area we were just working right through here is tight, what'll happen is you'll get so far and then you won't be able to get your hips down, so you'll drop your shoulders.

Don't bother doing that.

Just see how far you can get your hips down.

And when they don't go any further, then come up and try it again.

[exhales] But dropping your shoulders isn't gonna help.

We want to get flexibility in the ankles and the knees and the hips.

So just keep working on these.

These are some of the best, most healing stretches.

[inhales and exhales] Good job, everybody.

I hope you feel better and that you kept trying, even when it was difficult.

I want to encourage you that with consistency, this class will get easier and feel much better within just a few short weeks.

In fact, I expect you'll add movements to get deeper into the stretches where you find you need it.

Follow along again with me right here at pbswisconsin.org/quickfit because aging well really is possible with a little daily effort.

I look forward to seeing you again soon.

– Announcer: Funding for Quick Fit with Cassy is provided by Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.