Quick Fit with Cassy

- This is Quick Fit .

If you're new here, welcome, I'm Cassy Vieth.

If you find yourself sitting too long at a desk or driving a lot, don't wait until your hips or low back hurt.

Take action now to keep your muscles loose and prevent loss of range of motion.

So take your shoes off, have a sturdy chair nearby, and get ready to join me.

[gentle music] All right, standing with your legs fairly wide apart, let's just do some easy swings, starting to stretch the hips, and consider your mat.

You kinda have to find just the right thickness.

Sometimes, if they're extra thick, I mean, that feels good, but it also might make you feel a little off-balance.

So just keep that in mind.

Let's just do a nice circle.

[inhales] Inhale.

[exhales] Taking your time, using your abs to help you stabilize.

All right, and now mirror me.

You'll turn your toes out.

This would be your left leg, and then sit in to the other hip.

[exhales] Take your time with your breathing to help facilitate the stretch down your hip.

All right, especially men have much tighter hips typically, and they won't even hardly get what we're doing here.

So be relaxed about it.

Don't be too hard on yourselves.

Inhale, [inhales] exhale and just let the hip joint move.

I'm not actually leaning over.

It's just, I have more range of motion in my hips.

So inhale, [inhales] exhale, [exhales] and take your time.

You'll feel it releasing if you try to relax and do a lot of extra breathing.

All right, circle around, and once again, I'm not leaning forward.

I'm just using that range of motion in my hips to move the hips around.

Think of yourself as drawing a circle around your feet.

Your feet are in the middle of the circle.

Go the other way.

All right, now we're going to be turning and just extend one leg back, all right, and push forward through the hips.

My feet are wide enough apart that my front knee bends, and I'm slightly leaning back.

Do that again, inhale, [inhales] exhale, [exhales] leaning back, feeling the front of your hip open.

Now let's lift up the back heel.

Inhale, [inhales] squeeze your bottom.

Your back knee can bend.

Keep it squeezed while you press the heel down.

Lift through the chest.

[inhales and exhales] Hips are slightly forward at the chest, and release.

Let's go the other way.

All right, so you have your other leg behind you now and just let the heel go down.

Big inhale, [inhales] exhale.

[exhales] Squeeze the hips forward, a slight lean back at the chest.

Then we'll change, lifting up the back heel, inhale.

[inhales] Squeeze your hind end so the tailbone tucks under and then press your weight down through your heel.

Lift through the chest.

I know there's a lot to remember, but that's okay.

[inhales and exhales] You'll get used to this one.

It'll become one of your favorite moves because it stretches the hip flexors and all the way down to the quad.

All right, feet nice and wide again.

Let's lift and reach over, stretching all of these muscles.

Other side, lift and reach it over.

Let's do that one more time, each side.

Reach, [inhales] lift, and reach.

Go into a few more hip circles with your legs a little bit wider than the first time.

And reverse.

All right, tuck that tailbone under, bring your feet a little bit closer.

[inhales] Exhale.

Tuck the tailbone under.

[exhales] Press down into an imaginary object, and then with the knees still bent, get into like an outfielder position.

This is a modification of the cow.

All right, do one more cat and do another cow.

Opening up the knees, getting the hips a little lower.

Do the cat again.

[exhales] Open the hips.

[inhales] Get a little bit lower.

You can have your chair nearby.

Open the chest.

In fact, to keep your chest up, you might actually need to have the chair.

I know sometimes if your upper back is weak, you might end up having your chest like really far over.

So let's use the chair, getting down and up.

Make sure you just use your breathing and your repetitions to help your muscles loosen up.

I mean, there's so much involved.

We've got the back, the hips, the knees, the ankles.

[inhales and exhales] Getting lower.

Shift around.

Using or thinking about your heels, getting one heel up, one heel down.

Okay, let's do a few reps now.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] Let's do about five.

Two.

Right down.

All right, let's hold it down here and I'd like you to just let the whole spine relax.

[exhales] and now I'd like you to arch the spine.

Okay, tuck, one more, relaxing.

They say that people that live in countries that don't have toilets like ours but have 'em on the ground have healthier knees, hips, and low backs because they're forced to be in this position so many more times a day than we are.

So I think that's kind of interesting, the value of getting your body weight all the way down through your hips, your knees, and your joints.

All right, if you don't have a chair handy, you can always use a doorframe.

I like the idea of a doorframe to help you get up and down and to also help you lift through the chest, especially if you're super rounded, you'll have that leverage to arch your upper back a little bit more.

All right, so let's go ahead and do a nice series.

Stand with your chair nearby if you like.

Otherwise, you can use this as a opportunity to test your balance.

Bend that knee, and then just do like a windshield wiper motion side to side.

[inhales and exhales] Catching your breath from all those squats.

All right, and then extend the leg out to the side.

So imagine that there's a spot or a big circle drawn on the floor that's a little bit further than you can actually reach, but you're going to try.

So extend, reach all the way around.

Keep stretching as you're moving around the circle.

We're opening up that joint.

One more time, inhale, exhale and reach it around, going as slow as you need to to concentrate on both moves: making the circle and reaching the circle.

I can feel almost like I'm gonna get a charley horse right in there, so it's good.

Let's go ahead and do a hydrant.

So just like it sounds.

Inhale, exhale, lifting that leg over.

One more, [inhales] and enjoy this one.

Usually, my standing leg clicks.

I know if I'm traveling a lot especially or sitting too much, this is my go-to move.

All right, figure four.

Get that ankle crossed anywhere you can across your other leg and then we wanna sit back, all right, as if you're sitting in a chair and really enjoy the stretch through your hip.

[inhales and exhales] Inhale.

[inhales] Exhale with a little gentle pressure down.

Now lift the knee into the hand.

That will help the stretch.

Press it down.

Inhale.

[inhales] Exhale, sitting back.

[exhales] One more time, lift the knee into the hand and relax.

Let's switch sides.

Shake it off.

All right, bend that knee.

Do that windshield wiper.

This is a great move for the ball and socket.

Trying to keep the knee bent at a nice 90 degree, and now extend, reach out to that circle and slowly move all the way around.

[inhales and exhales] Don't forget to breathe.

Sometimes it's real common for people to hold their breath when they're working, but don't, [inhales and exhales] and don't be embarrassed about breathing heavy.

Supply your muscles with the oxygen it needs and your brain.

All the way around, keep reaching, keep reaching, and asking your brain to do all these different things all at the same time is super healthy.

It helps the brain to actually grow, no matter what your age.

All right, bend that knee, lean it over for the hydrant.

You got the chair to help support your core.

Pull in your stomach as well.

All right, get that ankle up over the knee.

Inhale.

[inhales] Sit it down.

[exhales] Press that knee down and lift into your hand.

Lift, lift, lift.

Stand up, inhale.

[inhales] Exhale, over.

[exhales] Little stretch, and then lift into the hand, lift.

All right, good one.

Shake that off, and then we'll use the chair for the next couple moves.

First thing I'd like you to do is get your leg up on top of the seat and now actively press down into the top of the seat.

Press, press, press.

Inhale.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] Stretch.

Good.

Slight bend in the knee is totally fine.

Let's let that leg fall open.

Try to lift the hip and let it fall.

Good.

You can straighten out the foot.

Tuck the tailbone under.

Let your head and neck relax.

So I'm making like a big letter C. Okay, and now arch the spine.

[inhales and exhales] Take your time.

Sometimes this particular routine here is not automatically understood by people, so just take your time and move all the movements.

Good, let's do the other side.

I promise it'll get easier with consistency.

All right, first thing we'll do is press down into the seat.

You ready?

Press, and if you can't feel like you're getting enough leverage, pull your stomach in, squeeze your bottom, grip the mat with your foot, and continue to press, press, press.

Good job, inhale.

[inhales] Exhale, and we'll sit back and stretch.

[exhales] Shift, shift, shift.

[exhales] Let that leg fall open to the side.

Lift the hip.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] And one more, relaxing.

The standing leg's getting a lot of work too, just having to support you throughout that whole time.

Taking action toward better health through movement is the best choice you can make.

I hope you feel empowered that you can make a difference in your own health.

I highly recommend you join me each day at pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where consistency truly is the key to great results.

Don't put it off.

Plan tomorrow's workout right now and keep moving.