- Did you know, muscles have an ideal firing pattern?

But does that really matter?

Hello, I'm Cassy, and this is Quick Fit , your place for aging well.

I love helping people understand the hows and whys of exercise.

I think it keeps us more committed.

So join me now for a fun and educational workout.

[gentle music] As I mentioned in the opening, when your muscular prime movers for any movement become weak or the stabilizing muscles don't engage, the weaker, less ideal muscles try to do the work.

Long-term, this can lead to spasms and other muscle imbalances in other areas.

We're gonna be laying on our back to do all the deep abdominal work.

But I wanted to introduce to you a nice tool, a yoga wedge.

As you can see, it's angled so that you can lay back.

If you're uncomfortable when you lay on your back, perhaps your upper back is built up and you're just not comfortable, or if you have vertigo.

So there's always a way for us to get these exercises done.

So I'll just show you how I would use it if I needed it.

And we'll roll on back, get comfortable.

And our first move we'll be doing today is the vacuum.

You're very used to that.

So let's just pull in, squeeze your hind end so that you can get your low back on the floor.

We don't want to be able to get your hand underneath your back, and we're just pulling in and holding.

And you shift around if you need to.

Push into your muscles so that you can feel them activate.

And you have to continuously pull them in and take that inventory to make sure you're not releasing any as you're breathing.

So keep pulling in.

Maybe lift your ribs and start again.

The idea is to do a hold like this for as long as possible, maybe start doing them during commercial breaks or when you're riding in the car.

All right, the next exercise we're going to do is going to work with the X pattern.

So I'll show you what I mean by that.

You have muscles that work together and they draw like an X across your body.

So the first thing I'd like you to do is extend your left arm, but don't relax it onto the floor, and engage your abs so that your low back is on the floor, and just lift your right foot up off the floor about an inch, and then act like you're pushing down onto something with that foot.

So you'll feel your core engage.

It's all the deep muscles that we need to condition by exercises like this, okay.

Very good, we're just gonna hold it there and let's switch sides.

So you'll extend your other arm up overhead.

Not on the floor.

And then just lift that leg and foot about an inch off the floor.

Feel your low back pressing into the floor.

Press your abs, make sure they're all tight, contracted.

Exhale, very good.

Now next, we're going to do a little bit of movement.

So we'll put your hands behind your back.

We'll lift that right foot slightly off the floor, and then draw that elbow towards the knee, and press an imaginary object down with that foot.

But don't put the foot on the floor.

Do it again.

Engage the abs, cross, press that foot down into the floor.

Let's do five of those, nice and slow and controlled, Five, exhale.

Four, three, keep engaging.

Two, and we'll switch sides.

So lift that other foot just off the floor.

We'll keep it off there the whole time.

Cross, press, cross.

Continue to monitor that low back.

You never want that low back to come off the floor.

And we want the abs to stay engaged.

Good job.

Now this time, I'd like you to extend your left arm.

Lift that right leg up like you did earlier, and now draw the elbow to the knee, press the foot towards the floor, but extend completely.

Elbow to knee.

Extend that arm, reach, reach, reach.

And press into an imaginary object, maybe a balloon with your foot.

[inhales] Okay, exhale.

Three, two, last one, and we'll switch sides.

All right, start with your hands behind your head.

We'll extend the right arm.

Left leg slightly off the floor.

And elbow to knee, good.

Extend the arm, the foot just stays close to your butt.

The knee is bent.

Good.

Is your low back still on the floor?

Good, bring it in.

Control is the key here, and a constant tightening of all those abdominals.

Last one, good job.

And reach, lift the chin.

Good job, okay, hands on your hips for this one.

And now I'd like you to just lift up the front of your left foot.

Keep the heel down and press the heel into the floor and slide it.

Feel your abs, make sure they're engaged, and bring it back.

Good, low back needs to be on the floor, slide it.

Now, what's going on with your right foot?

Make sure you're actively pushing that into the floor as well.

So you should feel your glutes, especially on the right leg.

You should feel your abs tight while you're sliding and bringing it back.

Good, let's do the other leg.

So press this foot into the floor.

Activate the glutes, slide the right leg.

Bring it back.

Continue to monitor the low back still, pressing it into the floor.

Good.

[exhales] And slide it, bring it back.

Good, one more.

Last one, exhale.

Very good.

This next exercise I'm gonna show you, sometimes people's pelvises get a little tipped, they get out of whack a little bit, a little rotated.

And so I would like you to press your left foot into the floor and then draw your right knee into your hand.

Okay, and go.

For eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, and release.

This is a great trick for putting that pelvis back into alignment.

And you ready?

We're going to press with the right foot and bring that left knee into your hands, and go.

Did you feel your low back press into the floor?

I hope so.

Three, two, one, good job.

We'll do one more on the other side.

Ready and pull.

Pull a little more.

Five, four, three, two, release.

One more, go.

For eight, seven, six, five, four, pull the abs in, and done.

Good job.

All right, let's cross your right ankle over your knee.

Hands behind your head.

And we'll do a reach and a hold.

Good job, reach a little further.

Try not to draw the knee to the elbow, try to get the elbow to the knee.

Pull in those abs and lay it back for a little rest.

Breathe it in, exhale, [exhales] and twist.

Reach, reach a little further.

Reach for three, two, and done, good.

Let's switch sides.

Almost done.

[inhales and exhales] All right, and twist and reach.

Press the low back into the floor.

Don't bring the knee to the elbow, bring the elbow towards the knee.

So we don't have to do a lot of reps with these.

This is about conditioning those deep muscles that are around your spine.

Inhale, exhale, [exhales] and reach.

Good job, hang in there.

For five, four, three, two, last one, good job.

And let's roll over and stretch it out.

Roll over onto your elbows.

Ready and press, feels good!

[inhales] Inhale, exhale.

[exhales] And we'll come up onto your hands and knees.

Good job, guys.

These few specific moves are excellent for someone with low back pain due to a weakened core.

So come back often to repeat this class at pbswisconsin.org/quickfit and find more easy and effective exercises that you can do right at home to keep you strong, mobile, and pain-free.

See you next time.

- 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.