- This is Quick Fit , like your daily multivitamin, but better.

Because by the end of class, you'll feel within your body that you've done something good for your health.

But unlike a pill, it takes a bit of effort and commitment.

So give yourself a pat on the back for being here.

And now let's get started on a workout for your abdominals.

[upbeat music] Sitting back in your seat, take this opportunity to work without shoes.

We'll start with vacuums to activate the core muscles, the deep core muscles that are right up around your spine.

So you'll sit up tall, but I want you to pull in your belly button and flatten your back against the chair back.

You can squeeze your hind end a little bit to help you recruit more muscles from here to here, and you can make little adjustments, and you can push against your muscles to make sure they're all doing what they should.

And if you push your feet a little bit against the floor, just make sure it doesn't make you topple over backwards.

Exhale, pulling in.

This is just a hold, trying to hold tight and compress as much as you can.

Let's add a couple little leans, right and left, helping us engage more and more and more.

All right, now you can pull on the bottom of the seat.

Let's lift a leg and pop that imaginary balloon that's under your foot.

Now to do this, you'll probably have to tighten up your legs as well.

So lift and press.

Are you still feeling your back pressing against the chair back?

Are you still pulling in your belly button?

I hope so.

All right, lift, press, lift and press.

[inhales] Exhale.

All right, now let's use this left elbow, and meet your right knee, lift, squeeze, lift, squeeze.

[inhales] Few more.

Squeeze and five, four, three, two.

Last one, switching sides.

Hand up behind your head.

A nice twist, lift and lower at the same time.

Reach, [inhales and exhales] blow, exhale.

Exhale as you lift that knee and twist, compressing as many muscles as possible.

Three, two, last one.

Good job, reach it to the floor.

All right, a tall spine, bending directly right and left.

Inhale, exhale.

[inhales and exhales] What's that, about three, taking your time.

Maybe you can get over a little further.

Each way, widen your feet so you feel stable and like you can go over a little further.

All right, now scoot your weight to the front of the seat so that the chair back doesn't get in the way, and I'd like you to lean back and up.

Let's do that about, about eight more times, reaching.

So you've got a little twist, and you're leaning back slightly behind vertical, okay?

So you do have to sit on the front edge of your seat so you don't end up reclining.

Good.

Pull your belly in so that you kind of rock back on your behind so you can engage more of your abs to support the move.

Okay, let's do about four, three, two, one.

Other side, okay?

One, up each time, two, three, and four, five.

[exhales] Blow it out.

Good.

Last one, reach it, reach it, and up.

Turn in your seat.

I want you to turn to your right so that we're mirroring each other.

And I'd like you to sit fairly close to the edge of the side of your seat.

We're going to lean back, but we're actually rolling back.

So if you're not sure what I mean, if you try to lean back with an arched back, you won't be able to get any strength from your abs.

So tuck that tailbone under, squeeze your behind, and lean back and hold.

[inhales] You can extend the leg if you feel like you need something to counterbalance your weight.

[exhales] Hang on, and up.

[inhales] Good, let's reset.

Squeeze the bottom, roll it back, exhale.

[exhales] With or without the leg.

Let's go for about 10 more seconds.

Pulling the belly in, control, control, and up.

Arch the back to stretch, then tuck the tailbone again and blow.

[exhales] Hold, stomach's in.

Squeeze, push on the muscles to make sure they're engaged.

All right, now hold it here.

Reach, reach, reach, reach, reach.

[exhales] Kind of a twist, twist and reach.

Trying to twist through the shoulders.

One more.

We'll sit up and rest.

Just a moment, roll it back.

All right, extend that leg.

Sit up and reach underneath.

Extend the leg and reach.

Sorta like you're passing a tennis ball under the knee, and up.

Five, six, seven, eight, keep it going, nine.

If you need a break, that's fine.

Count to three and join us again.

[inhales and exhales] You'll be surprised.

Three-second break is pretty helpful, and then each time you do this, you'll be able to see how much further you're getting.

Hmm, ready to be done?

Good job, me too.

Sit up, arch that spine, then we get to do the other side.

Good, sit up and turn.

All right.

Sit near the edge so that as you lean back, there's a room for you to lean back and hold, good.

Shooting for about 15 seconds, you can push your lower abs, pull the belly button in, extend the leg if you need to.

Oh, let's go for five, four, three, two, and up.

Is your stomach muscles starting to like vibrate a little bit?

To shake, lean it back.

That's good.

You're challenging your abs.

[exhales] Exhale, pull in the abs, hang in there.

A little bit of work goes a long way.

Five, four, three, two, and extend.

We'll do that one more time.

[inhales] And blow.

[exhales] Hang in there.

You guys can do this.

And five, four, three, two, and one.

One more rest, sitting up, leaning back.

Let's do those ball twists, okay?

So imagine you have a ball and you're gonna twist and back up.

Twisting through the shoulders, not just moving the arms, all right?

Twist and up.

You can do it with or without the leg.

I know the muscles that go down the quad can get tired.

Twist and twist.

Good, now sit up, one last stretch before we go into that final extend.

Extend and bend.

Passing that tennis ball under your knee.

[inhales and exhales] Okay, keep it going.

[inhales and exhales] About halfway, keep it going.

You can do it.

Take a break if you must, but then don't forget to join us.

Your abs are getting stronger with every rep.

Couple more.

Last one, good job.

Sit up and stretch, stretch, stretch.

All right, we'll lean back.

We've got one more exercise, lift, lift.

You can hang on to your seat.

Now pop that balloon and pop, lift, lift, press, press.

Lift, lift, press, press, lift.

How many should we do?

Press, press.

20?

[inhales] [laughing] 10?

How many have we done?

I hope somebody's paying attention.

I'm not good at counting and doing these things.

So we'll just do about four sets more.

Lift, lift, down, down.

Lift, I start to get faster as I get tired.

[chuckles] Oh, I think that's enough.

Let's lift, face forward, arch your spine, and stretch.

Very good.

Twist, [inhales] exhale.

Don't let that other knee come in.

And lift [inhales] and exhale.

Keep your knees wide.

And that's it.

That was a great workout to wake up and restore strength and endurance to your core musculature in the front and sides.

Hopefully, within a day or two, you'll feel some soreness.

Use that sensation to remind yourself to engage your muscles throughout the day.

Then after about a day or two, you can come back to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit to repeat this particular class, paying attention to how much easier it's getting each time.

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.