- How many of you struggle walking down the stairs?

Maybe you turn sideways, and wonder why you need to do that.

I'm Cassy, and today's Quick Fit focus is on the calves.

These long muscles at the back of your lower leg can create all kinds of difficulty, so let's do a simple routine together to begin loosening them so you don't lose the ability to do all the things you love.

[upbeat music] We'll just start with some simple ankle circles.

You can have a chair next to you for a little stability.

Circle nice and big.

When muscles become tight, they hinder full range of motion at that joint, so then your body looks for other options for accomplishing a movement.

This is when prime movers become weak.

Other muscles try to take up the slack, joints become unbalanced, and pain creeps in.

Switch legs.

This new pain causes you to move differently, in an unnatural and inefficient manner.

This pain cycle is hard to escape unless you address the root cause.

Nice, long point, stretching that leg from hip to toes.

[inhales] Good job, and flex that foot, pulling it up as far as you can, beginning to warm up the muscles at the back of the calf, that Achilles tendon, down around that heel at the bottom of your foot.

And let's do the other foot.

Okay, long, extended point, toes and all, lengthen through your spine and flex.

Nice, long inhale, exhale, holding this, giving those muscles time to warm up and lengthen.

[inhales] All right.

Put that foot down slightly in front of the other and lift that heel, grip with your toes, press, lift and press, lift and press, putting the weight down through your knee, right down through the ball of your foot, doing your best to stay from your ankle to the ball of your foot, not over on your pinky toe, okay?

Press that down and up, down and up.

Let's switch feet, forward, [inhales] lift and press.

It helps to grip the mat with your toes.

Press, lift and press.

If you have a foam roller, they're just a great tool to help loosen those tight muscles there in your calf and prepare them for stretching.

Press, lift, and stretch.

All right, now let's try to lift just the toes.

Now your ball of your foot is down, so the entire rest of the foot is on the floor.

It's only your toes that are up.

You can actively press the ball of your foot down to help you get a little leverage to lift the toes.

Good, lift, lift, lift.

Five, four, three, two, and one.

Good, let's just work the toes really gently.

You got all your weight down through your other leg, and you're just rocking, loosening up those toes.

And the other foot, tuck them under and back.

If you start to get a charley horse, just take some of the weight out of that leg or the pressure, or just pause, [inhales] lots of breathing.

If you've never exercised your feet before, charley horses are pretty common with those weak muscles.

All right, now let's also put the top of the foot on the floor, maybe you have to bend your knee a little bit to get more of the top of the foot, and then we rotate across the top of the toes.

And the other foot, shifting left and right across those.

All right, now all your weight's down through your right leg.

Let's let that ankle go sideways, just a little bit of weight down through the leg to stretch the side of the ankle, just a little, very gently.

All your weight is either on your other leg or down through the chair.

And invert, evert, kinda like you're brushing the floor with the bottom of your foot.

Okay, so try not to turn the hip, just the ankle.

Good.

Okay, get ready to get on the side of your other foot, just a little bit of weight, enjoying the stretch.

[inhales] Take some of the pressure off with an inhale and exhale.

[exhales] Nice, stand up, and just float that foot right over the floor.

And watch your foot, because chances are this is a move you don't go around thinking about and doing, so let the brain and the muscles communicate, and looking at your action of your foot will help.

All right, let's just use this chair and we will stretch those calves.

So let's draw your left leg back and press that heel down.

You can put some weight down through the top of this chair.

Make sure you can see your foot in front of you.

Heel up and down, slowly getting that heel all the way to the floor.

[inhales] Inhale, exhale.

Tight calves hinder normal walking.

Feet sometimes turn out, causing hip and knee issues.

Sometimes we short step, and then develop weak hamstrings and more.

All right, so let's bend that knee, still working the same leg.

And then we'll take that front foot and cross it across the body a little more, doing a slightly different stretch.

Okay, so your back knee's bent.

Now straighten it.

Good, it feels slightly different.

And then we'll swing this front leg.

Your heel has a little bit of mobility in it, and so all these slight variations make a difference.

Let's put that swinging foot down, bring the other leg forward.

Okay, your back leg, the heel's up, press it down.

Big inhale, [inhales] exhale, and then let that back knee bend just a little bit and then straighten it again.

And then let's move that front foot across the body a little more.

Your back knee is still straight.

Then we'll give it a little bend.

Big inhale, exhale.

Don't forget the value of breathing to help your muscles lengthen, and then finally, the swinging of the front leg.

Good job.

All right, we're not finished yet.

Let's turn your chair so that the seat back is in your right hand and we'll get your left leg up on top.

And now what we're going to try to do is just a little lunge over the top of the chair, moving this knee over your toes.

What we're doing is reducing the angle right here, stretching the calves down into the Achilles tendon.

[inhales] Okay, come out of it with a big inhale and exhale.

[exhales] Good, enjoy that stretch.

And then we'll switch legs.

Okay?

All right, and keeping the heel on the chair, move the knee forward.

Good.

One of the worst results of tight calves is not being able to squat.

This leads to avoiding getting down onto the floor, and I don't like that.

It leaves you vulnerable.

Okay, so let's get down to the floor.

We'll just do a few shallow warm-ups, all right, and then we'll work on a little technique to get you down to the floor.

I'd like you to just put your hands down, let those heels come up, the knees come towards the floor, push your hands so the knees come up.

We'll do that again, [inhales] knees moving closer to the floor, knees moving up.

Walk your hands back by your feet, and then we'll stand.

So that's a good calf stretch, toe stretch.

And now we'll just do a little bit of hip work, all right?

So hang on to your chair and we'll lift the hip, and then drop this hip, sinking into this one.

You can try for some balance.

Do it again.

The more you try to balance, the more you're going to be benefiting the muscles that are in your calf, and that go down into your arch of your foot there.

Okay, so lift and lower, other one.

Okay?

So sink down into this hip, and push into the floor and lift your hip.

Almost done, guys.

[exhales] All that balance work, if you look at my foot, you can see it's activating that arch.

You can feel it in your own feet, you know, they're moving around like that, but that's good.

All right, we're done.

If you found this class difficult, don't be disappointed.

I always say you can't address a problem that you don't know you have.

Now that we've uncovered a problem area, you can work to improve it.

Join me here again daily at pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, because consistency is the number one tool you have to aging well.

I look forward to seeing you again 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.