- Hello, I'm Cassy, and this is Quick Fit , your place to stretch, strengthen, and relieve pain.

I believe one of the most important body parts to focus our attention on are the glutes.

Sure, they make you look nice in a pair of jeans, but the real purpose is to keep you mobile and pain-free.

So let's get working on them right now.

[gentle music] All right, standing with your feet about shoulder width apart, let's just do some butt squeezes and releases, squeeze and release.

This will just get them warmed up for the rest of the class.

You know, these muscles are large for a reason.

And when you look around, you may notice that many people no longer have glutes.

Their jeans appear flat and their feet toe out.

This is a clear sign of atrophy from years of sitting for long periods of time, and back pain typically accompanies these visual cues.

So keep squeezing, release.

Even if you're not sure if your muscles are joining in with you in this exercise, give 'em a few weeks and you will start to feel your glutes again.

All right, I'm gonna turn slightly and I would just like you to lengthen your spine and draw your leg back.

Squeeze your hind end.

All right, so we're not using any momentum.

We're not moving forward to pull back.

We're starting here, pulling back, and squeeze.

[inhales] Add your breathing [exhales] and draw it back and hold.

Brief hold and again, keep it going.

Stomach's pulled in.

Head is up over your shoulders.

Nice posture.

Pull it back.

[inhales] Keep it going.

All right, hold it back and squeeze.

Slight small, intense lift, lift.

Stomach still in, stand tall.

And we'll switch legs, all right?

Stand tall.

Take that assessment and pull back and hold.

Release and draw it back, release, draw it back.

So it's an intentional press back.

And down, no swinging allowed.

Tall spine, deep breathing.

[inhales] Hold it back, and back.

Not so much of a kick as a squeeze, and hold it there.

Squeeze, squeeze, small and tense, finding that muscle, and squeeze, just like a fist, squeeze, squeeze.

[inhales and exhales] Very good.

All right, I think they're warmed up.

Let's warm up your hips.

We'll do a half squat toe reaches.

So what this means is I'd like you to sit back, okay?

Which is different than knees forward.

Much better for your knees to move the hips back by pushing through your heels, okay?

So from this position, you'll balance on this leg and reach it out and in, out and in.

You can briefly let your weight rest on that toe and then bring it back in.

[inhales and exhales] Watch the knee, that your knee isn't scooting in towards the center of your body.

Keep the knee right over the foot.

Reach, reach, reach, and reach.

So this leg really has a lot of work to do.

It's communicating with your brain to keep you stable.

Your hip, your knee joint, your ankle joint, equilibrium.

Everything's communicating right now.

So it's good for your brain.

All right, let's do the other side.

So come up, release it for a moment.

Hips back again.

You've got this nice angle with your torso.

[inhales and exhales] Stabilize and extend and in, extend.

Do whatever you want with your arms.

Maybe you need them out for better balance.

Try not to hang on for this.

Reach, [inhales] reach, go as slow as you need to to give the brain and the muscles time to communicate.

Reach, reach.

[inhales and exhales] Hope you're breathing heavy as I am.

Reach, but control your breathing.

You know, don't hyperventilate, breathe slow, nice, long inhales and exhales.

All right, we'll do that again, but a little quicker now.

Stabilize, and a little less weight down through your toe on the floor, okay?

Trying to balance on this leg more.

Five, four, three, two, and switch.

Good, come up, sit it back again and go, go, whoops.

Watch the knee that it doesn't pull in.

Reach, reach.

It's important to balance all of your muscles on the front of your body, the back of the body, and side to side, everything needs to be equal, the way they were designed.

When they get out of balance is when pain happens.

All right, shake that off and come up.

[inhales and exhales] All right, some easy squats, okay?

Once again, moving the hips back, not the knees forward.

Start widening those feet.

Making room for the hips to get lower.

[inhales and exhales] Very good.

Keep it going.

Make sure those knees are moving out and that your feet are flat, completely in contact with the floor.

And I hope you're working without your shoes.

Your feet have muscles too, and they need full range of motion, and they need to move and experience exercise all the way down as you can, shift around.

Good, let's try to get your heels down, even if it's one at a time.

Good for the knees to get into this deep part of their range of motion.

All right, let's press through the heels and come up.

Use your chair for this one, only for a little bit of balance just so you don't spend a lot of time getting unstable.

So we'll move the hips back and you'll reach back with one leg, all right?

And reach towards the floor in front of your foot and up.

And over and up.

You can have your other foot in contact with the floor.

Good, reach, and up.

So this is a deep stretch to the hamstring and now let's reach it back and hold.

[inhales and exhales] And I have a straight back, okay?

My back is not rounded.

It's a flat back and I'm not pushing on my leg.

Reach, stabilize, and up.

Good job, switch legs.

The other one is right under your hip.

Draw the other leg back.

Now, I'm gonna take my opposite hand towards my toes and up.

[inhales] Okay, for now, my back leg's in contact with the floor.

My back is still flat.

If you need to reach out and just have a hand on the chair, that's okay.

And now, let's reach it back and hold.

[inhales and exhales] Feel that stretch, and up, stretch, and up.

All right, moving on next to pliés.

Get those knees wide and over your ankles.

Even if they're not wide, make sure your knees are right over your ankles.

Okay, and down and up, down and up, down, pressing the knees open.

They tend to want to come forward towards each other.

And we'll just do some reps and bounces right down low.

Good, keep it going.

Five, four, slow, three, grip with your toes.

Press with your heels, grip with your toes, press with your heels, press the knees open.

Squeeze your hind end.

Five, four, three, two, last one.

Very, very good.

I know that your legs are burning.

All right, let's go down to the floor next, on your back with your knees bent.

All right, have your heels just a little bit in front of your knees and roll it back.

[inhales and exhales] Okay, hands at your sides and lift the hips up.

So you have a nice, long line between your shoulders and your knees, okay?

And squeeze, press through those heels.

Squeeze, squeeze.

Keep it going.

[inhales and exhales] A little extra squeeze at the top.

One, two, three, and down.

Up again, squeeze, two, three, and down.

Squeeze, two, three, and down.

Good, bring one knee in for a relief for the low back.

And now cross that ankle over your knee.

All right, lift and down.

Lift, every time you lift, press the knee down.

Press, press, press, press, and hold.

Five, four, three, two, and switch.

Roll it down.

Draw that knee in for a little stretch and cross it over.

You guys ready?

And lift, squeeze and reps, go.

Making sure you're lifting that hip as high as you can with every rep. Press the other knee down.

It'll give you a little bit of leverage.

Press, press, all right, and hold, five, four, three, and roll it down and roll over onto your face.

All right, you can put your hands just right under your chin and let's bend your knee, flex your foot, and lift the knee right off the floor.

If that doesn't get you right in the hamstring and the glutes, it is, believe me, it is.

And you might be getting a charley horse.

If you're getting a charley horse, then just relax, extend the leg, and try it with a lengthened leg, okay?

And if you're not getting a charley horse, bend that knee and in your mind's eye, make sure that you're pressing that foot, that flat foot up towards the ceiling and switch.

90 degree knee, 90 degree angle and press, press, press, press, almost done.

Hang in there, press and hold.

Five, four, three, two, and relax.

[exhales] Very good.

And that's it.

Not hard at all, and yet very effective.

If you find you have a little bit of soreness tomorrow, don't be worried, it's a good thing.

It's proof you worked the correct muscles and will help you engage them more frequently throughout the day.

Try this class again by going to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where my goal is to keep you strong, loose, and independent.

See you next time, and 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.