- Welcome back to another Quick Fit class with me, Cassy Vieth.

Our bodies need to be strong, but we also need to have endurance to keep going and to keep up.

If you're into sports or just want to keep up with family, then you'll want to join me now to condition the muscles of the legs and core.

Let's get moving.

[gentle music] Beginning with some nice warm-up reaches.

Have your legs about shoulder-width apart.

Inhale, exhale, press, press, press.

Feel the muscles on the front of you lengthening and then twist.

[exhales] Okay, inhale, exhale, reach up.

Stretch the muscles in the front and then twist.

[exhales] Don't forget to breathe.

Nice inhale, exhale.

[inhales] Lift, twist, lift, and twist.

Let's start making those legs a little wider.

[inhales and exhales] Going down a little deeper.

Wider legs, wider legs for many of you.

Not everybody, but I see that there are quite a few folks that are a little afraid that their legs aren't quite strong enough to hold them up.

And they end up having their feet fairly close together and kinda tweaking the knees.

Kinda like, like this.

And that's not very easy to do.

So let's have your legs fairly wide [inhales and exhales] and just reach it left and right.

All right, that feels good, doesn't it?

All right.

Opening up the hips.

Now, I would like to give you a couple rules of thumb for the next move.

We'll be doing some pliés, and typically a plié, you've got the toes and the knees kind of out to the sides like that, but not everybody is built.

Whether your muscles are tight or your bones just have, weren't created to open up past maybe like this.

And so for those of you that cannot get the knees and the toes wider, you'll just want to keep your knees and toes forward, just as long as the knees and the toes go in the same direction.

That's the rule of thumb.

Knees and toes need to go in the same direction.

So experiment opening the knees and then wherever you land, make sure the knee is above the ankle.

So maybe you can't get your feet very wide.

Then you have to move your behind back further.

So you have a little bit more or a more vertical shin, okay?

So some of you will be doing more of a squat, and then the rest of you, find your width and match the knees above the ankle and the knees in line with the toes.

All right, so we're holding this plié.

We're going to only be doing about three main moves today, but we're going to be holding, all right?

So let's just hold it here in a fairly deep plié or squat and then we'll do some busy work with the arms.

This is part of conditioning your muscles with these long holds, okay?

Reach, reach.

Let's reach it over a little deeper, over a little deeper.

All right, creating endurance.

Elbow, lift.

Elbow, lift.

Stomach's tight.

Squeeze your bottom.

Press those feet into the floor.

Help you recruit more muscles to help you perform.

Reach.

Stomach's tight; let's switch arms, okay?

Reach, elbow.

[inhales and exhales] If at any point you just can't take it anymore, take a three-second break and join us again.

That's one of the best ways to make your muscles stronger and more conditioned.

All right, keep it going.

Don't forget to breathe as heavy as you need to, okay?

Inhale, exhale.

But control it, don't hyperventilate and breathe really fast, but breathe as deep and loud as you need to.

Inhale, exhale.

[inhales and exhales] Good.

All right, let's come up a little bit and back down.

Up a little bit and back down.

Arms are nice and wide.

Check your form, stomach's in, and lean, lean, lean.

[inhales and exhales] My heart rate's getting up.

My breathing is coming faster.

Doing work, burning calories, and over.

[inhales] Legs are burning.

That's good.

Challenging them, all these big muscles burn more calories.

So let's use them.

[inhales and exhales] And when they burn calories, they also create more energy for you.

So you'll have more energy after this class and throughout the rest of your day.

All right, twist, reach further, pull.

Twist, reach further, and pull.

The other way.

Reach, reach further, and pull.

Twist, reach, reach further, and up.

Whoo, take a little break.

Shake that off.

Very good.

A few deep breaths to catch your breath.

[inhales] And right back down again, nice and wide.

We'll be doing some of these warrior poses, which is great for conditioning the leg muscles.

Now, if your feet are very close, I know some of you are doing this, just from experience of working with people, you need to get that foot under your knee.

Two ways to do it.

You can either hop that foot out or you can slide this leg over, all right?

Push through the heel and get that knee over the ankle.

And be aware of that throughout the whole class.

Holding this here, inhale, exhale, reach.

Now our shoulders are facing forward.

At this point, try not to turn them yet, okay?

Face forward and a long reach.

Slide it over.

Inhale, [inhales] inhale, [exhales] inhale.

Hold, hold.

Lift, lift, lift, and lift.

Good, down.

Hold it here.

[inhales and exhales] Let's drop an arm.

Lift, over.

Pull the stomach in.

Don't let that top shoulder roll forward.

Hold it here, [exhales] and up.

Good, straighten it out, stretch.

Now reach, lift.

Stomach's in.

Hold, hold, reach.

Further, get lower, press, and up.

Really good, I know those are hard.

All right, turn this toe forward.

Turn this toe out.

Re-adjust, take that inventory.

Stomach's in.

Shoulders are squared towards me.

Get that knee above your foot.

Open those arms.

Inhale, exhale.

[inhales and exhales] And over, over, okay?

Watch the knee.

Maybe you have to widen this leg a little.

Reach.

Feel that inner thigh stretch as you get lower.

The whole thigh is responsible for keeping you up off the floor.

Press.

Over the head, stomach's in.

Chest is squared to me, and up.

You can come up if you need to.

Over, hold it here.

Move one arm up, one arm down.

Stomach in, chest is facing me.

Hang in there, guys.

Breathe.

[inhales and exhales] And up, one last deep one.

Ready, over, over, over.

Ooh, come back up.

The trick is to not land on the floor.

[laughs] All right, come on up.

Shake that off.

You guys are doing really, really good.

Let's go into a squat hold.

Now for a squat hold, hips go back.

You got this nice angle to your upper back.

You know you're doing it wrong if you're standing in front of a box or a chair or your couch and your knees banged into it.

Okay, so stand up.

It's hips back.

All right.

[exhales] We're going to hold this for a little bit.

Stomach's in, stomach's in.

Start getting your feet about shoulder-width apart.

And as you warm up to the exercise, you can get a little lower.

Start widening your feet to make room for the hips to come down.

[inhales] And up.

[exhales] Get ready.

It's gonna get harder.

Inhale, exhale.

Get down as low as you can.

Hopefully you can get the hips slightly below the knee.

Hold it here, five, four, three, two.

Explode, back down.

Five, four, three, two.

Explode, back down.

So wherever you're at, hold it.

And explode, back down.

All right, I hope you're pulling yourself down.

Last, last one I promise.

And up.

[laughs] Well done.

Congratulate yourself for taking control of your health and making fitness a priority in your life.

You know, everyone wants to be fit, but you just did it.

Be proud of yourself.

And plan tomorrow's workout right now because you know if you don't what will happen.

And do me a favor and invite a friend to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit so they too can experience better health, endurance, and strength.

Have a great rest of your day, 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.