- Cassy Vieth: Hello, welcome to Quick Fit .

Anyone who's watched a baby learning to walk has probably noticed how easy their movements are.

It's like their muscles and joints are filled with fluid.

Well, that's because they actually are, and it's this lack of fluidity that requires more effort for us to move, making us feel old.

Today's toddler squat workout is designed to lubricate your joints and muscles so you can move with less effort and pain.

[gentle music] Viscosity is when fluid becomes thick.

Daily movement and stretching reduces viscosity of the fluids in your muscles and joints.

So let's warm up those fluids so they flow easier, letting us move easier.

We'll start by standing with our feet just about hip-width apart, and just do some easy arm swinging, partial squats.

Starting to warm up the knees and the hips and the ankles.

And don't worry if you somehow can't quite get the rhythm between the arms and the legs.

It doesn't matter; just move.

Now let's continue with a little knee lift at the top, all right.

So hips back, knee up.

Hips back, knee up.

[inhales and exhales] Start your breathing.

Be aware, nice and deep.

Let's do the other leg.

So butt back, arms forward, knee up.

Good.

[exhales] For about, I don't know, 60% of us, this makes sense.

In my experience, it's about a 60/40 split with this kind of a double movement, but that's okay.

It really doesn't matter, right?

Your feet are a little wider now, and we're just gonna do this rag doll stretch.

So I say it's a rag doll 'cause you're letting your upper body hang, your hips move, and then there's this delayed reaction with your upper body, trying to make it nice and easy.

Move your hips.

Don't worry about the arms, just let gravity and momentum move them around.

Pull in your stomach and we'll roll back up.

We'll continue with the easy partial squats, but I'd like you to shift your weight so it's mostly over one leg, all right.

So your weight went back, arms go forward, and stand.

All right.

Just move that other leg out a little bit.

You're putting all your weight down through one leg, little knee bend, leaning forward.

Don't forget, you need to lean somewhat forward.

Don't try to sit up; it makes the knee go forward and it's not good for your knee, all right.

Let's switch, putting your weight over your other leg, arms forward, and stand, good, inhale, exhale.

Feel your hips and your glutes warming up.

Getting just a little bit deeper than we did earlier and a little bit wider with the legs yet than when we began, and swing those arms, butt back.

[inhales and exhales] Now, even though you've probably heard quite a bit to put your weight through your heels, that's true, but we still want your toes down.

Use your weight actually going straight down through your ankles.

You'll hear that cue about lifting up your toes.

That's just to help people put their weight through their heels as well.

All right, let's rag doll down, breathing in slowly with extra long exhales.

[exhales] We want to work into this.

We don't want to just go down into the deepest squat right away.

All right, now let's turn slowly in one direction and gently put weight down through the tops of your feet.

You might have to move your leg back to find the tops of your feet, tops of your toes.

We'll just bend and tuck the toes.

If your feet are tight, it affects everything all the way up.

It's really under-realized how much of an impact tight toes and feet have on the way you move.

All right and let's do the other side, okay.

Top of the foot, controlling with your other leg how much weight's going down through the top of your feet.

I don't want you to get a charley horse.

So having that chair handy to absorb some of your weight is just fine.

Take your time, you can shift your hip, your heel over the toes, all right.

All right, all your weight down through your left leg.

Let's point and stretch the ankle.

Take your time.

Feel those muscles loosening right down from your knee to your toes.

Good, and flex, take your time.

Allowing the Achilles and the calves, bottom of the feet to stretch.

And switch legs, stabilize, or you can just put a hand out, do a little practice with your balance.

Point and flex.

Good, standing nice and tall.

Don't forget about your posture, even though we're not focusing on the upper body.

Good posture is always a must.

Take a little extra moment to stretch all those muscles and ligaments, tendons, and flex, good job.

[inhales and exhales] All right, so we're gonna take a little lunge back.

Not very deep, all right.

We want both the knees slightly bent.

Reach back and back.

Now, let's press that back heel down into the floor.

A little bit of a calf stretch there.

[exhales] Hopefully you can see the top of your toes.

All right, if you can't see the top of your toes, then your knee's too far forward.

Push through that heel, which will then move your hips back.

Okay, we want your shin to be vertical.

Come out of that.

Let's do a few lunge backs with the other leg.

Reach it back, a little dip.

Reach it back, two knees bend.

[inhales and exhales] Last one, dipping it down and then coming up, straightening that back leg, pressing that heel into the floor.

Checking, can you see your toes?

Are you upright?

[inhales] Are your toes and heels in alignment, or have your toes turned to the side?

Okay, I'd like that heel straight back behind your toes.

You can adjust how much pressure you're putting down through your heel.

All right, it's back to those potty squats, getting a little bit deeper this time.

Your feet are about shoulder-width apart.

Feel free to adjust them as you warm up and get deeper.

You don't want them too wide, but you need them wide enough so your body can get down between your knees, and you can always use the chair if you need to.

A little deeper, saving the deepest part for last, good.

All right, you're reaching forward to balance your body.

Your feet are flat and now let's stretch those calves just a little bit more.

Okay, I'd like you to drag that left leg back, all right.

Use the back of the chair to put some force down through it so you get a little bit of leverage so you can really drive that heel and that leg down and then exhale.

[exhales] Can you see your toes?

Bring your front foot forward so you can see your toes.

Torso's upright.

Good, and shift your weight a little bit so you can get a little bit of a bend in that back knee.

So we get both of those big calf muscles back there.

And your front leg, let's walk that across your body, slightly different stretch.

And now straighten that back leg.

Check your form, push down through the chair, and come out of it.

Good, do the other leg.

Drag that right leg back.

A little pressure down through the back of the chair.

Drive that heel down.

Tall body, glutes are tight.

Exhale, adjust your weight and your foot just enough so you can get that back knee a little bit bent.

You should see your foot.

[inhales and exhales] Now let's walk that front leg across your body more.

It's gonna put your heel in a slightly different position.

Back knee is still slightly bent.

Now we're straightening it, pressing down through the back of the chair.

All right, back to the deepest squat yet.

All right, now remember, if you have any bad knee pain, you don't wanna do this.

You have to monitor how things are going.

If things are just tight, then do your best.

Lots of breathing and gentle repetitions are the best way.

And now I'm adjusting my legs, not too wide, not too narrow.

And I really like having people do this in a doorway so they can kinda grab onto the trim around the door.

And not just because you feel like you're gonna fall backwards because lots of us do, but it helps you get a little leverage so that you can go from a rounded back to a nice arch through the whole spine.

I like going in both positions with the spine rounded as well as arched.

And I like using the elbows to stretch through the groin, keeping the feet flat.

Hopefully toes are pointed as far forward as possible.

I know you guys are like, "Stand up already!

My legs are burning!"

All right, and I'm doing this pretending that I'm pulling up on that doorway.

[inhales] Big inhale, exhale and work your way down, hanging onto ideally a doorway, and reach up.

So your chest is tall, okay, and come up.

Last time, down.

[inhales and exhales] Elbows to stretch.

[exhales] And finally, come on back up.

I've used this deep stretch with many clients.

In fact, it's one of my must-do movements because it puts force down through the joints during range of motion.

This works to reacquaint the body with the strength needed to move itself, and it assists the lymph system in pushing out toxins and waste.

It's very healing, and it's one of the most important skills for remaining independent for life.

So join me here daily at pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where it's my mission to help you age well, because life is movement.

- 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.