- Welcome back to all my Quick Fit friends.

If you're new here, I'm Cassy Vieth.

I love helping people move better and reduce pain, what I call aging well.

So kick your shoes off, have a sturdy chair, and we'll get into working those muscles and joints that contribute to good balance.

[upbeat music] I think we have a great deal of control over how we age and a responsibility to care for ourselves as best we can.

And I'm sure that's why you're here too.

Sitting forward in our seat on the front edge with our feet lined up beneath our knees.

Let's just start by putting some weight down through our ankles, down into our feet.

Make sure you're putting your weight straight down in a nice line into the balls of your feet.

The big pad under your big toe.

All right, leaning forward.

Lift those heels as high as you can, adjust so that you can get that heel right up over the toes.

Putting some weight down so your feet have to do some work, press it down and lift, press it down and lift.

Your feet should have to resist the force of your arms, press it down.

And if your feet are sensitive, have a cushy mat to work on and reduce your reps. And one foot, press it down.

Lift, press it down and lift, switch, lift, press it down.

Keep the other foot up, press it down and lift, working the joints, loosening the toes, and challenging the muscles in your feet.

All right, down and up.

A few more.

[inhales] Nice, big breath, press it down and up, [exhales] down and up.

Grip the mat with your toes as you do this.

A few more, lift, one at a time.

Lift, two, three, switch it, lift, two and three, good job.

All right, let's put the feet to the front and just lift the front of your feet.

You can feel a nice stretch through the front of your shins.

Lift, front of the foot again, lift.

Keep pulling the toes towards you.

Lift and lift.

Now, press the foot flat, hold the ball of the foot there and just lift the toes.

Just the toes.

This is a great one if you have plantar fasciitis to start stretching and working that arch.

Down, lift again.

One more time, down and lift, press that ball of the foot into the floor and lift the toes, all right.

Turning in your seat to your right if you're mirroring me, be half on, half off the seat, just let this thigh hang straight down.

Wrap your arm around the back of the chair and lift.

Now there's a tendency if you have weak...

This is your glute medius.

If this glute medius, which wraps around your hip is weak, then what'll happen is you'll start looking towards me and your quads will try to take over, and we don't want that.

So turn and face the back of your seat if you need to to keep that hip in the right place, even if you're not getting your leg very high, that's okay, it's a start.

I'd rather you had good form to strengthen the correct weak muscle instead of encouraging the wrong muscle to take over, we don't want that.

That's already happening and we want to balance your muscles.

All right.

Lift, lift, and lift and hold.

Push the leg back a little bit in case that knee came forward, and down.

So these are muscles that stabilize your hips.

Go ahead and rotate.

Wrap your arm around the back of the chair.

Make sure you're starting in a place as if there's a wall right in front of your leg.

Don't let it come forward.

Ready, out to the side, check it out.

Be critical of your form.

Lift, lift.

Nice, tall posture.

Don't let your head go forward.

I like to just pull a little bit on the back of the seat to help me get a nice, long spine.

Maybe look over the back of your chair, reach back a little further with that leg, lower and lift.

Lower, pull your stomach in, supporting that low back, lower and lift, lower, lift and hold.

Take a look, make sure you're not turning and lifting this way.

A few more, lift, lift, lift and hold.

You guys are doing a good job.

And relax, good.

Just for a moment, pull that leg towards you just to give a little relief, and now reach it back.

Find your toes behind you and get your foot flat.

All right, and we're going to press through this front heel and the back toes.

Ready, press.

So we're doing a lunge right above the chair.

Find your balance, okay.

And lower halfway, press it up.

Lower halfway, press it up and hold.

[inhales] Good, so your knee should be right over your ankle, not over your toes, so check that out.

And if your leg's too close, it's gonna be harder, so stretch that back leg out.

A few things are going on.

We're working on the range of motion in your back toes, working on balance, strengthening the quadriceps, your glutes.

So we're not sitting on the chair.

We're just feeling that seat right below your leg.

And press.

[inhales] Inhale, big inhale, exhale.

[exhales] We also work all those muscles that help you breathe nice and deep and exhale completely.

So up and down.

Terrific.

All right, hold right above the seat.

Hold, hold, press through that front heel, you feel everything kind of light up through your hips, and down, switching sides.

Okay, half on, half off, especially if you don't feel very sturdy in this position, press it up.

You know you at least have that chair under your one leg in case you suddenly lose strength.

So it's a controlled environment.

All right, but you're still challenging yourself.

Feel the seat below that leg, but we're not resting.

You're not putting your weight on the chair.

Press it up and lower slowly.

Feel those back toes stretching.

Your front quadriceps are working and press it up.

Hold, hold.

Halfway down.

[exhales] Hold it here.

Nice, long spine.

We're not using our arms to push; it's all legs.

Press through the front heel, halfway down, good.

Now make sure your back leg is the one bending as opposed to going forward, okay.

We want that knee over your ankle.

Up, sit down through that back leg.

Almost done.

Up [inhales] and lower slowly.

Hang on here.

And done, good job.

Really well done.

All right, we'll be getting up from a squat position, so have your feet about hip-width apart.

And you'll wanna pull your heels back till they're not quite under the knee, but back a little bit, okay.

Nice and wide.

Reach out and reach as far as you can, start pushing through the heels.

At this point, you'll start feeling your hips get light on the chair.

Now watch those knees.

Don't let them do that.

It's really hard on the knees.

Open them up, but keep the feet flat.

We don't want you turning your feet sideways.

Hold it here, up a little bit more, [inhales] halfway down.

Do you feel the seat right behind your bum?

Push through your heels so you know the chair is there.

And up halfway [inhales] and all the way down, [exhales] finding that chair without using your hands if possible.

One more time, reach it forward.

Reach, reach, reach, start pushing through your heels.

Open those knees, which activates your hips.

You can feel yourself getting lighter and stretching the back all the way up, going nice and slow and controlled.

And down.

Let's bring those feet together.

All right, let's find your stability on one leg.

Start lifting that left foot up until just your toes are touching.

[exhales] Very good.

Starting to shake.

Let's do the other one.

Find your balance in your left foot, start lifting the right.

Very good, challenging those muscles.

I hope you're breathing heavy.

[inhales and exhales] Not holding your breath.

And down, very good.

All right, we'll come down for a brief moment rest and then all the way up to stand.

Good job.

All right, from here, we're going to do a little balance work.

So come around to the side of your chair.

So you'll have the chair right next to you, but you don't have to hang on to it.

In fact, I encourage you not to.

You can just have your hand out above the chair.

Reach out with your left leg if you're mirroring me.

All right, and don't put any weight down through those toes.

The idea is to get more and more of the weight straight down through the working leg, your standing leg.

All right.

[exhales and inhales] Nice, big inhale, exhale.

Find one spot to stare at and lift your arm up overhead.

Now, if you find that every time you lift your toes up, you just end up falling, then you're not ready to lift your toes up yet.

These joints need time to relearn and to get stronger and to stabilize.

All right, and that takes some consistent practice.

So now if you aren't having trouble and you feel like you're ready for a challenge, slowly start lifting.

And you know, sometimes your balance is better on some days than others.

Some days, you might be tired and your balance just isn't as good as it was maybe just the day before.

All right, now we're gonna put those toes down, those arms down, walk it around to the other side.

Real good, I love this exercise for beginners because it takes the time to strengthen and condition one leg.

One leg at a time.

So there's so many elements that go into having good balance and your joints have these sensors, these communicators in them that communicate with your brain and they have to be in good practice too.

So we're conditioning the muscles and the neuromuscular pathways, those motor sensors, all those things.

All right, so if you feel up to it, lift your arm up, and if you feel like you're still wobbly, that's okay.

Just work on getting most of your weight or all of your weight down through one leg.

All right, these classes are adaptable for everybody.

Just listen to the cues and take the suggestions.

Don't think that you have to keep up with anybody else.

This is your class to get better from wherever you're at.

Our time is up for today, but you can always repeat a class as often as you like, because balance takes consistent practice.

Also, remember to share this class with a friend.

Send them to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit so they too can move better, reduce injuries, and heal quicker from those that do come along.

And as always, 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.