- Do you know why it's harder to move when we first wake up?

No, I'm not referring to your age.

Hello, I'm Cassy.

Join me for today's Quick Fit class, where I'll explain about those stiff muscles.

We'll also get your heart rate up, leaving you energized for your day.

[upbeat music] The reason it's hard to move when you first get up is because we're kind of like the Tin Man.

Remember, when he'd stop moving, his oils hardened, and he needed fresh, fluid oil to get loose again.

Let's start with some simple right left steps.

Just touch and, touch and step.

Fortunately, we don't need an oil can.

When we use and stretch our muscles, the action warms the oils and fluids within the muscle and joint tissue, making it less viscous, or less thick.

So as you can imagine, stiff muscles are partly due to the cooling and thickening of the oils.

Add some arms.

And don't forget your breathing, okay?

Breathe in for like four beats, and exhale as long as you can, maybe about eight.

Reach and reach.

Start to lean over a little more, exhale.

So it's not just your arm that's moving.

We're stretching the ribs.

[exhales] And let's do the other arm.

Okay, so out and across, out and across.

You can let your neck turn.

[inhales] So this is a nice stretch.

You should be feeling it from your hip to your shoulder.

Breathe it in [inhales] and out, exhale.

[exhales] All right, let's do some simple knee lifts.

Lift, lift.

Use your arms just to keep you balanced.

Breathe it in, [inhales] and out.

As we use our muscles, the muscles create energy as they burn calories, so it's a double bonus to exercise.

Under the foot.

Keep going.

[inhales and exhales] Make your breathing just methodical.

Count in for about four beats, exhale for eight.

And lift, lift and reach.

All right, and over the ear, reach.

Exhale.

[exhales] Good, just a little slower, but intentional.

Don't stop short with your arms if you can extend them further, okay?

Think about from your toes to your fingertips, with every, every repetition.

Reach.

Now let's get a little lower.

Stay low.

Okay, make sure you've got your weight distributed throughout your entire foot.

Not just your toes, but make sure you feel your weight through your heels, so you're using your hamstrings on the back of the leg, and the quads on the front, and of course your glutes.

Reach, reach across.

Keep stretching that leg behind you.

Reach, reach, reach.

Breathe it in for four, and out for as long as you can, exhale.

Reach it.

Reach.

And then we'll come up.

Catch your breath.

Breathe it in for four, one, two, three, four.

Exhale for eight.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight.

All right.

Stabilize yourself on your right foot, and extend the left leg.

If you need more time to catch your breath so you can feel more steady, then just take the time you need.

You can always hit pause.

Okay, ready and lift, using your abs.

You can always have a chair nearby.

Challenge your balance though if you can.

If you can hold your leg in the air, in a nice, controlled way without quickly putting it back down, then do it, but if you cannot hold your leg in the air without immediately putting it back down, then just have a chair.

Hang on to the chair and follow along through all of the reps, and in that way, you'll be strengthening your standing leg, which needs to get stronger.

All right.

And it also works your reflexes, all those mechanisms within your joints that communicate with your brain, they need some more training.

And it can get better.

I've seen many people practice in a nice, systematic way with their balance, and they gained great balance.

So it can be done, don't give up.

Lift, lift.

Just find something to focus on that's not moving.

That really helps.

And feet side by side.

Let's start with the other leg, so take a moment to stabilize.

Take a big breath in.

[inhales] Exhale, contract.

And lift, lift.

Doesn't have to be a high lift.

Go as slow as you need to.

Your standing foot could be shaking like this, and if that's the case, then just hold, don't move, because your brain and this standing foot need time to figure things out.

Lift, lift, and lift.

All right, slowly, let's go to the side.

Good.

Stomach's in, try to be nice and tall.

Think about your breathing, focus on something that's not moving.

Lift.

[exhales] Let's do five, four, [laughs] three, two, and then we'll bring it around to the back.

[exhales] And lift, lift.

And it's a small lift behind you, just a squeeze of the glute actually, because you don't want to overarch your low back.

Sometimes if we don't have a lot of movement, say our hip flexors are tight, then your body will try to find movement, maybe in the low back, and that's not what we're after.

Let's just stretch the hip flexor and squeeze the glute.

Lift and lift.

All right, two feet side by side.

And widen them, go into a nice plié.

So a few things about pliés is you wanna make sure that your knee is over the top of your foot, and preferably that the shin is vertical, and you don't wanna let the knees cave in.

Okay, so open your thighs as wide as you can, and turn your feet in if you need to, so that your toes and your knees point in the same direction.

All right, some people actually just need to have the knees and the toes forward, okay?

But just make sure your knees are wide as your feet.

So let's drop, check your form, and come up.

Ready and drop.

Good, now we're working those muscles that have to quickly respond, two, three.

And drop.

Two, three, and down.

Up, two, three, and down.

Down, up, down, up, two, three.

And down and hold.

Now let's work on the explosive, okay?

So I want you to jump, land.

Explode up and land.

Now try to control that land, so that your knees don't come in.

I can feel mine coming in.

So I gotta think about that more, and down.

So you have to use your glutes and your outer thigh muscles to prevent the knees dropping forward, or towards each other.

Up.

Let's do three, two, last one.

Ooh, shake it off.

Catch your breath.

[inhales and exhales] Breathe it in for about four beats.

Couple more, and then exhale.

[exhales] Move slower and exhale longer.

Do that again.

Breathe it in.

[inhales] And out.

Good.

Remember, when we stop moving for long periods of time, those warm oils are going to cool and stiffen, requiring more work to move.

Keep moving with me daily by coming back to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, and tell a friend how they too can feel great, and keep doing all the things they love.

See you next time.

- Announcer: Funding for Quick Fit with Cassy is provided by Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.