- Taking action, that's what today's Quick Fit class is all about.

I'm Cassy, and I've developed this six-step progressive strategy for getting you more flexible and stronger so you can easily get down to and back up from the floor.

Join me now to determine what level you're at so you can improve from there.

[upbeat music] Let's begin by warming up.

Just take some simple sidesteps, moving your feet, warming up the hips.

Your focus today is determining where you are in this process and working up to and including that step.

Please resist the temptation of moving forward until you can easily perform the recommended repetitions at each level.

In this way, you won't injure yourself or delay forward progress.

Simple kick-your-butts, warming up the quadriceps.

Keep it going, a few more.

Have your legs kind of wide, about shoulder-width apart.

And let's switch it to some easy squats.

Just swing your arms, if that makes sense.

If it doesn't, just do partial squats, all right?

We're not getting very deep.

Warming up the knees, the hips, and a little bit of the ankles.

[inhales] All right, a couple more.

We have to warm up with key stretches.

Don't ever skip this.

Now we're gonna do our quadriceps, all right?

And I have a few strategies.

So if you can grab your ankle, great.

Go ahead and grab your ankle.

Squeeze your hind end.

Exhale and press that knee down.

Do a few stirs, and you can do the other quad.

But for those of you that struggle grabbing your ankle, all you have to do is use a band.

So you can use a band, maybe a towel, just something to give you a little extra reach, and hang on quite close to the ankle, as close as you can.

And that gives you a little bit more room if you can't quite grab your ankle.

And the final option I wanna show you, if grabbing a band or a towel or your ankle is too difficult, face away from the chair and just get the top of your foot and part of your shin on the seat.

Then you can squeeze your hind end and activate by pushing the top of your foot down into the seat.

[inhales] Inhale, exhale.

You can hold that for about 10 seconds.

You can pause, you can repeat, and also do the other leg, all right?

Tight quads, quadriceps, these big muscles on the front are a big limiter of getting down to the floor if they're tight, so finding ways to stretch them is critical.

This may be as far as you get for a few weeks, and that's okay.

Next, let's do the calves.

All right, so I'm just gonna put my foot half on the seat and then simply lean into it, all right?

Inhale [inhales] and exhale.

Let's let those muscles stretch.

You can lift that heel up and then let the heel hang off the seat.

So we're stretching the calves, but we're also stretching the Achilles tendon around the back of the heel.

This is a real easy way to stretch your calves.

Let's do the other one so we'll be balanced.

Okay, lift and let it hang down.

Just put a little bit of weight down through the leg.

Okay, in.

[inhales] Up and down.

Let's do the inner thigh next.

So get your whole foot on there and have your other foot right under your hips, and place two hands on the inside of your foot.

Okay, when it starts to feel too tight, maybe you wanna cringe, just pause, inhale, [inhales] exhale.

Let those shoulders come down.

Okay, repeat this as often as you need to until you feel looser, and let's do the other leg quick.

Breathe it in and exhale.

I want to encourage you that most people improve quite quickly.

Your muscles want to be used and they will respond by getting stronger.

Now let's kick back that standing leg so we can just do a lunge.

Let the hips fall down towards the seat.

Make sure you're not over on the other side of the seat, okay?

Lift and down.

Let the hips drop right straight down.

Let's switch legs.

Okay, inhale.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] Make sure you're really getting that leg back as far as you can.

All right, this is our final stretch.

Come up and down with your breath.

Don't forget the breath.

All right, the stretching is done, so now let's get to the strengthening steps.

First thing we're gonna practice is a shallow lunge right in front of the chair, okay?

So we'll stand near the one chair leg and then reach back.

And make sure, see, I just bobbled.

My feet were lined up like this.

Make sure you have a base that's a little wider, okay?

And we'll just drop down a little bit, doing your best to bend through both knees.

You can also have a pillow poised, positioned right under this knee in case you end up going all the way down.

I don't want you to hurt your kneecap.

Go down only as far as you can control and then come up without pushing.

So don't go down further than you can control.

If at first you must push off the chair, that's okay.

That's what it's there for.

But the goal, you know you're ready to go to the next stage when you can go all the way down without landing on the floor, just like half an inch above the floor, and you can come back up without using your hands on the seat.

And you need to be able to do it with both legs, okay?

Once you've got that accomplished, you can move on to B.

For B, we're going to really stretch the back part of the body.

We're going to reach down till we can get our hands to the floor.

And we're gonna reach up, breathe it in.

[inhales] Exhale, reach it down.

At first, you may not be touching the floor.

That's all right.

This'll be the stage that you will work on for a few weeks until you can easily get your hands down to the floor and back up, all right?

All the way down.

[exhales] Good, now we're ready for the next step, C. We're gonna walk our hands out and back.

Now that you can get your hands to the floor, let's bring them all the way down and walk it out.

The heels will come up a little bit.

That's quite all right.

Maybe your knees will bend.

That's all right, too.

And right back up.

I know being lightheaded can be a problem, so really, just take your time, breathe it in.

[inhales] And then exhale.

[exhales] I want you to be able to do this move three to five times.

Standing up in between's okay.

All the way out, but three to five times easily.

Good job.

All right, now let's move on to step D. We're going to practice with our hands on the floor once again, and you might need blocks at first, which is fine.

This is how you would do it with the blocks, okay?

So get the blocks in place.

Reach it down, walk your hands out, and step back.

All right.

We're really flexing through the knee and the ankle, and we're building upper body strength.

So if you think, "Oh, this is too easy," or maybe it's too hard, you will get stronger.

So once it's easy with the blocks, you're simply gonna move them off to the side and not use them and get the hands on the floor, making the job a little harder because you have to be that much more flexible.

But when you can easily complete five on each side just like this with your hands on the floor, then you are ready for step E, all right?

We're going to get one knee almost down to the floor.

Once again, you can use the blocks under your hands until you're more used to the move.

And to do it without the blocks, you're going to drop a knee down.

So whether you actually have the blocks or not, you're going to practice getting the knee down.

Okay.

So both legs are really working.

The leg that's not getting put down is really starting to burn a little bit, which is great.

When you can easily do five on each leg without a pause, without having to come back up, [inhales] then you are ready for the final step.

We're gonna walk our hands back [inhales] and do step F. Okay, you guys have worked so hard.

I'm so proud of you.

Keep it going.

Let's bring two hands down to the floor.

Let's use all those skills.

Walk the hands out and you can start bending those knees.

Pull up through your abs.

The knees are just about an inch or a hair off the floor.

Pull in the abs, push through the hands.

Butt up.

Try that again.

Drop the knees.

Stop just above the floor.

Push through the hands, pull up the abs.

[inhales] Excellent.

[exhales] One more time.

Knees down.

Pull up through the abs, push through the hands.

Walk your hands back to your feet, roll up, and take a great big breath.

[inhales] Goal!

Getting up using all your new strength and skills.

You should practice more than once a day with any of these steps.

Imagine, if you spent one week with each of these steps, it's reasonable to expect you'll be getting down to and up from the floor with ease in just six weeks.

Think of that.

And even if it takes you longer, say, 12 weeks, each week, you'll be measurably stronger and more flexible than the last.

Come right back here to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit where together, we'll work to keep you strong, loose, and independent, 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.