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

No matter what your fitness level, injuries occur, and the muscles around your joints can become unbalanced.

Cycling is a sport that occurs in one plane of motion, so cyclists will especially benefit from today's class.

Let's get moving.

[upbeat music] When we do repetitive movements, uneven muscle tension pulls your joints into unnatural positions and wears down the soft tissues inside them.

So let's take the hip joints through their full range.

We'll start with a few hip shifts, warming up.

Have your feet about shoulder-width apart, and really sink in as far as you can, one direction and the other, slightly widening your legs with every shift.

[inhales] Nice, big inhale, exhale, and we'll put your hands on your hips.

Bend the knees slightly and a nice little pelvis tuck under, pulling in the belly, and then pull that tailbone back, arching that low back, as long as it feels good.

Another tuck and arch.

Trying to loosen up the hips in every direction.

So sit into your right hip, and sit into your left.

Slightly widening the legs, getting a little lower.

Shifting, maybe moving that elbow towards your knee.

Coming up, shift the hips.

[inhales] Big inhale, exhale.

[exhales] Moving that elbow towards your knee.

All right, come up, we'll do that tail tuck again.

Tuck your tailbone under.

Slightly bent knees helps get more movement in the pelvis, which is what we're after.

Tuck it under, elbows forward.

[inhales] Pull it back, good.

All right, shifting again, left and right.

Come up.

Move around.

If you get anything that feels like it's hanging up on your hips, just move, move in another direction, try to shift around until it doesn't feel like it's catching anymore, 'cause that's common.

All right, turn your toe in.

[exhales] Press, turn your other toe in, and press.

Very nice.

A little wider legs.

Again, a little wider yet, sitting down, and shift.

Shift.

[exhales] [inhales] Shift.

One more time, tuck it under and move it back.

All right, straighten one leg, and then the other.

Take your time, allowing that inner thigh to stretch.

And the other way.

[exhales] Good, bend those knees.

And shift around, sort of like you're sliding along the top of a wall.

Nice and even across and back.

Good.

All right, come on up, and let's just get some nice, loose leg swings.

Just let the momentum take your leg forward and back.

Easily stretching through the hip flexor.

[inhales] Stomach's in.

[exhales] You can let that knee bend, getting a little more height.

And now a diagonal.

So across the body and back.

Let the knee bend.

Standing up nice and tall, and then directly across the front, crossing out to the side.

[inhales and exhales] Your standing leg is probably getting a little tired.

With this other leg swinging, your standing leg has to stabilize.

All right, switching sides.

Nice, easy swings, forward and back.

[inhales] And don't forget to take some nice, deep breaths.

Exercising your breathing muscles.

[inhales and exhales] Standing tall.

Head's nice and long, spine's long, neck is long, head is right above your shoulders.

To the diagonal.

We're being careful not to push the head forward.

Shoulders are down and back.

[inhales] Stomach's pulled in, nice.

Okay, now directly across the front, out to the side.

You can let the knee bend.

And try not to let the hips turn as you're swinging the leg.

All right, last one.

All right, shake it off a little bit with a few hip circles.

All right, all right, standing.

Let's just go ahead and mirror me.

This will be your left leg with your knee bent.

Let's bring it up to the front.

Good, hold it, and bring it across, and open.

Now, as you do this, try not to turn the hips with it.

Cross and open.

[inhales and exhales] Maybe your standing leg is getting tired.

It's understandable.

All right, and then let that knee drop and wipe the foot behind you.

Good job.

All right, now, directly out to the side.

Lift, press that standing leg into the floor.

It'll help you get a little lift, give you a little relief in the hip socket.

Good.

And now, let's bring that foot behind your knee and lift the leg behind you like that, getting this glute medius, which is part of your glutes, there's three of them, and this one wraps around the outside of your hip.

And then a nice, long leg lift.

Lift, lift, lift, lift.

[inhales and exhales] Nice, deep breaths.

I hope you're breathing heavy like I am.

Don't hold your breath.

Long inhales, extra-long exhales.

Good, bring the knee to the front, okay?

Wipe that foot.

Lift, lift, lift, lift, lift.

If you need to take a break and join us again, just take, like, three or four seconds.

All right, and leg in front.

We're not putting it on the floor quite yet.

And rotate.

A couple circles.

All right, and sit it back.

[exhales] Good job.

And stand up and press the hip forward.

All right, shake that off.

This leg got, I think almost more tired than this one.

So shake that leg off.

Let's just do a few rotations of that.

Ease it.

All right, bring that knee up in front of you.

[inhales] Good, cross, open.

Cross, open.

A few more.

Keeping the knee nice and high.

One more.

And then let that knee come down.

Knees are side-by-side.

Wipe that foot behind you.

'Kay.

And up to the side, hip lifts.

Lift, lift.

Use the standing leg to force it down into the ground to help you have some power to lift this leg up.

All right, and now, let's open the knee so your ankle is behind your standing knee and lift it up to the back.

Long neck, long spine, stomach pulled in.

Nice.

[inhales and exhales] All right, long legs, slightly to the back.

Working the glutes.

[inhales and exhales] Big breaths, don't hold your breath.

Lift, lift, and lift.

All right, knee to the front.

And wipe the floor with your foot.

Wipe it.

And a few lifts.

Take a break if you need it, but join us after just a few seconds.

Lift, lift, lift, lift, and lengthen and rotate.

Almost finished, hang in there.

[inhales] Take a few deep breaths.

[exhales] All right, and cross.

Sit it back and stretch.

And push the hips forward.

Almost done.

Let's shake off that standing leg.

That one really got a good workout here.

So just shift a couple more times before we finish up.

All right, forward and back.

Well done, guys.

Challenging your muscles and joints in all directions works to prevent injury and enhances recovery when you do get injured.

This type of preventative maintenance is necessary for a long life doing what you love.

So come back here each day to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where a little daily maintenance goes a long way.

Thanks again, 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.