- Let's make those knees feel better.

I'm Cassy, and in today's Quick Fit class, we'll be focusing on some of the common reasons for painful knees.

Tight quads, hamstrings, and IT bands, and weak ligaments, tendons, and glutes.

A little bit goes a long way, so join me for today's gentle but effective routine.

[gentle music] No special equipment is needed, unless you need a band or a towel to grab your ankle.

We'll be working on the floor, so let's roll back.

All right.

You may have your knees bent, and we'll just start by extending that right leg straight up to the ceiling.

Keep that foot flexed, and don't forget to start your breathing.

Deep inhale, exhaling on the stretch.

Let's do a little circle, and it'd be a good idea that every time you do these circles, you stretch closer over the top of your face.

Okay, instead of down here, thinking about going to the floor, we always want to try to deepen the stretch.

All right, now let's press the back of the ankle into the top of your knee to activate the hamstrings.

Press for five, four, three, two, release, big inhale, exhale.

[exhales] See if you can get a little more movement out of that hamstring.

Let's go back to the active stretches.

Press the heel to the ceiling.

Two more times.

Press [inhales] into those small circles.

[inhales] Few more.

Trying to relax the hamstring.

And then press the back of the ankle into the top of the knee.

Great, we wanna activate the muscle.

Five, four, three, two, and then try to stretch it again.

[inhales] It's a little trick.

Terrific.

Okay, from here, I'd like you to roll over onto your side.

Okay, right on your elbow, right underneath your shoulder, and grab that ankle and squeeze your hind end and try to push the knee back at the same time.

This is a nice, deep quad stretch, right through here.

[inhales] Release, inhale, squeeze your bottom and press the knee backwards.

One more time.

[inhales] Inhale, exhale, squeeze the bottom, press the knee back.

Now from here, release your bottom, but try to press your foot into your hand.

So now we're activating the quad muscle instead of trying to stretch it.

Five, four, three, two, release that, but pull now.

So we're not pressing the foot, we're pulling the foot, stretching the quad.

Good job, all right.

Put the foot on the floor in front of your other leg and try to stretch that bottom leg out.

Stretch the IT band [inhales] and rocking forward and back, hoping to stretch the TFL a little bit.

That's a small muscle attached to the front side of that IT band that can get painful.

[inhales and exhales] Kinda tricky to get to.

All right, forward and back.

And if you can push yourself up a little higher.

Good, and then let your shoulder sink up by your ear, deepening that stretch all down your side.

Feels good.

All right, on your back again and we'll do the other hamstring.

So the first time, we did the right leg, now I'd like you to stretch the left leg to the ceiling.

I don't know about you, but this leg feels tighter for me; I'm not quite getting it as close.

And I think that's super common.

You know, we're not machines; one side's always a little different than the other.

Okay, little circles, inhale, [inhales] exhale, inhale, exhale.

[exhales] Nice and easy, trying to improve the flex of the foot.

And now let's press the back of that ankle into the top of the knee, activating the hamstring.

You ready, press.

You might feel your abdominals activate, your glutes activate, that's all good.

Press, three, two, one, release.

[inhales] And now see if you can get a little more stretch out of that hamstring.

Three more active stretches, press to the ceiling, lengthen the leg.

And press.

[inhales] Circles.

[exhales] Don't hold your breath; breathe as deeply as you need to.

Good, and pressing the back of that ankle.

Ready, press down into the knee.

Press, press, press for five, four, three, two, and now extend the leg, take a big inhale, [exhales] and see if you can get a little more movement out of that leg.

I got a little bit more; that felt really good.

All right, let's kick up and roll over onto your other side so we can stretch the quad on the other leg.

All right.

Squeeze your hind end, press the knee back at the same time.

It really deepens that stretch.

Release, [inhales] do it again.

Squeeze the butt, press the knee back.

[exhales] And one more time.

[inhales and exhales] Press the knee back and squeeze the hind end.

I feel that all the way down to my knee.

All right, release the butt.

Press the foot into the hand.

Sit up nice and tall.

We're activating the quadricep muscles, we're making them tight.

And now when we want to stretch them, pull that foot back to the butt.

Squeeze.

See if you get a little more movement out of the quad.

Good job.

Bring the bottom of your foot up in front, extend that leg that's on the floor.

Reach forward and roll slightly forward and back, stretching the IT band, getting into that TFL, tensor fascia latae.

It's a small muscle, it's one of the hip flexors.

All right, almost done here.

[inhales] And push up onto your hands, seeing if you can create a little more curve down your hip and side.

[exhales] You can try lifting up that foot even, see what that feels like.

And release.

All right, bend those knees, stack 'em on top of each other, come down to your elbow.

Elbow's right underneath your shoulder.

Nice, pretty spine and neck, nothing's hanging.

And a few clams, isolating this glute medius, super important muscle to keep everything in your bottom half lined up properly.

When these get weak, they allow the knee to go in, they allow the foot to go into improper movement.

So let's keep it all working good.

[inhales] Slight lean forward.

Your quads want to cheat; if your hips are weak, your knee starts lifting higher than your ankle and your quads start doing the work instead of the hip muscles here.

Let's extend that leg.

Let's do a few long lifts.

Lift, lift, stomach's in, if your shoulder's up by your ear, press the elbow into the floor.

Lift, lift, hold it here.

[inhales] Toe, heel, toe, and heel.

Keep it going.

If you need a break, take one.

Count to three seconds, join us again.

Toe, heel, toe and heel.

Let's do three more.

Two, last one.

And then we'll switch sides.

Good job.

Swing it around quickly, it's part of the workout.

And we'll start again with clams.

You're stacked, your ribs are up, shoulders are down.

Shoulder and elbow are nicely stacked.

Ready, lift.

You've got a little bit of a bend in the front here.

[inhales] Nice 90-degree bend at the knee.

Lift, slight reaching forward to prevent the quads from taking over and make sure your shin is nice and horizontal between your ankle and your knee.

We don't want, this is what we don't want, that ankle dropping.

Keep the ankle as high as the knee.

Lift, lift, keep it going.

Breathe as deeply as you need to.

Lift, flex that foot.

Lift, lift.

Are you sitting tall still?

Is your head lifted, your shoulders pressed down, ribs in a nice, straight line with your spine as opposed to sinking down to the floor?

All right, long leg [inhales] and lift.

And of course, if you need to lay all the way down on your side, that's quite fine.

Just fine.

Keep it going.

Keep going.

[inhales] I know it's getting tough; and rotate to toes, heel, toes.

[inhales and exhales] Hope you're breathing as heavy as I am.

Toes and heels.

All right, last one.

Good job.

All right, lay back onto your back again with your knees bent.

Do a little bit for the knees again.

So no repetitions, extend this left leg, press your heel into the floor.

It's your left heel, pressing it into the floor, activating your hamstrings.

And don't use all of your strength, just about 50% to 75% of your strength.

Release that and press it again.

These are just isometric exercises to gently strengthen the weaker tissues around the knee without reps.

So if you have painful knees, this is ideal.

And release; let's switch legs.

Extend that right leg and press.

Pull your stomach in, feel your bottom tighten.

[inhales] Flex the foot.

Three, two, one, release.

We'll do that again and press.

Press.

Like I said, 50% to 75% of your strength.

Five, four, three, two, and release.

All right, your feet are side by side, we're going to do a few bridges.

Let's press to get the hips up in the air, nice alignment between your shoulders and your knees.

We'll slowly lower the hips like this.

Three, two, one, up for two, and down.

Three, two, one, up for two, and down.

Three, two, one, up, hold for two seconds, and down.

Two, three, up for two, keep it going.

Nice, slow pace.

Up for two, down for three.

Quick up, hold for two, down for three.

All right, now I just want you to hold it here.

Five, four, three, two, release.

Hands behind your knees, let's kick up into a seated position, and unless you have a more serious injury, this routine will make a difference within a few short weeks.

If you come back regularly to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where you can perform this routine each day to stretch, strengthen, and rebalance the muscles and tissues that contribute to a healthy knee.

And I'll be here waiting to do it with you because aging well is possible.

See you soon.

- 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.