- Welcome back to the most important part of your day, your daily Quick Fit routine with me, Cassy Vieth.

My goal is to give you the greatest value for your time.

So grab a chair, a cushy mat or rug, remove your shoes, and join me for today's foot and balance class.

[gentle music] If you're new to these classes and don't usually go without shoes, then please only do two or three reps of each of the moves we do today.

Otherwise, you'll become just too sore, and exercising consistently is hard enough without adding a negative experience.

So take my advice, and keep the moves without much force and rather half-hearted if you're new.

Let's just start by alternately lifting one heel and then the other, pressing down into the balls of your feet.

The balls of your feet are the big pad right below your big toe.

Let's come up, good.

Come up and slowly lower.

Come up onto toes and slowly lower.

Pop up and down, pop up and down.

Good, bending those toes.

You know, your toes get so tight on the front of your feet from being in your shoes all the time.

Let's try to press the ball of the foot down and just lift those toes.

Rock it back.

Get more of the foot up.

And once again, just the toes.

Hold them up.

This works to exercise the arch of your foot.

Step it back.

[inhales] Sit back on that heel.

Try to relax your kneecap.

Shift the hips around, [inhales] and flex that foot.

Pull the toes towards you.

I know some of you right away, feel that all the way up the back of your leg and your back is rounded.

Let's come up a little, arch the back, [exhales] and sit back into it.

Let's switch sides.

Step back, bend that back knee, big inhale.

[inhales] Do it again.

[exhales] You can do this part as much as you need to with the breathing and the easing into the stretch.

You don't have to just go at it and cringe and hate it.

Your muscles will just kind of tighten up anyway.

Shift your hips around.

[inhales and exhales] Try to lift the front of your foot up.

Come up a little bit if you need to to lengthen through your spine.

Very nice.

All right, now let's utilize this chair.

We're going to stretch your calf.

Put your top of your foot against the chair leg and now press that heel towards the chair leg.

Okay, one more time.

Inhale, exhale, press that heel down.

[exhales] Take that foot, same leg.

Reach it behind you.

Press the heel into the floor.

Push down into the chair for leverage and make sure you're moving your hips forward.

[exhales] Your other leg is well in front of you.

And let's do the other side.

Okay, press the top of the foot against the chair leg and do your best to get that heel against the chair leg.

One more time.

[inhales] Inhale, exhale.

[exhales] Very good.

All right, take that leg, press it behind you.

Adjust your feet.

Press that heel down.

Move your hips forward.

Push into the chair for leverage.

Good.

[exhales] Just enjoy that stretch.

You can come out of it a little and go back in to deepen it and allow time for it to loosen.

All right.

Okay, now the next stretch we're going to do is for the side of your ankle.

I want you to put all your weight on your left leg.

So just mirror me.

All the weight on your left leg and just a little bit of force down through the side of your ankle, okay?

But keep all the weight on this other leg so you don't hurt the side of your foot.

Inhale, exhale, go at it real gently.

And let's do the other side.

So put all your weight on this leg, your right leg, and then gently twist that other foot to the side.

Good.

And press.

[exhales] Very nice, okay.

Let's lift your heels, two feet up.

Just hold it there.

Walk around a little bit.

Making sure that you're not allowing that foot to go sideways towards the pinky.

Try to keep a nice straight line between the ball of your foot, right there, your ankle, knee, to your hip, okay?

Wanna keep your ankles strong.

So we're holding it up and down.

Go ahead, up.

[inhales] Walk it around a little.

Practice with your balance.

Heels as high up as you can get them.

Now, I know some of you cannot get your feet up very high.

Try bending the knees.

And in this way, you'll really get a deeper stretch to your toes.

And then maybe try to straighten the knees.

Try to get those heels up as high as you can.

All right, let's work on a single foot at a time.

You ready, up.

Slow it down.

Ready, up.

Now, if you can't do it just with the strength of your feet, use the chair to help you get that heel up and down.

So we're strengthening the feet, stretching the toes, and down.

Let's do the other side.

Ready, and press, up.

Hold it there and down.

Press, pull it up, [inhales] and down.

Again, up, two, three, and down.

Good job.

All right, widen those legs.

Ready, and lift those heels.

Nice and wide, up.

Hold.

Glad the chair's here.

And down.

Once again, take care that your feet don't go over towards your pinky.

Stay on the ball of your foot.

Hold it there.

You can feel your calves tightening up.

Hold it here, and lower.

Widen those feet into a plié.

Now, do your best to keep your knees as wide as your feet.

If your knees are coming in closer than your feet, then you need to turn your feet in line with the knees.

Okay, ready, let's lift one heel, and down.

Lift the heel, and down.

Up, lower yourself.

Putting some force right down through the shin into the ball of that foot.

Other side, lift.

Hold, lean into it a little, putting force straight down.

And lift.

Two feet up, press it down.

Two feet up, grip with those toes, press the heels down.

Two feet up and down.

All right, let's just roll it down.

Stretching those thighs.

Roll up part way.

Arm out.

Figure eight.

Your whole arm.

[exhales] Your torso.

Let's bring it around.

Good, let's roll it down.

Roll it down.

Partway up, other arm, figure eight.

[inhales and exhales] Good, and across.

Good, let's go a little further.

Feel that stretch all the way down through your ribs.

And that's it.

If you do find yourself sore, don't be alarmed.

It's not a bad thing.

Remember, movement moves out soreness.

So you'll want to do some ankle circles and a few heel lifts while seated, without force.

And then come back to this class again next week at pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where you'll be able to gently strengthen and stretch your foot muscles to keep them strong and pain-free.

Until next time, 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.