- What does fit mean to you?

If it means remaining strong, able to enjoy the activities you've always enjoyed, living independently, or running marathons, then you're in the right place.

I'm Cassy Vieth, and this is Quick Fit , where you'll find integrative workouts designed to keep your joints mobile, your muscles strong and balanced, and your reflexes sharp.

That's a lot of value for your time, so we better get right at it.

[upbeat music] As we warm up, I hope you have your shoes off.

You can always have a nice, cushy mat underneath your feet if your feet are tender.

And if your feet are tender, only do a few of these repetitions today.

Nice heel up, pressing down through the ball of your foot.

Good, and the other foot, just lift that up.

And make sure your heel is in line with you knee.

Lift, push your weight straight down.

Go ahead and take a look, make sure your knee's not going way forward over your toes.

That's not good on any of your joints.

You know, when athletes want to perform better, they practice.

And even though you may not be an NBA basketball star, you have skills you don't want to lose.

So a few minutes of practice each day is an effective preventative against loss of balance, coordination, and everyday reflexes.

Right, let's tuck that toe.

All right, so if your shoes are on, this is much harder to do, so you get much more freedom of movement without your shoes.

That's why I say take 'em off, at least for several hours a day, and it will strengthen some of those muscles that may have gotten weak and started to give you trouble.

All right, so tuck your toes.

So have all your weight on your other foot.

And then try to get onto the top of your toes and stretch the top of your foot.

Good, just a few.

[inhales] Warming them up and start taking those deeper breaths that I always tell you to do, exercising those breathing muscles.

Okay, nice, deep inhale and exhales.

[inhales] And reverse.

[exhales] A little bit of balance work while we're at it, and one more time.

Switching legs, stabilize, extend, and circle.

[inhales and exhales] Good, standing nice and tall, okay?

Try not to sink too far down into that hip.

[inhales] Straight knees, straight long neck right up over your shoulders.

Good, all right.

Standing on your right leg, you'll be mirroring me.

This will be your right leg.

I'd like you to extend your other leg and lift.

Think quick, quick, quick.

Stand up nice and tall, and we'll move that leg around.

Okay, really challenging your balance as this leg moves in different directions.

Take your time, you don't have to go as fast as me.

[exhales] And you can also, you know, move, then lift, okay?

If that helps you.

Lift, lift, but think quick.

Up, up, up.

And around one more time.

[inhales] Using those arms.

[exhales] And switch sides, okay?

Stabilize, extend, and lift, lift, lift.

If you're not ready to move the leg around the body, then just spend today's class and maybe throughout the next week just doing points without the move.

So you'll just stay forward or out to the side or to the back.

The moving adds another element of difficulty.

And if you're not ready for it, then don't do it quite yet.

[inhales] Systematic progression is what you need to do along with practice, and then you will get better.

All right.

[exhales] All right, so now I want you to extend that leg and land, push off, okay?

Out to the side, land, push off, and then to the back, ready?

Land, push off.

Once again to the front, land, push off, stabilize without putting your foot down, hopefully.

To the side, down.

And catch yourself.

See, there's a lot involved: land, push off, stabilize.

One more time to the front, land, push off, and stabilize.

To the side, down, push off.

And down, push off.

Good, getting that right amount of force is something to learn too.

All right, we're switching legs.

So it'd be your right leg going forward, down, push off, stabilize.

To the side, land, push off.

It's like a game.

To the back, down, push off.

To the front, down, push off.

And to the side.

And don't just go to the side because you're losing your balance.

Stabilize first.

And to the back.

[exhales] One more time around, forward, side, whoops.

I was losing it, I cheated.

And to the back.

[inhales] Good, all right.

Now, we'll change it up just a little bit.

We're gonna do these hops, so we'll hop to the front, hop, one leg land, and to the back.

Again, to the front, hop it forward, hop it back.

Let's go two to the side, hop it sideways and back.

One more to the side, and back.

Make sure you're stabilizing.

You're not just going quick 'cause you're losing your balance.

And back, good.

And we'll switch sides.

All right, to the front.

Hop it forward, landing on one leg and back one leg, forward again.

Land, hop it back.

[exhales] To the side, land, and back.

One more.

[laughing] Land and back.

And I cheated, to the back, land, good.

And I like to remind people, if you get tired in the class, your balance is going to start getting wobbly.

If you're tired just in life, maybe you've had a stressful week, your balance might not be as good as it was the week before, you know?

Your brain is working very hard with your balance.

So if it's tired from other things, it'll show.

All right, have your feet, I don't know, about hip-width apart.

And we're going to do a very fast squat, all right?

So I want you to sit down very quickly.

The other cue that I give people is I will say, "Pull your knees up," but pull them up so fast that it actually pulls you down really quick.

'Cause we're not jumping up into the air.

We're sitting down, you're ready?

Pull the knees up, very good.

Your feet actually get light on the ground as you do this, and up, one more time.

Down, and up, good.

Now this time we're going to pop up.

You're ready?

Pop up and down, very good.

You ready, pop up and down.

And again, pop up and down.

Good job, let's widen those legs.

All right, so now let's do a fast up, 'cause we're already down, you ready?

Pop up.

And fast down, you ready, pull down.

Pop it up.

And think about bringing the knees up and pulling through your hip flexors, ready?

Down.

Push through the heels and press it up.

Ready?

And pull it down.

[inhales and exhales] Up and down.

I hope you're breathing heavy and not holding your breath.

We're getting our heart rate up.

[inhales] We're working hard, [exhales] but provide the body with oxygen by breathing nice and deep, and exhaling nice and long.

[exhales] Good job, all right.

All right, let's do a few shallow jump squats.

So what you'll do is you'll just be sitting down a little bit and coming up real fast.

So this is kind of the opposite of what we've been doing.

[inhales] So you'll pop it down, up.

Good, down, up.

And again, down, up.

One more time, down, up.

Good, and if you go too deep, it slows you down.

So it's real shallow, almost like you're a basketball player, you know?

When you need to quick throw a ball, okay?

So down, up.

Down, up.

Last one, down, up.

Good job.

All right, just walk around on those tippy toes there.

Catching your breath, [inhales] cooling your body down.

Getting your heart rate to slow down.

A couple flat feet, up to toes, good.

Flat feet, up to toes.

[exhales] Slow down your breathing.

[inhales] Count three breaths in or three beats in, [inhales] four beats out.

[exhales] Nice and controlled.

[inhales] Very good, good, good job, everyone.

I hope you enjoyed that.

Working on reaction speed will make you more coordinated, thereby reducing risk of falls and ankle sprains.

Keep up the good work by making time for yourself each day.

And joining me here at pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where together, we'll perform integrated workouts to keep you fit for the life you want to lead, because life is movement.

And I'll see you next time.

- 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.