- When it comes to fitness, one's neck is rarely thought about.

But here at Quick Fit , my goal is to keep your entire body strong and flexible.

I'm Cassy Vieth, and I'm really glad you've made me a part of your day.

Join me now for a gentle routine for the neck.

[gentle music] For today's class, feel free to sit or stand.

But if you sit a lot already, then challenge yourself to stand for the entire class.

Start by standing nice and tall, lengthening your head, neck, and spine.

[inhales] Very good.

[exhales] Bring those arms down, press your shoulders down.

Stand as tall as you can.

Imagine that you're at the doctor and they're measuring your height.

You really wanna stand, you can't go on your toes, but you want to lengthen through the head and neck.

Very good, press your shoulders down.

Let's draw a small circle with the chin.

[inhales] Think lift and lengthen as you do this.

Getting a little bigger.

You can kind of hear things crunching around in there.

As long as it feels good and you're not feeling any knife pain, then keep it going.

Small circles the other way, don't forget to breathe.

Found myself holding my breath already.

[inhales] Inhale, exhale.

[exhales] Shoulders are pulled back.

Nice, big circle.

Very good.

Little three point rainbow from one shoulder to the sky, down to the other.

[exhales] Inhale.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] Very nice.

One more time, lift.

Are you standing nice and tall?

Are your hips in line with your heels and your shoulders?

Sometimes we end up shifting and pushing our hips forward.

Try not to do that.

Let's bring your hands up behind your head, press the head back.

Feel those muscles in the back of your neck activate.

They're probably saying thank you, because they're always overstretched with your head forward.

Press, they like to contract and hold this head back.

Just lift the chin while you're still putting a little bit of force back into your fingers.

Continue pressing into your fingers a little bit, a little bit of force, and then lowering the chin.

Nice.

All right, nice, wide arms.

Widen those feet and let's just do an easy twist.

Don't forget the neck.

Look down your arm.

[inhales] Even with your eyes.

[exhales] Inhale, [inhales] exhale.

[exhales] Keep going.

[exhales] Inhale.

[inhales] When you exhale, see if you can twist a little further, keep moving that arm, keep moving the eyes.

Keep moving the neck.

So nice.

All right, nice and wide.

Let's lift it over, look down.

Do a little halo, [inhales] up.

[exhales] Good, around the head, and around.

[exhales] Lift, [inhales] hang it over.

[exhales] Good, do a little halo around the head.

All right.

Stay right here and we'll do three nods.

In other words, drop your chin towards your shoulder and lift.

[inhales] Again, drop the chin towards the shoulder and lift.

One more time.

Very good, and the other way.

[inhales] Inhale, exhale, drop the chin.

Feel that stretch.

Don't rush it, don't force it.

If you need to pause, take some pressure off, go back down into it.

That's the way.

We don't want your brain to associate these classes with bad feelings.

Of course, we don't want bad pain either.

We want it to feel good.

Very nice, all right.

One more time.

Hang it over, [exhales] a little halo, other way.

Good, make sure you're turning your head.

And now up.

[inhales] And we'll drop your ear towards your shoulder.

But of course, these are always so tight.

So come out of it, inhale.

[inhales] Try to relax the shoulder, try to relax the head.

If you feel like something's gonna spasm and come up, [inhales] take a deep breath and go over ever so gently.

[exhales] And then slowly, slowly back up to center, and we'll go the other way.

It's tight, so I'm gonna stop.

I'm gonna inhale, [inhales] exhale.

I'm not going to force anything.

[exhales] Inhale, when your body thinks you're going to hurt it or overstretch, it tends to tighten up to protect itself.

So let's not give it any reason to tighten up.

[inhales] And exhale.

[exhales] Very good, you want it to feel good.

Shake it off a little bit.

And bring your head up in front of your forehead and gently press your forehead into the heel of your hand.

Very good.

[exhales] Go the other way.

And press, press about 70% to 80% of your strength.

Release, we'll do that again each way.

Ready, and press, press, press.

One more time to this side.

Press, so your hand is pushing against the forehead, the forehead is gently pushing into the hand, and release.

Now straight over to this side, you ready?

Press it over, press.

Release, other side.

[inhales] Exhale, press.

Two, three, four, five, and one more time each side, ready?

Go, five, four, three, two, switch.

Five, four, three, two, and done.

Okay, now this time I'd like you to just turn a little bit, drop your chin towards your chest.

Reach up to the back of your head.

Lift the head up into your hands.

So you're not pulling the head down.

You are lifting the head up into your hand, and your hand is not giving way.

Release, other side.

Slight turn, drop the chin, try to pick up the head, the hand won't let it.

Keep lifting, and release.

Nice.

All right, a couple fists right under your chin.

Press it down, press down.

Very good, all right, one more time.

Turn, drop, reach up, lift.

So we're stretching, but we're also strengthening those muscles in the neck, especially the ones that are overstrained from always being hung forward, okay?

So we're dropping the chin, reach up, and now exercising those muscles, getting them to contract, bringing some blood into that area, and release.

One more time, pressing the chin down into your fists, go.

Press, press, and release.

Very good, let's look up, pull it right.

Don't forget to breathe.

I catch myself holding my breath, lift.

[inhales] Roll it left.

[exhales] One more time, lift, [inhales] drop it to one side.

[exhales] Maybe you're getting a little bit more movement by now, I hope so.

[inhales] And exhale.

[exhales] Okay, from here, I'd like you to just lift your chin horizontal, extend your arms.

So if you're mirroring me, you're looking to your right, extend your left arm, bend the wrist.

[exhales] Palm up.

Move the arm behind you more, and lower.

Rotate that arm and shoulder forward, [inhales] back, lift, pull it behind you more, stretching the chest.

Looking as far as you can, even with your eyes, and release.

Other way, turn it.

[inhales and exhales] Extend your arm.

Bend that wrist.

Try to move the arm further behind you without turning in the shoulders.

Good, lower that arm, rotate forward, rotate back.

And I hope you're still standing tall and you're not pushing your head forward.

Arm up, bend the wrist.

Stretch that chest and relax.

Come out of that slowly.

Lift, lift, cross your arm in front of you, just release those muscles that were just really tense.

Long neck lift, shoulders back.

Let's do some elbow circles.

Keep lifting the neck tall as if there's something above you you're trying to touch.

Circle and circle, hold it back.

Don't push the neck forward.

Keep the head right above your body, arms open.

And finally, a nice twist to finish up.

[inhales] Looking down your arm, even with your eyes, exhale.

[exhales] Let's go the other way.

Nice and wide, nice and wide.

[inhales] Big breath, let it all out.

[exhales] Look, even with your eyes.

Very nice.

That feels so much better and looser.

This is one of those classes you can repeat two to three times a week.

It'll help your upper back to feel less strained as well.

Come back here to, say it with me, pbswisconsin.org/quickfit to gain greater mobility in your neck and to live better, longer 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.