- Hello, I'm Cassy.

Welcome to Quick Fit , where aging well is possible.

Simple and effective moves such as those we'll be performing today are meant to care for your shoulder joints by one, opening them up, and two, balancing the muscles on either side that move them.

All this adds up to pain relief and better living.

[gentle music] Today's class will be seated, but you're encouraged to stand if you'd like.

As always, when we sit, we're not reclining against the chair back.

Sit forward on the front of your seat.

All right, we'll start with some easy shoulder rolls.

Just lift those shoulders up by your ears and roll them back.

The ball and socket joint of the shoulder is a victim to overuse and misuse.

So let's give it some love with some decompression moves that will allow synovial fluid to get in there and plump up the soft tissues between the bones.

All right, lift two shoulders, [inhales] and then we'll press it forward, rounding your back.

Go ahead and drop that chin.

Let's do that again.

Sit up tall, lift those shoulders, [inhales] lift the chin, and then we'll press it forward and round your back.

Tip to one side and lift an elbow, and the other side.

Lift, stretching those ribs and all these muscles beneath your shoulders.

Okay, one more time, lift.

All right, lift two shoulders.

All right, alternate shoulders and shift and press.

Alternating hips.

Okay, lift your hip.

Lift your hip, press.

Lift that hip and press.

Let's pull that wrist in front.

[inhales] Sit down on the seat completely, and stretch that shoulder overhead.

That feels good.

All right.

Lift your left hip, if you're mirroring me.

We'll press, grab that wrist in front, and pull.

Sit it up and over the head.

[exhales] All right, let's pull those shoulders back by bringing your elbows behind you, lifting through the chest, stretching through the front.

[inhales] Open those hands.

[exhales] All right, let's do that again.

Lift.

Lifting through the rib cage.

Dropping those elbows down behind you as if you could tuck them in your back pocket, and then open those arms.

[inhales and exhales] One more time.

Lift, stretching through the front of your chest, okay, the front of these shoulders.

Elbows back, good.

And now a nice, wide reach.

Lift your shoulders up by your ears, and now press them down.

Reach and reach.

Reach in two directions.

Reach and reach, opening up the shoulders.

Two shoulders up, press them down, and lengthen as if you have two people pulling you in two directions.

Stomach's in.

[inhales and exhales] Now, lift the shoulders, press them down, and move the arms back as if you're pointing behind you with your thumbs, so your palms are up.

[inhales] Are you sitting tall?

Try not to compensate with the head pushing forward.

Oops, shoulders are down.

Extended, good.

Move those hands back further.

[exhales] A few circles.

Now remember, we're never working into any bad pain or any catching.

If you've been experiencing shoulder pain, you'll want to move without force, avoiding any particular position that triggers pain.

Just move within the ranges that don't hurt.

Okay, just these small, little lifts.

[inhales] Lifts, lifts.

And stretching the chest, good.

Sometimes what happens is the various muscles on opposite sides of any joint can get out of balance from their original tensions, and they can make your joint sit in an incorrect position, and then that causes pain.

And then it doesn't allow you to move through the proper ranges of motion.

[inhales and exhales] Okay, other side.

Touch your shoulder.

Try not to drop your elbow; I think I was.

Reach behind, okay.

And touch your shoulder.

And let's look at that hand, and look where you're reaching.

[exhales] [inhales] Nice, big breaths.

Don't drop your shoulders, don't drop your elbows.

Keep the shoulders down.

Keep the elbows up, and then turn the head.

Don't drop that arm.

Turn and look where you're going.

[inhales] Touch, and the other way.

[exhales] Good.

You guys are doing good.

All right, lift the chin.

All right, you can let that right arm relax.

And let's make a 90 degree with the left arm.

And then you see this, it's nice and vertical, but now let's try to tip that wrist back of the elbow, okay.

It's straight up, I'll try to tip it back.

Imagine you've got a tray on your hand, press it up [inhales] and down.

Can you move that arm back further?

Look the other way.

Now look at your arm.

Make the forearm vertical.

Move the wrist back, and press.

All right, let's bring that down.

Good, shake that off gently.

And we'll do the other side.

So this is vertical.

Imagine you have a tray.

Let's bring that elbow as wide as you can.

And then try to tip the wrist further behind the elbow.

Press up towards the ceiling.

Can you open that arm a little further?

And press it up and down.

Good.

[inhales] Nice, big breaths, okay.

Breathe it in.

[inhales] Exhale, press, [exhales] and down.

Good, and lower that arm gently.

Make sure you're not catching anything.

A few figure eights.

Let's do the other side.

All right, left hand to the ceiling.

Now, if you can't go straight up, that's quite all right.

Go to where you can in your range of motion, but I'd like you to extend and pull back.

Extend through the shoulder and pull back.

Extend, hold it here, allowing those oils to get into that joint and make it feel better.

A few circles, trying to go further back.

And we're not jamming the arm.

You're going gently.

Inhale, exhale.

[exhales] Good, one more.

Lift it up.

Pull it back, and we'll switch arms.

Lift.

[inhales] Big inhale, exhale.

[exhales] Drop the shoulder.

Now lift it up by your ear.

Pull it to the back, small circles.

If you let it compress, open it up.

Circle in that lengthened position.

Very good.

[inhales] Lift, pull it back.

[exhales] Very good.

Let's try a couple water skiers.

So imagine you're out behind that boat, and the boat's about ready to go.

You're hanging on to that rope, and it pulls, and you resist.

Pull those shoulders back.

Let the rope pull your shoulders.

[inhales and exhales] Pull them back, press them down.

Pinch those shoulder blades together.

Palms up.

Extend through the shoulders, pull them back.

Press them down, lift them up.

Press them down, pull them back.

That's a very healthy position is to have your shoulders down and slightly retracted as if you're pinching the shoulder blades together.

All right, a few lifts.

Stomach's in, head is neutral.

Try not to be pushing it forward.

Shoulders are down and back.

[exhales] Stomach's in.

I know it's starting to get hard because we slouch so much.

I'm guilty too.

Lift, lift, lift, and relax.

All right, lift, shift in your seat.

I hope you feel looser and can see that with consistency, you'll regain range of motion and reduce pain.

After that, strengthening work can be done.

I want you to live better, longer, and this is my system with gentle, easy moves.

You'll want to come back here though, daily to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit to continue improving and moving well, because life is movement.

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.