- Hi there.

I hope you're ready to feel looser and more energized.

I'm Cassy Vieth and this is Quick Fit , your place to improve range of motion and reduce pain.

Today's class will work to warm up those joints, leaving you more refreshed and ready to face the rest of your day.

[gentle music] While we will be seated for this entire class, the chair can be a great tool, as you'll soon see.

Start with some nice presses up, stomach's in, [inhales] sitting nice and tall.

[exhales] Nice, deep breaths, long inhales, [inhales] extra long exhales.

And we are seated on the very front edge of the chair.

We're not reclining.

[inhales and exhales] Deep breaths, deep breaths.

Now hold it here, and I want a little extra press to the ceiling, stretching those ribs.

Very nice.

Other side, lift, [inhales] exhale as you press, feeling those ribs separate, opening up through the shoulder joint.

Very good, one more.

Backstrokes as we warm up, [inhales] inhale, exhale, [exhales] starting to work the spine as well as the shoulders.

Nice job.

All right, let's just throw some salt over the shoulder.

Throw it, letting momentum stretch the shoulder.

And we'll work on the other arm, are you ready?

Throw it over, throw it over.

[inhales and exhales] Arms nice and wide and just some small twists through the torso, turning also with your neck.

Big inhale, [inhales] arms are at shoulder height.

[exhales] Very good, now, a little bit larger move, allowing the hips to follow.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] Don't forget to turn the neck.

If you can turn your face a little further, please do.

[exhales] Good, and let's add the leg.

Stretch it to the back, opening up that hip.

[inhales] Nice and tall.

[inhales] We're not rushing this.

Big inhale, [inhales] stretch that leg behind you, shifting in your chair.

[exhales] Let's do that one more time each way.

Ready, inhale, [inhales] stretching out that leg, full twist through the spine from tailbone to neck, [exhales] exhale.

Other side.

Ready?

[inhales] And exhale.

[exhales] Keep moving those arms, looking down your arm, even moving your eyes.

Terrific.

You can relax your arms, let's face forward, but then continue going because I'd like you to extend your leg out to the front.

[inhales] All right, hands on your hips, enjoy that stretch to the inner thigh, your adductors.

Now, we're going to stretch a muscle that's deep inside your pelvis, your psoas.

Squeeze your hind end, allowing your pelvis to tuck under.

You may or may not feel any difference, but that's okay, you're stretching it all the same.

Very good.

Let's turn around and do the other side with this particular stretch, okay.

Face the other way, completely extend the leg, [inhales] okay, hands on your hips.

Now squeeze your hind end so that the pelvis tucks under.

You get a rounding of the spine [inhales] and then add a nice, long exhale.

[exhales] Very good.

Now it might appear that I'm really leaning over, but I'm not leaning over as much as you think.

I'm just tucking the tailbone, deepening the stretch in the pelvis.

All right, turn back around to the other side.

[inhales and exhales] Now I'd like you to extend this leg to the back.

You may have to go slightly to the side to get the knee completely open in the hip.

Find that point where you can get a nice, complete stretch, okay.

Arm up to the side, [inhales] big inhale, exhale.

[exhales] Think about pressing that heel to the back.

Big inhale, exhale.

We're holding this a little longer, waiting for those muscles to relax.

And now, twist slightly through the torso to face me.

Good job.

All right, we'll relax that knee, bring that arm down.

[inhales] And for this next part, I'd like you to relax through your hip and side, you know, being careful not to fall off the front of the chair, I want you to lift your arm up over the ear.

[inhales] Exhale, relax your torso towards the back of the seat while your hip lengthens down towards the floor.

[exhales] Maybe your neck even wants to turn, stretching through the shoulder and the back of the neck.

[exhales] Very good.

Come up gently out of that.

Big inhale, [inhales] exhale.

We'll do those on the other side.

[exhales] Once again, extending through the hip and the knee.

If you can't go directly behind you, you can adjust slightly to the side so that you can open through the hip as well as the knee.

Think about pressing that heel back, stretching the Achilles, the calves, the feet, okay.

Lift that same side arm up, big inhale, and then exhale.

[exhales] We're not rushing this.

Another big inhale, [inhales] exhale, pull that stomach in.

[exhales] Press that heel to the back.

You'll notice things loosening up [inhales] as we hold it here.

[exhales] And now twist slightly through the torso, facing me.

[inhales and exhales] Keep reminding yourself to not hold that breath.

And then we'll relax through the arm, let that knee bend, and as you let your weight fall forward off the seat, reach that arm up over the ear, [inhales] pause, inhale.

Exhale, sinking into it.

[exhales] Let the head and neck relax.

Come out enough to take a deep inhale, [inhales] going right back into the stretch, enjoying it.

[exhales] All right, good job.

[exhales] Come out of that nice and slow.

Face forward now.

Still sitting on the front edge of your chair, let's extend your left leg.

You can just mirror me, and I'd like you to do some ankle circles.

We're not gonna rush through this, we're going to take our time, rotating as fully as you can, and now reverse.

Go as slow as you need to to do a really complete move.

Nice, complete circle [inhales] and reverse.

Let's switch legs.

Extend that leg.

Big rotations of the ankle.

[inhales] Inhale, exhale [exhales] and reverse.

Nice and big.

You should feel that in your calf.

Good.

All right.

Widen those knees and pull your heels back enough so that when you lift through the heels, you have a nice line between the knee, the ankle, and the ball of your foot, which is the big pad under the big toe.

We want a nice, straight line because we're going to put some weight, some force right down through those legs, making those ankles have to work, stretching the toes.

You might come off slightly off the seat, that's okay.

We wanna put some force, some use stress, that means good stress down through your bones, causing them to work and fight back and become thicker.

All right, very good.

All right, let's bring the feet to the front, just gentle squeeze of the toes.

Be careful, gentle, you don't wanna get a charley horse, and extend, okay.

You're squeezing it gently, gently squeezing and extending, try to stretch your toes, nice.

All right, let's do a tuck of the foot and pressing the ball of the foot one more time.

We're stretching the top of the foot.

In fact, turn a little bit in your seat so that you can get a little bit more of the top of the foot onto the floor.

Shift your heel across the top of your toes.

Good job.

Let's do the other side, shift in your seat a little bit.

Tuck the toes under, bend, and top of the foot, shifting the heel left and right.

Good job.

Ah, feels good on the top of the foot.

I don't think we think about the top of our foot when it comes to fitness, but our feet do a lot of work for us, so we gotta care for them.

All right, front of your seat, widen those legs, big inhale, press those knees open, [inhales and exhales] press, press, press.

Now, right shoulder, we're going to extend that arm, twist through the torso, dropping that shoulder to really deepen that stretch through the groin.

Inhale, [inhales] exhale, do the other side.

Really stiff arm.

Drop the shoulder.

[inhales and exhales] Exhale.

[exhales] Enjoy that stretch.

And then come up.

All right, bring that left knee up.

Arch that back, lifting the ribs towards your thigh.

[exhales] And figure four, just press the knee down.

Inhale.

[inhales] Again, press the knee down.

[exhales] Good job.

Let those legs relax and twist.

[exhales] Big inhale.

[inhales] Go back into it, exhale.

[exhales] Good job.

All right, other leg.

If you're mirroring me, this will be your right leg.

Pull it towards your chest, lift your ribs towards your thigh, lift your chest.

Crossing the ankle over your knee or below the knee if you need to, [inhales] big inhale, exhale.

[exhales] Gentle press down.

You'll feel it deep in your glutes, your side of your hip, your glute medius.

One more inhale, [inhales] exhale.

[exhales] Don't rush; if you feel like you're particularly tight in that area, take your time, do it as long as you like.

30 seconds is really the minimum time when you're very tight to wait for those Golgi tendon organs to like, release.

But I'd like to add breathing as well.

[exhales] All right, so inhale [inhales] and exhale.

[exhales] So we combine a lot of different types of stretching in this class.

Static, where we hold it for longer periods, and active, where we go in and out with lots of breathing.

Let's do a nice tail tuck.

[exhales] I think breathing really, really helps.

[inhales] And I think it's also more enjoyable to go in and out of those stretches with lots of breathing.

You end up getting looser without so much uncomfortableness.

All that stretching and grimacing sometimes.

All right.

That is it.

A little bit of self-care each day really is the recipe to aging well.

I'm so glad you chose to do that with me, and I look forward to seeing you here again soon at pbswisconsin.org/quickfit.

And do me a favor, share this class with a friend so they too can keep doing all the things they love.

See you next time and 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.