- Hello, I'm Cassy Vieth, and this is Quick Fit , your daily fitness class to maintain strength and reduce pain so you can keep up with your family and keep doing all the things you love.

Get ready to join me now for a class to tone the torso and aid digestion, right there in the comfort of your own home.

[bright music] Exercise for digestion?

That's right.

As we slouch, we hinder our internal organs by squishing them and not giving them the room they need.

So we'll begin right away by lengthening the spine and strengthening the torso so you can remain more upright and lengthened for longer periods throughout the day.

All right, two arms are up.

[exhales] Start your breathing.

As we warm up, let's just do a real small spine rotation.

[inhales] Nice and high up with your arms by your ears.

Lift, think long neck, long spine.

[inhales and exhales] Good, and now tuck your tailbone and press forward.

Tuck your butt under; we'll roll first to your right, if you're mirroring me.

And to your left.

[inhales] Inhale, exhale, roll.

And if you're new, don't use much force.

Do everything kind of half heartedly, especially if you recently had pain.

You want your muscles to get more balanced and strong.

All right, and now we'll roll over, and over.

[exhales] Let's do some nice, large figure eights, okay?

Rolling the arm forward, draw that elbow across, palm up.

Bring the arm back, elbow up, and the other way.

Cross, lift, [inhales] breathing.

Nice and deep, inhale, exhale.

One more.

Across, stretching the back of your ribs and back.

All right, reach over, lift, and now as you reach over I'd like you to press your hand behind your hip.

Just gently, just gently hold it there.

Other side, lift, press from behind and reach it over.

One more time.

This time, just let your arm hang down.

Stomach's in and over.

Squeeze your hind end, pull in your core.

Long neck, try not to drop it towards the floor.

Other side, lift, extend, stomach in, squeeze your bum, [inhales] exhale and over.

All right, two arms up, big rainbow, down and up.

Legs are nice and wide, all right?

Not close together.

Widen them so when you go down, your knees are still over your feet.

[inhales and exhales] Scooch them wider with every rep. All right, and plié, meaning the knees are as wide as the feet, holding the knees open as wide as you can.

Stomach's in, reach it over to the knee, reach it over to the knee.

Tight core.

One more, switching sides, elbow to the knee.

Now, are you reaching all the way to the knee or just maybe halfway, reach it.

Extend, lengthen that body.

Reach it past the knee if you can.

Over, elbow to knee, and over.

Cool, last one, hold it here, [exhales] and up.

Keep those legs nice and wide, and I'd like you to take this right leg and kind of walk it out until your knee is right over your ankle.

Nice 90 degree.

Imagine there's a wall here, okay?

So you're not turning through the shoulder, arms are up.

Extend, you really feel this stretch right through here.

Leg has to hold you there.

Keep it going, stomach's in, long neck, reach, exhale.

Longer, press that foot into the floor, stomach's tight, and hold, two, three, and switch sides, all right?

So open this leg, check yourself to make sure your shin is nice and vertical, knees over the ankle.

Arms are wide and slide along that imaginary wall that's in front of you.

Push the foot.

There you go.

Maybe a little longer each time.

Exhale.

[exhales] Few more.

Last one.

Very good, up, switching sides.

Nice and deep.

This time, we'll hold it here.

Exhale, lift, lift, don't rotate that shoulder forward.

Keep them stacked.

Let's just run through the clock here.

Hold it over.

Push that foot into the floor.

It's getting harder.

Hold, two, three, long neck and up.

Very, very good.

All right, last, last side.

Other side.

All right, lengthen, lengthen, lengthen.

[inhales] Hold it here.

Now we'll move the arm, but don't let that shoulder roll forward.

Face me.

We'd like your chest squarely facing me.

Your leg's getting shaky, holding you here.

[inhales[ Exhale and up, good, good job.

All right, shake that off.

Extend your left arm up in the air, okay, if you're mirroring me, and I'd like you to cross it, crunch towards your opposite knee.

Cross, crunch, extend.

Cross, stretch, cross, extend.

Keep it going.

A little bit of balance work.

Control it, don't just fall.

Try to be stable.

Go as slow as you need to.

Feel the muscle stretch, and crunch.

Switching sides now.

Lengthen through your right arm.

Opposite knee comes up.

Crutch, extend, crunch, extend, crunch, extend.

Keep it going.

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

[exhales] One more.

And good job, good job.

All right, two arms up.

Now this time, I'd like you to lean over towards your left slightly, then lengthen, arms by your ears, stomach's in, and over, lengthen, lengthen, lengthen.

Hold it here, squeeze your hips.

Stomach's tight, [exhales] and up.

Those are pretty intense.

[inhales] They're not easy.

And other side.

Over, stomach's in, exhale, lengthen through the shoulders.

Inhale, exhale, stomach's tight, hips are tight, lengthen.

And one more.

Hold it here.

Two, three, and up.

Very good.

Now I hope you're breathing as heavy as I am.

Some easy twists as we're finishing up.

These twists also work by pushing and pulling on your intestines, thus aiding elimination.

Okay, almost finished here.

[inhales and exhales] We are out of time for today, but these classes are so fun and make you feel so good, you'll want to come back every day to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where you get the greatest value for your time and add healthier years to your life.

What I call living better, longer.

See you tomorrow.

- 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.