- This is Quick Fit , your place to stretch and strengthen your body, so you can keep doing all the activities you love.

I'm your host, Cassy Vieth.

Today's class is all about the knees.

If your knees are starting to bother you, this class is intended to target and strengthen those smaller, weaker tissues around the joint that cause pain.

I know you're gonna feel better, so let's get moving.

[upbeat music] I've planned all non-irritating movements, and we'll be seated for the entire class.

I'd also like you to have an exercise band, or a belt if you don't have a band, along with a plastic vitamin bottle, really anything with a blunt end for a bit of self-massage later on around the leg and knee.

All right, let's just extend that leg.

It doesn't have to be very high.

We just want to give an opportunity for these smaller muscles to work, not so much the quad.

And then rotate it, keeping it extended.

And pull your foot into the chair leg, kind of near the bottom.

You don't have to use a whole lot of strength, just about 50% of your strength.

Like I said, to give these weaker tissues in here an opportunity to work as opposed to the hamstring at the back of the leg.

Extend, hold it here.

Once again, we're doing not a lot of repetitions, 'cause repetitions would be irritating to those already probably inflamed tissues.

Little rotation.

Just some holds.

'Cause we want to condition them without making everything feel worse.

Once again, pull your foot into the chair leg.

Maybe a little higher this time, and you'll feel different things pulling in your knee, and that's okay.

We're waking them up.

And one more extension.

About 8 to 10 seconds for these.

[inhales and exhales] And a rotation, getting slightly different muscles.

And a little higher, pulling in.

As long as you're not feeling any knife pains, you'll be all set.

But you probably will feel little things just kind of waking up that you haven't felt before.

And it's not necessarily a bad thing.

All right, and now let's do the other leg.

So extend, rotate.

Hold it there.

And pull against the bottom of the chair leg.

Good.

Keep that knee open.

Not very exciting, but it will feel better when you're done.

It'll be surprising how simple movements can have such a positive impact on your knees.

It's like, "Why didn't anybody tell me about this before?"

And now pull in.

Okay, keep pulling, about 50% of your strength.

You don't need to get red in the face, because then you'll probably be using your bigger muscles.

You wanna use the small tissues.

Hold, a little rotation.

[inhales and exhales] And a little higher on the leg.

You might feel that the higher you go up the leg, the weaker your leg actually feels.

Like you're not really doing much.

That's okay.

All right, now we're ready for that band or belt.

So I want you to wrap the band or the belt, or you can just grab your leg at this point, and try to straighten your leg.

And you don't have to fight, your hand doesn't have to fight your leg, and your leg doesn't have to fight your hand, so that you start trembling or anything.

Just a little bit.

And you'll feel muscles in here activating.

Okay, release, we'll do the other one.

We're going to do that three times on each leg, but first close, then a little further, so.

Press into your hand.

[inhales] The further away we get, you can use the band.

All right, the other leg.

All right, so now a little bit bigger angle, okay.

So a little further away.

Lifting the leg into the band.

I know this is getting a little bit of a workout, just holding that in the air.

So we'll switch sides.

Pressing that leg.

[inhales and exhales] I hope by the end of this class, you have hope for the future that you are not gonna have a lifetime of suffering from immobilizing knee pain.

And that you have a little more control over your health, that there is something you can do to keep things from getting worse.

All right, now I've made a little bigger angle.

All right, and the other side.

[inhales and exhales] All right, almost done.

And release.

Okay, let's turn sideways.

And we'll still be using the band if you can't reach your ankle.

I want you to stretch your quadriceps, okay.

These are tight muscles that can really add to knee pain.

So do a nice pull.

And if you can't reach your ankle, use your band or your belt.

Feels good.

Now the opposite.

I want you to press down into your hand.

About 50, 60% of your strength.

All right, one more time.

Stretch the quad.

Press the knee back, in fact, [exhales] as far as you can.

Maybe you just aren't very flexible and you just need to press it towards the floor more.

All right, now push the foot into the hand.

All right, release and turn the other way.

All right, grab that ankle and stretch your quad.

[exhales] Inhale, [inhales] big inhale, and a long exhale to get these muscles to release.

[exhales] The tight muscles are what become so painful.

And they put unbalanced pressure on your joint, pulling the ways that they weren't intended to pull.

So we need to stretch them, release them, and strengthen the weaker ones.

All right, press down.

You know, as we age, muscles are going to get weak, and they don't necessarily weaken evenly.

So finding those imbalances is a real key to figuring out where your pain is and getting relief.

And a class like this, because we do the whole body, you're going to find those spots.

And when you find those spots, you're like, "Hmm, that was really weak."

You should be encouraged because you can do something about it then.

All right, pressing the foot into the hand.

Almost done here.

And now we're going to grab that vitamin bottle, or something similar.

It's gotta be fairly stiff, but also smooth and blunt.

And first thing we're gonna go after is this IT band, this long muscle that goes from your hip down to your knee.

It can be very tight and painful, and you might not even really realize it until you start touching it.

And you will find sore spots.

And this is just a cheap self-massage.

All right, but it really helps.

It helps your red and white blood cells to get into those, especially those tissues around your knee that doesn't have as much muscle in them.

They're tendons and ligaments.

All right.

Keep it going.

And then take a moment to just work, work gently with the blunt end.

And as you find spots that you can focus on, take your time.

Encouraging healing to get into those tendons and ligaments.

Now back up [inhales] and back down.

[exhales] Up and back down.

You know, self-care just takes time.

But it's worth it because you'll feel better, suffer less.

Keep moving, enjoying life.

Let's do the other side.

Good.

[inhales] Practice your breathing.

Breathe in to about four beats.

Exhale to about five or six.

See how much dead air you can get out of your lungs, stale air you can get out of your lungs.

You know, you can do these exercises while you're watching TV or reading.

All right, oh, finding some spots in there.

This just really feels good.

And then gently around the knee cap to any tender spots.

Now, you don't want to get any knife pain, but you might find spots that just benefit by a little massage.

That feels miles better already, doesn't it?

I know it does.

And it really didn't take a lot of time.

Please, if you suffer from knee pain and tenderness, don't just think "one and done."

Your joints need consistent care.

So repeat these moves like five to seven times a week.

You're not using a lot of force and you won't be making yourself sore.

So you can come right back here to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where I'll be waiting to show you more easy and effective ways to keep on moving, because life is movement!