- Don't you just love the freedom cycling gives you?

I've recently rediscovered the joy of bike-riding myself, and as a result, the need for stretches to make sure I can keep going without injury.

This is Quick Fit and I'm your host, Cassy Vieth.

Join me now to make sure those pesky overuse injuries don't creep up, causing us to miss out on things we really love to do.

[upbeat music] As we begin, make sure you have a chair handy, a nice, sturdy chair with no arms and no wheels.

We'll start with the calves.

We'll be using the chair legs to stretch the calf.

So let's reach forward and get your heel as close as you can to the bottom of the chair leg, all right.

And be careful that it doesn't just start to slide down.

Sometimes a simple soup can just right on the floor right there will prevent that heel from sliding all the way back and the toes all the way down.

All right, so you've go this nice angle between the top of your foot and your shin, let's press the hips forward.

Now, it's real common for me to see people just leaning forward with the shoulders.

But moving the hip forward is what's going to stretch that calf.

Feel free to shift the foot around a little bit, right and left, and now take the same leg and let's reach it to the back.

Adjust your front leg so it's in front of you, got a nice base, and press down on the top of the chair so that you can feel the stretch all the way down your calf and into your heel.

Nice, big inhale, exhale.

[exhales] Good, take this front leg, I'd like you to cross it across your body a little bit more and go back into that stretch.

This time, you can allow that back knee to bend and then straighten it.

But crossing this forward leg helps us get that back heel in the right position, especially for folks with flat feet.

And let's switch sides.

So I'm just gonna turn my chair a little bit so I've got a better angle with my chair leg.

Once again, getting the heel as close as you can and we'll press the hips forward.

[inhales] Big inhale and exhale, as in all the stretches that we do.

[exhales] Rotate the foot around a little bit if it feels good.

Keep pressing the hips forward, and now let's reach that leg to the back.

Press the heel down, adjust your forward leg.

Press down through the top of the seat, helps give you some leverage so you can feel the stretch down the back of your calf and into your heel.

You can shift your weight a little bit, allowing that back knee to bend.

Straighten it out again.

Now, let's move this forward leg across your body a little more and do those same stretches again.

Straight knee and a little bent knee, straight and bent.

Good job, all right, go ahead and stand up and let's work on the tops of the feet.

So try to tuck those toes behind and now we'll fold them.

Tuck under and fold.

It's really important for your big toe to be flexible and mobile.

And let's get the other one.

Stretching the tops of the feet right up into the shins.

Tuck the toes and fold.

A few more times.

[inhales] Lots of breathing, going as gentle as you need to so that you don't get a charley horse.

All right, hip flexors next.

All of that forward sitting on our bicycles really tightens these up.

So I'd like you to draw that left leg back, if you're mirroring me.

[inhales] Big inhale, exhale, and shift your weight slightly forward, so you feel a nice, deep stretch down the front of those hips down into your thighs.

All right, shifting the hips, see if you can find some movement in there.

This is easier if your feet aren't directly lined up one in front of the other, have a good, wide base, as wide as you need to to stay nice and stable and get some good movement in there.

All right, tuck your bottom under, just squeeze your behind, slight lean back of the torso to deepen this stretch.

[inhales] Make sure your leg isn't under you.

You have your forward leg out in front.

[inhales] Exhale.

Good, now let's lift up the arm [inhales] and sink into it [exhales] and a little twist through the torso.

Good, face forward again.

Bring that arm down, now experiment.

I'd like you to take that back leg and toe in a bit and then press the heels down and squeeze your hind end and see if that feels different for you, and then come out of it and toe out slightly and go back into that stretch.

You're going to feel it in just slightly different places and that's going to help open up that hip as much as possible.

Let's do the other leg.

All right, draw this right leg back, have a decent, stable base, and shift the hips left and right.

And then squeeze your bottom so that it tucks underneath and then it really, really pulls all the way down to the knee.

All right, make sure your leg is slightly in front of you, not under you; you should be able to see your toes.

Lift that arm [inhales] and twist through the torso.

All right, facing forward.

Adjust your back foot, toe it in, squeeze your hind end, push the hips forward.

Release the stretch enough to adjust that back leg, slightly toed out and shift the hips forward.

Terrific, all right, grab your chair.

Now I'd like you to put your leg that's closest to the chair back up on the seat.

We'll stretch these hamstrings.

First thing I'd like you to do is, with a straight leg and your foot flexed, I'd like you to rotate the toes toward the center of your body [inhales] and twist the torso the other way.

And of course, if this gives you an uncomfortable or a bad feeling in your knee, don't go as far or make some other adjustments so that it doesn't twinge.

[inhales] All right, and now slight bent knee in both legs.

Inhale, [inhales] exhale as you sit it back, pulling the hips back, sticking the chest out, shift around, [inhales] finding all those tight spots.

Come up and we'll rotate that leg in, rotate the torso away.

Come back out of that, two soft knees and sit back down.

[inhales] And coming up.

We're going to leave our leg up there, but carefully rotate towards the front, towards me, getting the inside of that foot on the chair [inhales] and leaning a little bit towards your leg, feeling a deep stretch all inside your thigh.

Now experiment, rotating the leg and rotating through the torso.

Good.

And let's go to facing the chair and then we'll sit it down into a nice, nice, deep lunge.

That feels so good.

Partway out with a big inhale, exhale.

[exhales] Terrific.

Now stand up and put the working leg down and grab your other leg.

Good, grab the ankle or the foot, wherever you can, squeeze your bottom, hanging onto that foot and now stir.

This really gets deep down those quads from hip to knee.

And let's do everything on the other leg.

Make a little room with your chair.

Once again, it's the inside leg that's going up onto the top of the chair, all right?

Flexed foot and rotate the toes in, rotate the torso away.

Come out of that, two soft knees, sitting the hips back, feeling the stretch all the way down your hamstrings, probably into that foot.

[exhales] Partway up, inhale, [inhales] and then exhale.

Good, and up again, rotate, torso rotates.

Good.

[inhales] Two soft knees, inhale, [inhales] exhale, deeper.

Coming out of that, adjusting the back leg so you can get a nice, deep lunge right on top of chair, not over the front of the chair.

[inhales] Exhale partway out.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] Feels so much better.

All right, get the working leg down on the floor, grab the other ankle.

[inhales] Once again, we squeeze your hind end, press the knee down.

Don't hold your breath, I know this one really pulls.

Do a little stir.

[inhales] Almost done.

All right, just relax the whole body down towards the floor.

Shift your hips a little bit so that your arms just follow in this delayed, lazy fashion, like a ragdoll.

[inhales] Inhale, exhale.

Come halfway up like an outfielder, hands on the thighs, and arch that back.

This is like a modified cat and cow that you do in yoga.

So we'll round the back, let everything hang down now, shift those hips, and then come up and arch in the other way.

Let your shoulders come up by your ears and stand.

Go into a few easy twists, letting the back heel come up.

[inhales and exhales] And the other way.

Take a big, big inhale on your way around, so when you get to your limit, blow [exhales] and see if those joints stretch a little bit more and lengthen.

Last one this way.

[inhales] As you come out, some nice, big backstrokes.

[inhales and exhales] Remember, when we work out, we create tightness in our muscles.

Tightness causes weakness and muscle imbalances that can begin an injury cycle that can be very difficult to get out of.

So let's prevent injuries with a little daily maintenance.

For more injury prevention exercises, log back in to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where it's my goal to relieve and prevent pain so you can live better longer.

Plan tomorrow's workout right now and I'll be here waiting for you.

- 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.