- Welcome, and thank you for joining me for another Quick Fit class.

You're going to love this routine, and by the end of it, you'll be ready to just pass out.

We'll begin standing to lengthen your spine and reverse some of the compression that's occurred throughout the day, then we'll move down to the floor to slow it down and leave the day behind.

Get ready to relax.

[gentle music] All right, as you stand with your feet fairly wide, at about shoulder width apart, I want you to reach, lift, inhale, [inhales] and then as you exhale, lengthen right from the hip to your fingertips.

Now reach back behind your hip, slight twist, and reach over with the other arm.

Exhale.

[exhales] Let's do the other side.

Reach back behind that hip, slight press forward, inhale, [inhales] exhale.

[exhales] Push the hip forward, reach over the head.

Good, two arms up and then down into a relaxed ragdoll.

Shift your hips around.

Big inhale, lift.

[inhales] Good job, and lift and lengthen right from your ankle to your fingertips, other side.

[exhales] Reach back behind the head, twist.

[exhales] Other side, [inhales] exhale.

Don't forget about the breathing.

[exhales] Two arms up, just a big dive down into that ragdoll.

Exhale.

[exhales] Shift those hips.

Tuck your chin.

Roll up, last time with the lifts.

Lengthen, lengthen, twist.

Oh, this is feeling better every time.

Other side.

[inhales and exhales] And sweep it down.

Ragdoll.

[inhales and exhales] All right, last slow tuck, rolling up.

[exhales] And let's go down to the floor.

On your hands and knees.

[inhales and exhales] All right, have your hands right under you shoulders, knees under your hips, and we'll push into that cat.

Let's tuck that tailbone under.

Tuck your chin, [inhales and exhales] pull up your belly, and now arch your spine.

Lift the chin, close your eyes, exhale.

Walk the hands forward a little bit.

Let the hips sling forward and let your shoulders sink up by your ears.

Exhale, letting all that stress go out.

Push back up into the cat position.

[inhales] Inhale, exhale.

[exhales] Arch that back.

All right, cow, so you're arching the other way now, releasing the tension in the pelvis and the low back.

Walking your hands forward, let the hips fall towards the floor.

Let the shoulders come up by your ears.

[inhales and exhales] And breathe out all that stress.

One more time into the cat position.

Arch, stomach's in, tuck the chin.

Big inhale and then exhale to get a deeper stretch with the cow.

One more time.

Into that deep, deep cobra.

Now let's move your hips all the way back by your heels.

Sit it back.

They call this the child's pose.

Let your armpits open, let your head fall down between your arms towards the floor.

Shift your hips a little one way.

[inhales] Inhale, exhale, shift the other.

[exhales] Now, come up, widen those knees, and we'll let your hips sink in between, okay?

Sort of like a frog.

Sit back again into child's pose.

You can adjust the knees.

Walk those fingers forward, lengthening through the back.

Lift that right shoulder up.

Let your hips sink to the right.

Switch sides.

Big inhale in between.

[inhales] Shift your hips over to the left.

Lift that left shoulder up.

And then we'll go forward, widening those knees.

All right, and rock it back and forth with the knees nice and wide.

Okay, opening up those hips.

They've been compressed all day, probably sitting too much.

[inhales and exhales] Very good, now enjoy this just for a few moments.

And we'll swing around and sit.

Bring your legs out in front of you, all right.

Let's extend, if you're mirroring me, extend your left leg, cross the right.

All right, let's pull.

[inhales] Inhale, exhale.

[exhales] Imagine the stress is just leaving right out through the top of your head, out your toes.

And grab that leg with your opposite arm [inhales and exhales] and reach behind you.

Inhale, [inhales] exhale.

Don't forget the neck.

Very good, all right.

Let's uncross the leg and just go into what's called a half lotus.

You're just letting one leg fall open.

Reach it back, lift, [inhales and exhales] lengthen through that straight leg, reach over, push those hips forward, undoing all that sitting we've done throughout the day, and then we'll do the other side, okay?

Extend through your right leg.

[inhales and exhales] Grab that other one.

Big inhale, [inhales] exhale.

[exhales] Imagine the tension's just leaving through your leg.

Reach across with the opposite arm [inhales] and then exhale, [exhales] twist.

Another big inhale, [inhales] and then exhale.

[exhales] Very good.

All right, face forward and let that leg fall open to the side.

Just let gravity pull it, and now press it down.

Reach behind you, lift up through your hips, reach over, inhale, exhale.

[exhales] Let the tension flow out that arm, right out your fingertips.

And back down.

Big inhale [inhales] and then we'll roll it back.

[exhales] Very nice.

All right, let's extend, let's extend your right leg up into the air, all right?

And let's rotate through the hip and let's just put that other leg down.

Let's get your arms out at your side, keep rotating, and then let that leg just go as far as it easily can go over.

[exhales] Inhale, [inhales] exhale, [exhales] and let it go all the way towards the floor.

Inhale, [inhales] exhale, look the other way.

[exhales] Very nice, we'll bring that leg in.

Cross your ankle over your knee and pull it in just gently.

No grimacing here today.

We're just trying to relax from such a busy day.

[inhales and exhales] Very good.

All right, let both legs go down to the floor, opening that groin.

Still leaving the one knee slightly bent, so gravity can pull it down and open up your hips.

Very nice.

And then let's switch legs.

So left leg straight up in the air.

[inhaling] Lots of inhaling and exhaling to allow these hamstrings to stretch.

Pull your toe towards you as far as it easily feels good.

Maybe you don't have your leg as vertical, that's all right.

We're trying to relax.

[inhales and exhales] All right, extend your one leg onto the floor so that you can move that leg across your body.

[inhales and exhales] Exhale and let gravity pull it on over.

[exhales] Let your hips follow the leg and look down your other arm.

[inhales] Big inhale, exhale.

[exhales] Blow for about the count of six beats.

[exhales] Again, inhale, [inhales] exhale.

[exhales] Looking down your arm, or at least turning your chin.

You can have your eyes closed to assist in the relaxing.

All right, come back up to center, cross that ankle over your knee.

[inhales] All right, breathe it in and blow.

[exhales] Pull.

Stretching the back of your hamstrings and your glutes.

[inhales] Breathe it in and blow.

[exhales] So good.

All right, now you're gonna stretch out the one leg.

Let your bent leg just fall towards the floor and just rest here a minute.

Inhale, [inhales] and exhale to the count of six.

One, two, three, four, five, that's it, six.

[exhales] All right, bring those two bent knees up.

Widen your feet, let your hands be out at your sides, and we'll drop in your right knee just until gravity pulls it.

You don't have to... You don't have to push it down.

Just let gravity take that leg in.

Lift it up, inhale.

[inhales] We'll do the other leg.

Just let gravity pull it in and then exhale.

[exhales] Take another deep breath in and exhale.

[exhales] Don't rush it, because as you relax and you give it time, you will get a little bit more movement out of this hip.

Let's bring two knees up and let's let your two knees fall to one side.

[exhales] Breathe it in again, [inhales] and blow.

[exhales] And then look away from those knees, down your arm.

Let's switch sides.

Bring it in, [inhales] and blow.

[exhales] Let those legs just relax as far as they want to and look the other way down your arm.

Maybe you're pretty tight and you'll wanna take some of that tension off with a deep inhale [inhales] and then an extra long, long, long exhale, getting out every last bit of stale air from the day.

Bring those legs up.

And now widen your feet.

Let your knees fall together.

[exhales] And exhale.

Press that low back down to the floor.

Breathe it in.

We'll bring the bottoms of your feet together.

Inhale, [inhales] and as you exhale, let your knees fall apart, find a comfortable spot where your feet are together and you can allow the knees to fall open as comfortably as possible.

And as you relax, you'll want to experiment with where your feet are to get as much opening of the hips as possible.

Maybe you'll have to take some of the tension off by bringing your knees together as you inhale [inhales] and then exhale.

Keep doing that to your own beat.

And I'm going to continue talking you through while you lay there with your eyes closed.

Don't rush, don't rush to be done.

Inhale, [inhales] extending the legs longer and longer.

Letting the feet relax out to the sides.

Now, you remain here, relaxing, just listening to my voice.

And I'd like you to keep doing the breathing and following along with what I'm saying.

[inhales] Inhaling and exhaling, imagining the tension of your body just slipping away.

Let's let your shoulders relax, letting your head fall to one side as you breathe in.

[inhales] Maybe let it fall to the other if that feels better as you exhale.

Now squeeze your fists.

Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, and then release them as you exhale.

[exhales] Squeeze your butt.

Inhale, [inhales] and then release it as you exhale.

Moving down the body, let's lock your knees.

Inhale, [inhales] release as you exhale.

[exhales] Very, very good.

One last thing, flex your feet, inhale, [inhales] release as you exhale.

[exhales] Come back again tomorrow to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where I've got more healing classes for you.

But for now, [inhales] continue breathing in this pattern.

Four beats in, [inhales] four beat pause, four beat exhale, or even longer.

And I hope you get a wonderful, wonderful night's rest.

- 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.