- If you've been sitting for a while, then stop what you're doing, stand up, and join me for a healing stretch break to reverse the stiffness that creeps up on us from immobility.

I'm Cassy, and this Quick Fit routine will refresh you so you can be more productive for the rest of your day.

[gentle music] Let's begin with some simple wrist stretches.

Make a fist and draw some circles.

Stretching those muscles that are constantly having to hold our hands up when we're working on the computer.

Nice, big breath in, count for four seconds, and then exhale for four seconds.

Now reverse.

These feel really good.

[inhales] Breathe it in and exhale.

And I hope you're standing up tall, shoulders back, with your head and neck up over your shoulders.

Stomach's in, and make sure your hips are right up over your ankles.

Now let's tuck the chin.

So just take two fingers and push your chin back.

Relieving the top of the neck, all right.

Put some fingers right behind your head and do that again.

Press into your fingers.

So your neck has to do a little bit of work.

Pull your stomach in, elbows are wide.

Breathe it in, exhale.

We're still holding this chin tuck.

And release, move those hands down and behind you a little bit and look to your right.

And then breathe in as you look to your left.

Exhale.

[exhales] Let's do that again.

Breathe in and then exhale when you get to your limit.

Breathe in, exhale when you get to your limit.

Now let's look up, make like a big arc.

Go down to the other shoulder.

Pull your shoulders back if you started to round them forward as I was.

Okay, hold those shoulders back, squeeze your shoulder blades together, and now bring your chin down.

And let's reach up overhead and grab your wrist and pull.

[exhales] Let your face turn.

And we're pulling on that wrist.

Enjoying the shoulder stretch, the rib stretch.

And let's do it the other way.

Grab that wrist, [inhales] pull overhead, and let your neck relax, looking at the floor.

Breathe in and then exhale, getting it a little deeper.

Good, arms up overhead, let's pull those shoulders back.

Widening your arms, lowering them.

Good, completely extend the arms to the back.

Good, now lift again.

[inhales and exhales] And then make like a W by bending those elbows and moving your arms behind you as far as you can.

Good, and let's lower those arms and let's just open.

Forward open, squeezing the back, using those rotator cuff muscles.

Open, one more.

Hope your stomach's in and you've got nice posture.

Shoulders are back and your head is up above your shoulders.

And open.

[inhales] Breathe it in, exhale.

[exhales] Now, let's do two together.

Elbows at your sides.

Pull the wrists open.

Again, open.

[inhales] Exhale, squeeze the back.

Okay, don't think about your hands moving.

Think about the back squeezing to rotate the arms.

Opening those shoulders.

All right, let's put your hands on your hips and we'll stand in this athletic position.

So your knees are soft.

You're leaning forward a little bit like you're ready for motion, but I'd like you to slowly do this cat and cow.

So you're tucking tailbone under, pulling your hip bones back.

Your whole spine is rounding, and now let's do the opposite.

So you'll take your hip bones and move them forward.

Tailbone sticks out backwards.

All right, so top of the hips will move back.

Tailbone moves under and then do the opposite.

And it helps to have a slightly bent knees and hips to get a little more movement.

Now let's make that cat again.

Okay, so you're rounding your spine from your chin to your tailbone and then reach across.

I like to pull on the back of the leg to make the stretch a little deeper.

I feel the stretch all the way down my spine on the side and down into the back of the hip.

Breathe in as we switch sides.

And then when you grab the back of the leg, exhale.

[exhales] Pull in your stomach, relax the head.

Good, now two hands on top of your legs and do the cow.

This is really like an outfielder position.

You're letting your back arch, the middle of your back sink down.

And let's add a few hip shifts.

Okay, shift it right and left.

So you're bending one knee more than the other and your hips sink right and left.

These feel good.

Breathe it in [inhales] and exhale.

You can straighten one knee more than the other and then the other way.

That feels good.

Now release and just let your torso sink down to the floor.

Shift your hips and let your upper body just follow in this delayed rag doll fashion.

[inhales and exhales] Try not to control the arms.

Just really enjoy this.

Now let's tuck the chin and we'll roll up slowly, one vertebra at a time.

Good job.

Pull those shoulders back.

And let's use the chair now.

Let's put two hands on the seat and we'll step it back, so we can do this modified downward dog position.

I really like the way this stretches your upper back and your lats, those muscles on your back and up under your armpit that can contribute to pulling you forward.

So stretch it, let your knees bend and your torso come down.

Good job.

Just enjoy that.

[inhales] And exhale.

Last one.

And now bring your foot up and put it on the seat, and use the chair to help you arch your spine.

I'm kind of pulling on the seat for a little bit of leverage, arching my spine.

Good, and you can round it up and then arch it again.

And let's switch legs.

Get the other foot on here.

Lean it over, pull on the seat, and arch from the base of your neck to your tailbone.

Take a little break with a little rounding and then exhale for the arching.

Feels good right in the hips and the inner thigh.

All right, next, let's stretch the quadriceps.

So turn away from your chair and put the top of the foot on the seat, and now squeeze your hind end and press the top of the foot into the seat.

You should feel a nice stretch all the way down to your knee.

And release and we'll do the other one.

Breathe in first before you do this leg.

Okay, breathe it in, then exhale as you squeeze and press.

You can even push the hips forward if you have a little bit more range of motion to do so.

And very good.

All right, for the next stretch, I'd like you to get your knee up onto the seat and then move your other leg out.

And we'll stretch the inner thigh.

Exhale, so come up a little bit and then exhale.

You have to be wide enough that you can really get your hip down as low as the knee.

Bring it in and exhale.

[exhales] And we'll do the other side.

Just get your knee on there, walk your leg out, [inhales] and exhale.

[exhales] Breathe it in.

[inhales] And blow, five, four, three, two, and back up.

Good job.

All right, still using the seat, put your hands on top of the seat again and we'll do some strengtheners for the glutes and the hamstrings to just extend that leg up.

Hopefully as high as your hip without overarching the low back, okay.

So just squeeze the glute to lift the leg and down.

Lift, if you need to bend your knee on the other leg a little bit to relieve your hamstrings, then just do so.

Lift, down.

Pull in your stomach as you squeeze each rep so you don't overarch your low back.

Lift and hold it up here for five, four, three, two, and other leg.

Reach it back and lift and touch the toes.

Lift, touch the toes.

Lift and try not to overarch with the neck.

Have your hands right under your shoulders.

Stomach pulled in.

Just take the whole inventory.

Toes are pointed towards the floor.

And five, four, three, two.

Now bend that knee and press up.

Bring it down.

Press it up and down.

Flex the foot as if you have a tray on there and you wanna press it up to the ceiling.

And down.

[inhales] Once again, stomach's in, neck is neutral.

Hands are under your shoulders.

And hold it here.

Little squeezes, more intense.

For five, four, three, two.

And switching legs.

All right, the leg is extended, then bend the knee, flex the foot.

Bring it down, lift with a squeeze.

Be intentional, don't throw the leg around.

No need to strain the lower back.

If you don't have much flexibility through the front of your hip, sometimes the back will move so you get more movement, and we don't want that.

So just squeeze your hind end and wait for that hip flexor to stretch enough to get the leg up, but don't force it.

Lift, stomach's in.

Hold it here, for five, four, three, two, one.

Very good.

All right, roll up, tuck that tailbone.

[inhales] Good job.

All right, last exercise.

Let's lift that leg straight out to the side for a few hydrants.

Lift, squeeze the legs together.

Lift and squeeze.

Good.

Stand nice and tall, lift.

Now let's do five, four, three, two, last one and switch sides.

Almost done, hang in there guys.

All right, let's lift.

Slow at first.

[inhales and exhales] Good, lift.

And lift, stomach's in, neck and chest is nice and tall.

Lift and squeeze with purpose.

Lift, squeeze as if there was a balloon between the knees.

You have to use your abs.

You have to use your glutes.

Last few.

Okay, a little quicker.

Five, four, three, two, last one.

Good job!

All of these moves are chosen to stretch the muscles that typically get tight and stressed from sitting for an extended length of time.

You should feel a lot better.

You can feel a lot better any time of day, just by logging back on again at pbswisconsin.org/quickfit.

And please, share this with someone else who needs a quick stretch break.

Until next time, remember, life is movement.

- Announcer: Funding for Quick Fit with Cassy is provided by Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.