- Thank you for joining me for another easy and effective Quick Fit routine.

I'm Cassy Vieth.

Today's class will address some very typical muscle weaknesses that put undue stress on the muscles of the low back region.

Join me now to encourage these underactive muscles to wake up and do their jobs, giving those low back muscles some relief.

[gentle music] We'll be starting on the floor on our hands and knees.

If you need a pillow to make your knees more comfortable, then go ahead and grab one.

All right, let's start with a few cat and cows.

Okay, have your hands right under your shoulders, knees right under your hips.

Take a nice, big breath in, [inhales] press into the floor, arch that spine, tuck that tailbone under.

Keep pressing into the floor, tuck your chin.

Now let's do the opposite.

You can keep pressing the heels of your hands into the floor, lift the shoulders, try not to overstretch the neck.

Pull in your belly button and arch your spine like someone's standing on your middle back.

Okay, do it again, round and arch.

Not making yourself hurt by any means, but giving yourself time for those muscles to lengthen.

Good job.

Let's open your knees a little bit, move your hips back towards your heels, walk your hands away.

Take a breath in and then exhale, [exhales] stretching through the shoulders and chest.

Again, come partway out.

You can let your hips shift to the right and then come out of it, letting your hips shift to the left.

All right, come right back up onto your hands and knees, extend that right leg to the back, keeping your toes on the floor.

All right, and then find your balance.

You can extend that left arm and then we'll lift that right leg up, breathe it in [inhales] and out.

Reach more with that arm, reach back with that leg.

Keep pulling in your abs, help you stabilize that low back.

Good, there's a whole chain of muscles that run from your left arm down to your heel.

And of course, it's on the opposite side as well.

Then they cross your low back.

All right, and down.

[inhales] Extend that left leg, extend the right arm.

When you feel stable enough, start lifting that leg up, pulling in your belly button towards your spine.

Extend through that shoulder, reach more with that leg, stomach in.

Good job, almost done, hang in there.

All right, now let's come down to your side.

Just have your legs stacked.

Start with that elbow right under your shoulder.

Try not to be caved down like that.

Let's have a long spine.

All right, we're going to start with a just a little bit of a tricep pushup, so try to use all, just one arm and just press.

You know, as you roll around in bed, switching positions, you need to have, you know, strong triceps.

And that's just one use for your triceps.

And I know your triceps don't necessarily affect your low back, but let's face it, they get pretty ignored and weak.

One more, press and down.

Good, let's extend your top leg.

Find the bottom of your foot and now reach over, lift that hip, and down.

Okay, try to put as much weight through that foot and your elbow and down, and again, over.

Nice, big stretch.

Doesn't that feel good?

[exhales] Good, all right, restack those legs.

Do these clams; this is great for the glute medius.

That's one of your glute muscles that come around the side of your hip.

And like I said, we don't just move in one plane of motion, you know, not just forward; we have to be able to move sideways and move our legs to the back.

So we need our muscles to be strong everywhere, not just the muscles you can see in front of you.

And now extend that leg, lift, good.

Reach slightly forward so you don't end up leaning back, okay?

Lift, lift, keep pressing this arm into the floor to keep your neck nice and long.

And let's repeat with bent knees, lift, pull in your stomach.

Don't let your ear sag down by your shoulder.

And let's extend that leg and lift, good.

Stomach in, long leg.

Take all the inventory.

We're not sinking down by the shoulder.

Lift, lift, good job.

All right, let's use our other leg, so take this top leg and we'll bring it in front of you like that.

Extend the bottom leg.

Find a comfortable position for your arm and lift the bottom leg, good.

Lift, you can flex that foot.

You can always use a pillow under your hip.

Lift, you're getting the inner thighs with this move.

[inhales and exhales] Let's do about 10 more.

Nine, eight, seven, six.

Three, two, good job.

All right, now both legs together, all right?

It's good for your sides.

You can use your hands to push.

Lift, lift.

[exhales] Good job, hang in there.

And good, all right, come up onto your elbow again.

Okay, your bottom leg, bend that.

Extend this top leg, reach, and now bring the elbow to knee.

Just a little squeeze, and over, squeeze.

[inhales and exhales] Three, reach it.

Enjoy the stretch, don't rush.

Reach, let's do about three more.

Again, reach and squeeze it.

Good job, switch sides.

All right, all right, got your legs stacked.

Elbow right under you.

We're gonna be able to use this hand.

So turn your shoulder so that your hand is out that way and press, okay, press.

Four, try not to use this hand.

Five, six, seven, last one, good job.

Extend this top leg, reach over, find your bottom of your foot there 'cause I want you to put your weight through that bottom leg and that foot and your elbow.

Okay, reach over, lift the hip up and down, and two, reach, down, last one, three.

All right, good job.

Stack those legs, we'll do the clams again.

Keep the knees bent, keep the ankle as high as the knee.

If you let that ankle drop, you'll start using your quadriceps, and that's probably already much stronger than this muscle, and we don't want that.

We wanna work this muscle.

All right, so lift, lift.

You can have your hand slightly in front of you.

That'll keep you from leaning back too far and allowing that quadricep to cheat again.

All right, when a muscle is weak, the other muscles find ways to pick up the slack and then that just lets the other muscles get weaker.

So lift and lift.

Let's do about three more and then we'll do the clams again.

So bend the knees, keep the ankle as high as the knee.

And then we'll do about eight more of these.

Nice, long lines with your spine.

Don't let your head sink down into your shoulder or your neck, let your ear come down to your shoulder.

Let's not be sloppy.

Okay, and extend, okay, lift.

About eight more of these, lift.

Two more, good job.

All right, now we're going to switch legs.

So the top leg, you can have it on the floor.

Get comfortable with your upper body so that we can lift that bottom leg.

Ready, and go.

Put a pillow under your hip if you need it.

We're gonna do a bunch of these, so just get comfortable.

You could have your top leg really any way that works.

And let's do about 10 more.

And say seven, six, five, four, three, two, one more, and extend both legs now.

You can use your hands and lift, working the sides, your obliques, three, four, and down, five, six.

A little awkward; I feel like I'm gonna roll backwards.

So take your time.

All right, that's the last one, come up to your elbow once again and extend the top leg.

Reach overhead with that arm and now squeeze, elbow to knee.

Good, reach it big and crunch, reach it big.

Let's do about five more, five, four, almost ready to stretch, hang in there.

Three, two, and one, good job.

Roll over and we'll just stretch our abdominals, press into the floor, and do a nice cobra stretch.

Feels good, doesn't it?

Okay, let's get up onto your hands and knees.

We'll do a final cat and cow stretch.

Press your hands into the floor, let that head relax.

Tuck your tailbone and arch.

Try to get that tailbone up as high as you can.

Mobility in the pelvis is really important for your low back.

Okay, tuck and arch, all right, press those hands, lift that neck, enjoy it, and you're done.

We tend to live, move, and work right in front of us, forgetting that our bodies are created to work in other planes of motion, such as out to our sides or in a twisting fashion.

For classes in all three planes of motion, come back daily to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where together, we'll keep you moving so you can live better, longer.

- 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.