- Welcome back to Quick Fit .

I'm Cassy Vieth.

If you feel like you're slowing down and just don't have the springiness you used to when bending, lifting, or climbing stairs, then this class will be of particular help to you.

The body works as a cohesive unit.

So when one area is weak, it does affect the rest of your body.

So join me now as we work to improve those weaknesses and bring balance back to the body.

[gentle music] Before we get started, I'd like to let you know that you are going to need something to hang on to just a little bit to stabilize you.

Either a chair or maybe a doorway or a wall.

We'll be using a pillow later on in the class.

And if you cannot easily grab your ankle, then have a band or a simple pillowcase will work, okay?

So let's just start by doing some easy, gentle, alternating heel lifts.

Okay, inhale [inhales] and exhale, nice and deep.

We always breathe as deep in and out as we can to bring that nourishing blood all throughout our body into our bones.

[inhales] Nice and easy.

Shifting, letting your hips sink into the moves and then widening our legs a little bit wider each time.

[inhales and exhales] All right, and little bit wider.

Don't be afraid to really widen your legs more than you do in your everyday.

Lift that heel, grip with your toes, and imagine you're squishing an orange.

Lift and squish, lift and press.

Take care that you're not doing this with your knee, getting your knees past your toes.

You can tell it's super awkward and you don't feel comfortable.

It's not good for your knee either.

So just press straight down.

Press it down.

All right, other leg, lift the heel, press it down.

Lift.

If you have a history of foot pain, I just like to encourage you to only do a few of the repetitions, but have your shoes off because it's important for your feet to be able to move in the way they were designed without being hindered by shoes all the time, okay?

Lift and lower.

Now challenge yourself to get your legs a little wider.

Having your knees right up over your ankles.

And this is where a chair comes in handy just to help you stabilize.

Do this nice double heel lift.

Lift.

[inhales] And as usual, keep breathing.

I just keep repeating it 'cause I need to hear it myself.

So inhale deep [inhales] and exhale extra long.

Lift.

You can hear my feet crackling because I'm creating space in all those joints.

It feels really good.

Okay, a couple more.

Lift and press, especially in the ankle that I hurt not too long ago.

I rolled the ankle.

It was probably 10 years ago, but it still affects me.

It gets tight.

Let's lift those heels, press it down, lift.

So my knees are fairly close together and we're just partially seated.

Lifting the heels, pressing them down.

This is a really nice calf stretch and it stretches down behind that heel and into your feet.

Lift.

Quads are getting warm.

Press.

[inhales] If you're starting to breathe heavy, that's just fine.

Don't hold your breath, heels up, and press.

Heels up and press.

All right, and shake that off a little bit.

All right, we're gonna draw your leg back and just do this nice calf stretch.

Have your other leg slightly in front of you, knee over the ankle.

The other leg's nice and long.

Straighten that back knee.

Press that heel into the floor.

Up [inhales] and press, [exhales] up and press.

Taking your time.

[inhales] Don't let me rush you.

If you find that there's a move you particularly are enjoying or you feel like you need to do more of, just hit the pause button and start again.

That's the beauty of this venue.

Up and down.

One more, up and down.

Then we'll switch legs.

Press that heel back.

Make sure your body is straight down in between your legs.

Not kind of forward like that.

That's awkward, all right?

Have your knee in front of you.

Lift, straighten the back knee, press that heel into the ground, into the floor.

[inhales and exhales] Press the heel, lift and press.

Enjoy it.

[inhales and exhales] And breathe.

All right.

This is where we're going to grab that ankle to stretch your quads.

So if grabbing your leg easily is not happening for you, you can try just grabbing your pant leg or a band.

That's why I suggested the bands or a pillowcase.

So if you were using a band or a pillowcase, you would just reach down, hook it around the ankle.

All right, and then we're going to pull.

Pull that ankle close to your behind.

[inhales] All right.

Now squeeze your bottom so it deepens the stretch, going straight from your hip all the way down to the knee, all right?

[inhales] Creating space in your joints is how we loosen your muscles, relieve pain, and strengthen you.

All right.

So release that.

But now, I'd like you to pull that ankle up as high as you can, hang on to either your ankle or the pillowcase, and press the foot down as if you want to straighten the leg.

Press it down, press.

Press at about 75% of your possible strength.

We're working tiny, little supporting muscles around that knee, ones that never really get to work because the bigger movers are doing all the work.

One more time, press the foot down into your hand or the pillowcase.

Press, press, press.

You can feel muscles that maybe haven't been activated in a while.

All right, shake that off.

We'll switch sides.

Just move that chair over to the other side.

All right, let's grab that ankle again.

Get prepared with a nice, deep inhale, exhale.

[inhales] Pull the ankle and then press the knee down towards the floor.

Right away, that deepens the stretch.

It goes from about here all the way down.

Release, inhale, [inhales] and press.

Press, press.

So I'm pressing the knee down.

I'm not pressing the foot into the hand quite yet.

All right.

So we'll release that, and now we'll do the foot press.

All right, press the foot down into the hand.

Pressing it down doesn't look much different, but it feels different.

Okay, release.

[inhales] One more time.

Actively pressing the foot down towards the ground, towards the floor.

[exhales] If you're lucky enough to be doing this outside, towards the ground.

All right, release.

Let's shake that off.

I'm going to just move my chair out of the way for the next move.

Let's just do some easy squats, okay?

We're making our way down to the floor.

Loosening up, [inhales] getting a little deeper each time.

Keep the chair handy if you're not quite as flexible.

[exhales and inhales] And you can put some of your weight on the chair just with your hands.

And as you get down, I'd like you to shift around, trying to get one heel and then the other down to the floor.

[inhales and exhales] You can easily just have your hands on the seat if you need to.

Taking some of the weight off of super tight muscles if that's the case.

All right.

Feels really good.

This is one of the most comprehensive stretches that I give people.

It really helps the low back, the hips, the knees, ankles, and feet.

So let's do a little bit more for your shins.

[inhales] If you're not very stretchy, you're going to wanna put a lot of weight on your hands.

If this feels good and you're not getting any charley horses in your feet, then you can put more weight back through your heels, the tops of the feet, we're stretching the shins.

If you run, if you're a runner, a jogger, this is a really great stretch, especially if you tend to get shin splints.

You don't realize how much the tops of your feet and shins need to stretch.

We wear shoes so much, it's sort of like wearing a cast on your arm if you've ever had a broken arm and you take the cast off and your muscles are really atrophied and weak and you can't completely extend your elbow.

Well, sort of similar wearing shoes all the time.

You can't get full range of motion in your ankles and your feet are all tight.

So, all right.

So rolling over onto our back.

We're going to control the roll back, okay?

Don't just flop back.

Pull in your stomach and roll it back.

Roll it back.

Roll back.

[exhales] All right, and up, [inhales] lift and stretch, and we'll roll it back one more time.

And roll it up one more time, getting in a few abdominal exercises.

All right, I'm just gonna spin around here and so you can see a little better.

We're going to roll down.

All right, let's make it this nice knee bend.

Lift your toes.

We'll make a nice bridge.

Press those heels into the floor.

Lift your hips.

All right, press 'em down, press, press, press.

Walk your heels a little closer.

Hips are up.

Walk the heels a little further away.

Don't drop the hips.

All right, this is a great exercise again for those little muscles around your knee.

And lower, very good.

Walk the feet a little closer.

Lift the hips.

Walk it out.

[exhales] Keep pressing the heels down.

Walk it out.

Press the heels down.

All right, very good.

Hands behind your leg, kick it up.

Now grab that pillow that we had earlier and get it just under the knee so we have a little bit of a base, and I'd like you to extend that leg, working these small muscles around the knee.

Rotate.

[inhales and exhales] Lift, try to get it up off the pillow, and hold.

Lift, lift, lift.

You're really working a lot of muscles, but there's muscles in here too.

And relax.

[inhales] A little break, lift, twist, lift, and hold.

All right, and if it's not easy today, then keep doing it.

And before you know it, it'll get easier.

All right, let's switch legs.

[inhales and exhales] Let's extend, rotate, lift.

Trying to get maybe your hand under the pillow, release.

Extend, rotate, lift, and hold.

Feel those muscles on just on the inside of the knee.

And down, one more.

[inhales and exhales] Extend and lift, rotate, lift, and hold.

Hold, pull your stomach in.

Lift, lift, lift.

That's terrific.

Simple equipment all at home, I just love it.

And that's it for today.

Aging well is possible.

So please come back often to get the greatest benefit.

Visit pbswisconsin.org/quickfit to explore the wide range of exercises and classes because I want you to experience the healing power of daily stretching and strengthening.

See you next time.