- Hi there, I'm Cassy Vieth, and this is the best part of your day.

Today's gentle movements are meant to intentionally strengthen the small rotator cuff muscles that hurt so many of us.

I'll show you an effective routine you can use daily to improve these muscles.

Let's get started.

[upbeat music] For today's class, I'd like you to have an exercise band or even a belt, a small hand towel, such as a kitchen or bath towel, and a sturdy chair.

The other thing we'll be doing different today is I'd like you to use a doorframe.

A wall will work too, but a doorframe will give you a little bit more range of motion.

Let's start with a bent elbow right at the door frame or in the wall.

Make sure your elbow is straight out from your shoulder.

Take a big inhale, [inhales] and I'd like you to step forward so that the wall or the doorframe pulls your shoulder back of you a little bit.

What we're trying to do is stretch these very overtight front shoulder muscles that tend to keep you pulling your shoulders forward, overstressing the back muscles.

So inhale [inhales] and exhale.

[exhales] Turn that neck a little bit, too.

Very good.

All right, now let's bend the wrist and then try to pull the wrist away from the wall.

Big inhale, [inhales] exhale.

[exhales] Remember, we're trying to stretch through here, so breathing really helps.

And now, imagine you have a tray on your hand and slide the elbow up the wall.

Same time, still pushing forward.

[exhales] Very good.

Now, lengthen the arm.

Step a little bit further away so you have a nice, long arm.

[inhales and exhales] Adjust your feet so that you can turn your torso away.

Pressing forward, and stretching with a nice, long arm.

Very good.

Let's turn around and do the other side.

90 degree elbow at shoulder height.

Inhale.

[inhales] Step it forward.

[exhales] Turn that neck away.

Slight turn away of the shoulders.

Very good, now, don't be pushing your head forward.

Sometimes people try to compensate for tightness elsewhere with the head and neck.

Try not to do that.

Take an inhale, take some of the pressure off.

[inhales] And I'd like you to bend that wrist and try to get the wrist away from the wall while keeping your elbow there.

[exhales] Take some of the pressure off.

Inhale, [inhales] exhale.

[exhales] Now, let's slide that elbow up the wall.

At the same time that we're stretching the front, we're lifting.

Real good.

No rushing.

Now, let's lengthen that arm.

Step away.

Inhale.

[inhales] Trying to turn the torso and the neck away.

Let's add a little wrist bend.

[exhales] Whew, you can feel that in your nerves especially, so go real slow with that one.

[inhales] All right.

[exhales] Shake it off.

And let's do a downward dog.

You can just use your chair, use the seat of your chair.

I'm just gonna use the bench here.

And I'd like you to step away.

A slight bend in the knees is great if your hamstrings are super tight.

So inhale [inhales and exhales] and try to relax the shoulders.

Intentionally relax the shoulders.

Walk the fingers away.

Deepening the stretch by breathing.

[exhales] Coming in and out of the stretch, adjusting your feet.

[inhales] Stretching through the shoulders.

[exhales] We never just go at a stretch and jam into it and cause yourself to grimace.

We always do small, little increments and repetitions, deepening the breath and deepening the moves as your body loosens up.

[inhales and exhales] Very good.

All right, let's round the back to come out of that, and then we're going to sit down.

So I'm gonna come over and grab my chair.

Very good.

All right, first thing I'd like you to do is grab your band, and it can be a towel, it can be a belt, just something to give you a little bit of resistance.

Let's roll those shoulders back.

Have your hands on your band about shoulder-width apart.

Lift the shoulders, [exhales] press them down.

Now, I've got just a little bit of tension.

You see, there's no sag in the band.

All right, just a little bit of tension.

Shoulders up, shoulders down.

Pull the shoulders back and pinch that imaginary pencil between your shoulder blades.

We don't want that pencil to fall, so you have to keep your shoulder blades pinched.

[inhales and exhales] Keep them back, but your shoulders are probably starting to creep up by your ears, so press them down.

Stomach's in.

Head is over your body, not forward.

Shoulders are back, back.

I think I dropped my pencil.

Shoulders are back.

All right, very good.

All right, let's just take a little break.

I would like you guys to do that again.

Release the tension in the neck.

[inhales and exhales] Arms out, shoulders back.

Shoulders down.

A slight pulling on the band.

Pinch the pencil.

Very good; this is actually tougher than it looks.

There's a lot going on here.

[inhales] Stomach in.

[exhales] Try to relax the neck.

Pinch the pencil.

Shoulders down.

Very good, very, very good.

All right, roll that shoulder back.

Roll the other one.

And for this next series, I'd like you to lean your right arm, if you're mirroring me, and let your other arm hang.

Make a fist.

Now rotate the arm so that I could see your thumb.

Elbows out.

And imagine you have a hammer in your hand, let's lift and rotate.

We're not pounding the hammer, we're just doing a slow motion.

Lift and down.

And you can, it's obvious we're not using any weights.

I don't want you to.

The key to working those rotator cuffs is to not overload the muscle so that other muscles take over, okay?

So no extra weight needed.

Let's come down.

[inhales] I could see your knuckles.

Rotate so I see your thumb.

Elbow out.

Rotate and down.

Be pretty critical of yourself for form, as long as nothing's catching or hurting.

Let's try to have that shoulder out, or elbow out, from your shoulder.

Now, if something is catching or uncomfortable, then you're going to adjust in some way.

Maybe a lower shoulder, maybe not so far forward, okay?

Let's switch.

[exhales] Arms hanging, rotate.

Elbow out.

Lift the hammer.

Lower it.

Lift.

[inhales and exhales] And I hope that you're breathing and you have your stomach pulled in, and I hope your head and neck is in line with the rest of your spine.

No dropping, no over-arching.

Lift and down.

One more time.

Extend the arm so I see your knuckles.

Rotate so I see your thumb.

Wide elbow.

Lift the hammer.

Hammer down.

Lift that hammer.

Hammer down.

Very good, let's push the hands forward.

Round that spine to release it.

Lift.

[inhales and exhales] And lean forward again on that right arm.

And now this time, I'd like you to extend your left arm straight towards me.

Stomach's pulled in to support that extra weight.

And now relax the shoulders if someone's pulling.

Lengthening the joint.

This is a nice acentric exercise.

When you lengthen the muscles of the joint and make them work, they get stronger.

It's very effective.

Good, you don't even need repetitions.

[inhales] Lengthen.

Lift.

Don't overarch the neck or don't let the head hang.

Let's try to have a strong spine from tailbone to the tip of your head.

[inhales] Release.

Extend.

[exhales] Lift.

It's just great work, everybody.

All right, come down.

Round the spine to release the tension.

[exhales] Switching arms.

Lift.

[inhales and exhales] Someone's pulling the arm, opening the shoulder.

And lift.

I have to remind myself to have nice posture too.

So stomach's in.

A little lower with the arm.

[inhales and exhales] Reach it.

Lift it.

Hold, stomach's in.

Press on your leg.

And release.

[inhales] Extend, lift.

Hold.

[exhales] And arm is down.

Let's push forward.

Relax the head and neck.

Stomach's pulled in.

And grab your towel.

This next exercise, we use a towel just to make sure you stay in the right form.

So let's put that towel right inside your elbow and use your elbow to press the towel against your body.

If you drop the towel, you know that you're not using the best form.

Now, I'd like you to have a nice 90 degree and just simply rotate without dropping the towel.

And rotate it in.

[inhales and exhales] Good, rotate it out.

A little squeeze.

Stomach's in.

Head's in line with your body.

And in.

Okay, out and in.

Out and in, real gently.

We're not jamming it into the limits of your range of motion.

We're moving nice and slow and purposeful.

Out and in.

[inhales and exhales] Lots of breathing to facilitate healing.

Your breathing and your blood helps to take out toxins and bring in nutrients to injured muscles, so it's really important to do lots of deep breathing.

And let's switch sides.

Okay, hold it with your elbow, 90 degrees, and a gentle rotation.

Stomach's in.

And forward.

[inhales] Out and in.

Good, out.

A little squeeze at the end of your range of motion.

And in.

How's your posture?

Are your shoulders fairly pulled back?

Is your head in line instead of pushed forward?

Stomach's in.

[inhales] Breathe.

Really good.

Let's do two more before we finish up with the final stretches.

Very good, all right.

Just a couple figure eights with the shoulder and arm at your side.

Other side.

Roll it back, roll it forward.

Good, getting a little higher.

Moving around the head.

Halos.

Draw a halo around the top of your head or get as close as you can to around your head.

Maybe you can only do it in front of your face.

That's quite all right.

And the other side.

And that is it.

It's really more of a physical therapy routine that you do right at home.

And remember your posture throughout your day.

Set an alarm on your phone or find some other way with notes to remind yourself to have good posture.

And come back here very often to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where I'll be reminding you over and over to stand tall, pull your shoulders back, pull in your abs, lift your head.

Thanks again, and have a great day.

- 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.