- Hello, I'm Cassy Vieth.

I'd like to welcome you to today's Quick Fit class.

If mornings just aren't your thing, or it's just one of those days, then join me for some wonderful stretches to help get you moving and feeling great.

I know what it's like to not want to work out or get moving in the morning.

In fact, that's how I was feeling as I created this class.

As you can see, I wasn't even interested in getting up off the floor.

So join me now for a glorious morning stretch.

[uplifting music] All right, so let's just get started.

Sitting on your knees, or as near, with your hips as near as possible to your heels.

If you can't get all the way back, that's okay.

Just get on your knees and shift around.

Trying to really sit deep into each hip.

Breathe deep, inhale [inhales] and exhale.

Doing your counts of four beats in, four beats out to really clear those lungs.

Okay, inhale, exhale.

[inhales] And as you start to loosen up, we'll start to add a few more moves.

All right, so sit here and then reach across.

[exhales] Shift to the other side.

[inhales] Exhale, [exhales] reach across.

Now if you're up higher, that's okay.

You can do the same thing.

Just modify so it feels good for you, all right?

And now let's come up, just reach up overhead.

Hold your stomach in, look towards the floor.

Other side, inhale, [inhales and exhales] exhale.

Feels so good just to breathe deeply and stretch slowly.

Go into a child's pose now.

So your hips will move back and you'll lower your head towards the floor and then walk your fingers, opening up those shoulder joints.

If you can rest your body on your knees, just do that.

Another inhale, [inhales] exhale.

Reach across with one arm.

And let's reach across with the other.

You can shift your hips too to help balance you out so you don't fall over.

All right, and then we'll come up.

Reach up overhead, [exhales] and then I'd like you to move your hips back.

Reach back, reach over.

And then push to lift the hips.

Good, lower the hips, switch sides.

Okay, reach it back, lift.

Push that hand into the floor, lift the hips.

Just let gravity take that arm; I just love that.

Let's do all that again, all right?

So reach it forward into child's pose, [inhales] exhale.

Once again, if your hips are up, no problem.

Rest your head onto the floor.

Keep opening the shoulder joints.

Let your hips shift one way, cross your arm over.

Other side.

Shift your hips with a big inhale, exhale.

[exhales] Feel that lovely stretch all the way down your arm, your side, and your hip.

Good, we'll come up once, lift.

[inhales and exhales] Let's do the other side.

[inhales and exhales] Then we're gonna lower the hips, reach it back.

Push those hips up.

[inhales and exhales] Let that arm flow.

Reach it back behind you.

Push up, [inhales] lift.

Just enjoying every, every little bit.

All right, so good.

All right, let's get your hands down in front of your knees.

Get your toes under you, all right?

And we're gonna push the knees off the floor.

So right away, you can feel the feet stretching, the Achilles tendon, your calves.

Shifting around.

[inhales and exhales] You can get comfortable, move around.

This is your stretch, okay?

Finding those tight ankles.

You can really open the leg.

[exhales] Okay, other side.

Nice, and then I like to go into what I call potty squat.

It's pretty accurate.

And open that leg with your elbow.

Now, if you cannot be in this position without falling backwards or feeling like you're going to fall backwards, you can keep your hands on the floor and your heels up.

Or you can position yourself near a doorway so that you can hang onto the doorframe and get those heels down.

It's super healing for all your joints.

Hips, knees, and ankles.

All right, come up on one leg so that you can extend the other one out to the side.

Okay, [inhales] big inhale, exhale.

[exhales] Maybe you're not ready for this yet.

So do a few more things before you try it, or maybe it'll take a few times of doing this class before you feel comfortable in this position.

That's okay, extend the other side.

[inhales and exhales] All right, very good.

It feels good, I don't wanna rush it.

All right, next, let's go sit onto your bottom and we'll do a similar move.

Stretch that leg out to the side, keep the other one bent, [inhales] and just sit up as tall as you can.

Shift.

In fact, if you'd like to grab a band, it'll help deepen some of these moves, okay?

So first thing I'd like you to do is turn so that your knee is in line and then just kinda walk those fingers towards your foot.

Now, if you just can't get any movement that direction, you can use your towel, your band, your belt, whatever you have handy.

And there you go.

[exhales] Exhale.

[exhales] Feels so good.

Inhale, sit up nice and tall, and just pull the foot.

And face your leg as best you can, maybe you need to bring your legs a little closer together, [inhales] and exhale.

[exhales] Once again, make use of the band if you need to.

But remember, this is just a relaxing morning routine, so.

You don't have to make yourself grimace and hate your workout.

So you want it to feel good.

Let's switch sides.

Sitting up nice and tall.

[inhales] Twist a little bit.

Pressing that leg down into the floor.

Okay, so we're going to look away from that leg.

[inhales and exhales] And think about this joint here, pressing it down towards the floor.

And now let's just switch and look at it.

Push the floor, exhale, reach.

[exhales] Once again, you can use your band.

[inhales and exhales] And exhale.

And just get in any position that you're in that feels good.

Don't worry about being strict.

Just enjoy every bit of this routine.

All right, turn the other way.

Move the shoulder in the direction of the knee.

Let's reach overhead.

All right, stretching from your hip all the way to your elbow.

Come up enough to take a big inhale, and over.

Maybe it's just your neck you can stretch because everything else is too tight.

That's all right, go through it slowly.

Repeat, [exhales] tuck the chin, pull it up.

If today, all you get stretched is the neck, next week you get as far as the shoulders, and on down.

So let's go one time more to each leg.

'Cause it felt so good to reach over.

[exhales] [inhales] Inhale, exhale.

[exhales] See what happens?

You start out not wanting to work out and you just get a few minutes into it and you don't want to stop.

All right, let's do a couple stretches for the psoas.

So first thing I'd like you to do is just lay back.

That's not too hard, is it?

All right, now you have your knees together, arms wide.

Big inhale, let's just let those knees relax to one side.

[exhales and inhales] And experiment with the position of your legs, maybe by lifting one knee a little higher than the other.

Gravity is able to pull you over in a way that just feels really good on your back.

And let's bring it back in.

Two knees dropping straight over.

[exhales] Of course, lots of deep breathing, experimenting with leg placement.

And then up.

[inhales] Widen those legs so that you have enough room to drop in one knee.

Don't rush, don't let me rush you.

And then the other.

I like just letting gravity pull the leg down, but you can also do some intentional presses.

Other side, press that leg down.

All right, our final move is going to be a frog-like position with the bottoms of your feet together.

Just let gravity pull the knees open.

Lots of deep breathing.

You can move them up a little bit away from the floor with a deep inhale, [inhales] and then exhale and just let them fall open.

[exhales] And this is our final move.

And as I close the class, you just stay here and enjoy this position.

Or put your legs in whatever position helps you to feel the most comfortable, okay.

Just take a few more moments to just enjoy this before running in to the rest of your day.

I know you're feeling better because I am too.

I hope this class becomes one of your favorites, to repeat any time you need to take it slow or just don't feel like doing a workout.

Just come back here to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit to find it again and know that by the end of the class, you'll have a whole new attitude.

See you next time.