- Welcome, I'm Cassy Vieth, and this is Quick Fit , your place to stay mobile, pain-free, and independent.

Today, I want to work every joint in your body, from hands to feet.

So let's not waste any more time.

Let's get moving.

[upbeat music] Let's start with a nice, wide base and just do some nice, big backstrokes.

Lengthening your spine, and start your breathing nice and deep.

[inhales] Inhale.

Exhale.

Are you standing as tall as you can, lifting through the neck and not pushing forward through the hips, okay?

Sometimes people tend to push their hips forward, and they mistake that for standing tall, but let's get the hips back.

Lift, lengthen.

Imagine you can lengthen from your ankle all the way to your fingertips.

[inhales] And if you don't rush, you'll actually feel everything stretching, your muscles, your skin, the fascia between your skin and your muscles.

[inhales] Inhale, exhale.

That's why you don't wanna rush.

Lift.

Lift.

We do these a lot, but it's because they really, really help.

Stretching through the ribs.

Let's twist.

[inhales] Inhale, exhale.

[exhales] You don't think about your ribs getting tight, but they do.

They have muscles in between every bone and they get tight and make you just feel like you're getting older, aging, and stiff.

So let's deal with that.

[exhales] All right, another backstroke or two, [inhales] and then let's rag doll down to the floor.

I like these because they just stretch the back, the hips, the head.

And as you shift around, you work deeper in that hip socket.

And let's roll up.

[exhales] And the other way.

As you twist, make sure you lift up that back heel.

It makes it a little easier on the knee.

One more time, lift and then exhale all the way down.

[exhales] Tuck that chin, rolling up.

Let's lift your left shoulder and then your right.

The left shoulder and then your right.

That's beautiful.

Arms nice and wide.

Our feet are still wide, and I'd like you to lean over from the waist.

Don't move those hips.

Don't move your legs.

Other way.

[inhales] Breathe it in and then exhale.

Feel everything stretch through your side.

Pretty neck, okay?

Don't let your head just fall sideways.

[exhales] Inhale and exhale.

Stomach's in.

Two arms up, and now an upper waist rotation.

Let's get those arms back by your ears.

Lengthen, and now pivot just in the very upper part of your spine, like from here up, okay?

[inhales] Inhale, exhale.

Let's go the other way.

Lift as you rotate, lift.

All right, now over towards your left, if you're mirroring me.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] Now stretch through the arms.

Inhale, [inhales] exhale.

Now try not to drop your front shoulder towards the floor.

Lengthen, think about lengthening.

Now up.

[inhales] It really, really takes a lot of core strength to hold you.

Stomach in, inhale.

[inhales] Try not to drop the neck or the shoulder, lengthen through the arms.

All right, try not to grimace.

[laughs] It's really hard.

All right, it feels good.

[exhales] Roll that shoulder back.

And the other one.

[inhales and exhales] All right, over, towards the floor.

Lift that elbow.

Let your head relax.

Partway up, inhale.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] See if you can get that elbow a little higher.

Try not to roll your shoulder towards the floor.

Stay in a nice, flat plane as if you're facing the wall.

Inhale [inhales] and exhale.

[exhales] Lift that elbow.

It's tight, so pause partway out, inhale, [inhales] exhale [exhales] and go deeper.

Lift that elbow higher.

Walk those fingers further.

Stomach in, let's bring it all back up.

Very nice.

Let's get our legs a little wider, going into pliés.

Once again, you need to know your body style, if you can hold your knees and your feet, you know, where you need to, where it's best for you.

Some of us need to be a little more forward-facing with the feet and knees.

As long as your knees and toes face the same direction, that's the rule of thumb.

All right, and knees over the ankles.

And so, even though I'm talking, we're holding, and you're conditioning your muscle.

So [inhales] inhale and now let's shift.

Just try to shift, moving in the sockets, your hip sockets.

All right, the other way.

[exhales] Inhale.

[inhales] And if you're very stiff, you might not be able to get much movement, but that's all right.

Just thinking about it and trying, even if you move just one teeny tiny little cell at a time, [exhales] that's further along than you were before we started.

[inhales] Good.

Now from here, we're going to still hold.

I'd like you to tuck the tailbone under and then arch.

Once again, tuck the tailbone, and arch.

You might need to experiment with how high or low you are while you do some of these hip moves.

All right, shift, shift, tuck, and arch.

All right, elbow to knee.

To the knee, now some of you stopped here, go to the knee.

Good job.

Inhale [inhales and exhales] and reach, and reach.

Legs are burning.

Take a break if you need to, but join after about three seconds.

Reach and reach.

Very good, very good.

All right, stretch it out, shift around.

And the other way.

Now sit it back.

All right, so this leg is holding you up.

Inner thigh stretch.

Sit it back, nice.

Now some of you, I bet, are like this with your legs, and it is not good for your legs.

So you need to take a wider stance.

Move your weight behind you.

Let this knee be wider than where your shoulder is.

There you go.

All right, sit it back.

So now we're stretching and stretching.

Let's deepen this stretch.

So if you're mirroring me, this is your right leg.

Let's twist towards it.

[exhales] Good, you feel the whole inside of that long leg.

Let's go the other way.

[inhales] Sit it back [exhales] and then twist towards it, enjoying the stretch.

Very, very good.

Let's go one more time each way.

Really have to lean forward, but put your weight down through your heel.

And these cues will become more natural to you in time.

So don't give up, okay?

Takes a little consistency and a little practice.

And just remember, you're closer to your goal now than you were before we started.

We're sitting back.

I'm gonna go over how to do this one.

So let's just take your right leg back just a little bit.

Put your weight on that back heel.

Let that right knee bend and this leg lengthens, okay?

I know this can be a tricky one for people, especially if you have a tight back and hamstrings.

So you might want to stand up just a little more so you can stick your chest out and get that hamstring stretched.

Lift.

[exhales] All right, those toes.

I know, I saw you grimace 'cause I did too.

Whew, it's a deep, deep stretch.

[exhales] All right, let's do the other leg, all right?

[inhales] I'm gonna walk it back with the other leg.

Hopefully I get the right other leg.

Sit it back on that heel.

[exhales] Stick the chest out.

[inhales and exhales] All right, let's lift that arm.

Reach further.

And now guess what?

Gotta lift the toes.

[inhales] Come up a little bit if it's too strong of a pull, sit it back and enjoy it.

Whew, whew, whew, whew.

That's a tight one.

All right, come up, and let's start working our feet and toes.

I'm gonna grab this chair.

All right.

So work the toes.

Just rock back and forth on your toes.

Hopefully you have your shoes off.

If you don't take your shoes off, your feet won't get the benefit of having that opportunity for full range of motion.

Sorta like wearing a cast on your feet all the time.

And when the muscles cannot move, they atrophy, and atrophy leads to pain, so let's keep them moving.

And what I like about this position too is you can control how much weight you're putting down through your toes.

Let's do the same leg.

So if you're facing me, this will be your right leg.

I want you to come up kind of on the ball of your foot.

Open.

Good, sit into this opposite hip.

[inhales] Inhale, exhale.

[exhales] Very good, and now pull it across, and reach down to pull it across, reach up behind that hip.

And it's as awkward as it looks, but you're stretching.

So take your time, and you'll come to like this one better as you become more flexible.

Gonna move the chair and do the other side.

All right, rock on those toes.

[inhales and exhales] And don't forget to breathe as deep as you need to, controlling your breath with nice, long inhale, exhale.

Good, now open that knee, opening the hip, sitting into the other one, [exhales] and breathe so it does relax.

And now pull it across.

Reach across with the opposite arm and give a gentle pull, and then reach up behind that hip.

[inhales] Inhale and exhale.

[exhales] That helps deepen the move for me.

And it doesn't happen on the first or second or third one, that's okay; take your time.

Do it a few more times.

All right, let's stretch your quads before we finish.

One more with the other leg.

And it wouldn't be complete if we didn't do a few potty squats.

So let's just start working our way down, opening those knees, work your way down.

One more.

[inhales and exhales] Very good.

Now, don't worry if you can't get your heels down.

Wherever you're at, just start stretching around.

It will be a huge improvement from where you were a few minutes ago.

So start stretching this weight down through your ankles, hips, and knees.

It's just what you need to push out tightness and inflammation.

So come on up, [inhales] stretch those shoulders.

Stretch those shoulders.

Reach up and we'll pull on that wrist.

And one more.

All right, let's not forget the hands.

They do so much for us.

So press 'em forward and make a couple claw fingers, okay?

Reach, reach, reach.

Extending.

I'm extending and squeezing just through the finger joints.

I'm not making a fist, and I'm opening up the elbows as far as you can.

And now make a fist and circle, circle, circle.

Now press them down.

Keep extending through the arm, press down.

Now reach up.

[exhales] Switch hands.

Circle through the thumbs.

Press forward.

That was great.

I hope you're feeling less burdened by stiffness and ready to face your day.

It's important to take care of yourself each day.

So come back here again to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where I'll be ready to show you more easy moves to keep you moving and pain-free, because life is movement.

- 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.