- Exercise is like paying it forward to your future self.

Welcome to another great Quick Fit routine.

I'm your host, Cassy Vieth.

I think of exercise as a savings account that you make small, daily deposits into, and your future self gets to enjoy.

Today, you stretch and strengthen, next year, you're still enjoying life with less pain or injuries.

So if you're ready, let's make another deposit.

[gentle music] Let's start on our knees doing the simple vacuum hold.

So knees are right under your hips, and your wrists are right under your shoulders, and you'll be pulling the belly button up towards your spine, and doing your best to engage as many of these muscles as possible from under your ribs, clear down to just above your pubic bone.

And I find it helpful while I'm doing this hold to press on the different muscles to make sure they're engaged, and to help them contract again, after I loosen them.

So you're pulling up, trying not to let them loosen, but they do as you lose concentration, or as you breathe.

So pull up, inhale, exhale, pull up again.

You know, the thing about prevention is you can never tell what disasters you may be averting by exercising with me, but when we talk to others who may not be aging so well, it's easy to see aging poorly isn't any fun, and it's a concern.

Taking action always makes me feel a little less vulnerable, and gives me peace because I made an effort each day.

All right, continue to pull up that belly button, okay?

Make sure everything is engaged.

The longer you hold it, the more of these weaker, underactive muscles will start to do their job, and will contract and pull in, okay?

Now let's do a little push with your hands into the floor.

You'll also have to push with your toes.

Now press until your knees come off the floor, just a couple inches, pull up with your abs.

[inhales and exhales] And then you can put back down, and we'll do that again.

Okay, inhale, exhale, pull up the abs, press with the hands and the toes, and hold it here.

And you'll get stronger and you'll be able to do this for longer and longer periods of time.

Okay, we'll do one more, okay?

Inhale, exhale, press with the toes, the hands, pull up with the abs.

[exhales] And even just a centimeter up off the floor is okay.

All right, great.

So now we're going to do a series.

We'll begin with Supermans, so lay all the way down on the floor.

Okay, and extend your arms, and we'll begin by lifting up your right arm and your left leg.

So just squeeze the muscles in your upper back and your glutes, and just hold it here.

You can use your other hand to push on the floor.

You can also have a neutral neck.

Okay.

We're working the deep core muscles that are responsible for spinal stabilization.

By strengthening these, you may reduce the incidence of low back pain.

Don't forget to breathe.

[exhales] Now let's bring those elbows right under your shoulders.

Get your toes curled, and you can either push from your toes to hold this plank, or from your knees.

Just do your best to have your hips lowered, so they're in line between your shoulders and your knees, or your shoulders and your toes.

Neutral neck, pulling up your stomach, pressing those elbows hard into the floor.

And drop the knees, and let's come up onto your hip, and we'll do a side plank.

So we'll start with our elbow right under the shoulder.

Have your knees bent, and when you lift the hip off the floor, push the hips forward, nice, straight line in front.

You can make it a little harder by extending the leg, and you can get the other leg off the floor if you're strong, and we'll hold this here.

Let's do about another 10 seconds.

Once again, do it at your level, it's not a competition.

Put that knee that knee down if it helps you hold it a little longer.

Stomach's in, press that elbow into the floor, and you've got the shoulder stacked above the other.

And lower.

Let's switch sides.

And try not to get too lengthened.

Keep that elbow right under your shoulder.

Begin with knees stacked.

Press, squeeze the butt so the hips come forward.

Check your form.

Shoulders are stacked.

You can extend the arm if you like, or not.

Extend the leg if you wanted more challenge, and the bottom leg if you want more challenge.

And hold it here.

Stomach in, concentrate on pushing that arm into the floor.

Stomach's in, butt's tight.

[inhales] And exhale.

Good job.

All right, roll over onto your back for the next exercise in this series.

Have your knees right above your hips.

Okay, extend your left arm, and then press your low back into the floor, and allow the right heel to drop.

But I'm not resting that leg on the floor.

You can lift and press.

Lift and press.

Now my arm is not resting on the floor, my left arm, and I'm not putting my foot onto the floor, I'm not resting it on the floor.

Let's switch arms.

Right arm's extended, hovering right above the floor.

And then slowly lower that left heel towards the floor.

We're not resting it on the floor.

Check your low back, is it pressed into the floor?

Lift, do it again, press.

Lift, press.

One more.

Good job, now let's do the whole series again.

Roll over onto your stomach.

Lengthen the arms.

And we'll start with the Supermans again, okay?

So right arm, left leg.

You can have your arm stretched, or right under your chest.

And a neutral neck.

Squeeze your glutes and squeeze that back of your shoulder, your upper back, and switch.

All right, left arm, right leg.

Good.

Neutral neck.

Few more moments.

Good job, and then we'll do that side plank again.

Oh, we forgot the forward plank.

We gotta do the forward plank first, of course.

All right, elbows under your shoulders.

Stomach's pulled up.

Once again, the modification is the knees.

Down or up, depending on your level.

And maybe you even want to lower them, and lift them, because you're not quite ready to have your knees off the floor for very long.

Stomach's in, neutral neck.

[inhales and exhales] All right, let's drop the knees, and now we'll do that side plank, okay?

All right, remember your form, we don't wanna let the shoulder come up by the ear.

Shoulder's above the elbow.

Long spine.

Knees are stacked.

Push those hips forward.

[inhales and exhales] Squeeze your glutes.

And making it a little more difficult if you're ready, one leg straight.

Let's get that other leg straight if you can, otherwise keep that knee down.

[exhales] Nice, long lines, okay?

Try not to drop the head.

Stomach's in, and we'll switch sides.

You guys are doing great, hang in there.

Ready?

And up.

Some of the workout is just switching from move to move.

Extend that leg.

We're still hanging in there.

Nice, pretty form, okay?

Keep the shoulders stacked.

Try not to twist and look at the floor, okay?

All right.

Dead bugs.

Roll over onto your back.

Knees above your hips.

Extend the left arm.

Press the right heel.

Lift, press.

Every time you do it, make sure you're engaging your abs, pressing the low back into the floor.

Press, press, switch arms.

Right arm's extended, left leg presses down.

Press, press.

Press, and roll over again.

Third time through.

Supermans.

Extend that right arm, left leg.

Keep that knee straight, okay?

Try not to bend the knee.

We're squeezing the glute muscle.

It's the one that pulls that leg behind you.

And we're using the upper back, the back of the shoulder muscles to keep this arm lifted.

Neutral neck.

No need to strain the neck.

And switch sides, left arm and right leg.

[exhales] I hope you're breathing.

[inhales] Control it.

Four seconds in, six to eight seconds out.

All right, front plank.

Okay, elbows right under your shoulders.

Find either your knees or your toes, stomach in.

Now try not to get the butt in the air like I just did.

Let's have it lined up between the knees and the shoulders.

Sometimes it can be hard to tell.

Maybe you can have a friend tell you how your form is.

Now if you need it a little harder, you can lift the knees.

Stomach's pulling up.

Press the knees, the elbows down, while you pull the stomach in.

Elbows are pressing, stomach's pulling up.

Neck is neutral.

[inhales] All right, let's come out of this, and do our side planks again.

Last time through this is, okay, so hang in there.

Elbow under the shoulder, long neck and spine, legs stacked, hips up.

Press, squeeze.

[inhales] Extend a leg.

[exhales] All right, if you're ready for a harder challenge, get that bottom leg extended too.

Stomach in.

Five, four, three, two.

Switch sides.

If you need to take a break, just do it, and then next time you do this class, you probably won't have to take a break so soon.

Squeeze your hind end.

[inhales] Make sure your head is in line with the rest.

Extend that leg.

Maybe get the bottom leg, maybe not.

If you do this class fairly frequently, you'll find that you're getting stronger, and you can do the harder modifications, or the harder moves, less modifications.

All right.

And on your back.

Knees over the hips, arms at your sides.

Left arm now is extended over your head, off the floor.

Press, press.

Press.

Last one, press and hold.

Make sure your abs are engaged.

Low back's touching the floor.

And switch sides.

[inhales] Right arm is stretched, butt off the floor.

[exhales] Press, press.

Can you feel your abs engaging every time you lower that leg?

Exhale and hold for three, two, one.

Excellent, all right, feet on the floor, and let's just let those knees move over to the side, and we're relaxing, catching our breath.

[inhales] And look the opposite way.

[exhales] Take a big breath in again.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] Good job.

And we'll let our knees fall the opposite way.

[inhales] I always like to take a big breath in and exhale [exhales] when I do this stretch.

Maybe a little weight with your hand on those legs.

And you're looking the opposite way.

This feels so good.

Well, don't let me rush you.

Stay there as long as you need to.

My goal is to give you great value for your time.

Make sure you choose classes from all the different categories.

Don't just do your favorites.

Find them on pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where you can mix and match to get the broadest range of exercises that are sure to help you where you need it.

Until next time, keep on moving.

- Announcer: Funding for Quick Fit with Cassy is provided by Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.