- Hello, I'm Cassy.

Welcome back to another great class where my goal is to help you live better, longer.

Quick Fit is for your entire body, and that includes the muscles and joints of your feet and hands.

So please take off your shoes, have a chair, and we'll get started.

[upbeat music] We're gonna begin with our hands.

So let's just make a couple fists, do some nice circles.

I know you are going to love this workout, especially if you've been struggling with arthritis or you work with your hands a lot.

These are just things you don't think about in your regular fitness routines.

So I'm extending the elbows, bending the wrists.

Okay.

We're gonna reach down and pull back gently on the fingers.

Very good.

Pressing forward through the wrist and the elbow.

Let's do the other hand.

[inhales] And don't forget to breathe.

[exhales] Okay, good.

You can put your thumb in the back of your wrist and press down.

Let's do the other hand.

Very good.

Keep that elbow straight, enjoy the stretch.

All right, let's do palms down now.

And we'll bend that wrist, using that thumb under your wrist.

Very good, and the other side.

All right, now, just curl those fingers.

Good, curl them up.

Just keeping that wrist bent, curling the fingers.

Other side.

Curl the fingers up.

[gentle music] Good.

All right, press away.

Pull just the finger joints down.

Now, we're not making a fist, we're just bending the finger joints.

All right.

Let's cross those thumbs right across the palm, reaching as far as you can, as if you could reach past your pinky.

Just open and cross, open as far as you can, all the fingers as wide as you can too.

And then cross and open.

You know, we're constantly working, like this, but opening the palm is such a relief.

All right, let's reach under, put your thumb on the back of your hand, and just press down, one finger joint at a time.

Nice and easy.

They might crack; don't worry about that.

Creating some space in there.

The other side, pulling down one finger at a time.

There you go.

All right, and slide your hands.

Slide your hand down each finger.

Nice and gentle.

Feels good, both hands.

All right, this is like my favorite part of going and getting a manicure is when they massage your hands and tug on your fingers one at a time.

Feels good.

All right, let's press those finger joints together.

Slowly trying to get all the way down to the knuckle.

Elbows are up.

All right, one more time.

Press, press, and press.

All right, let's just try to work one finger at a time.

Single finger joint bends, pulling it down, reaching to the base and trying to stretch up with your other fingers towards the ceiling.

So if you can't do it, need a little help from the other hand, that's okay.

Work the middle finger, try to reach up with the other ones.

You'll feel it all the way down in your forearms.

Ring fingers.

Okay, reach, reach.

I have to focus on this hand too.

Want to be balanced.

Middle finger, reaching up with the rest.

You know, just watching TV and coming up with as many hand exercises as possible is a great way to just squeeze in some necessary stretches and exercises for your hands, or when you're a passenger in the car.

All right, so let's make two fists.

All right.

It's easy to forget about the muscles and joints in your hands and feet.

All right, these feel so good.

All right, let's work on our legs.

So nice, long leg point with your leg straight out in front of you, straightening the whole leg, the foot, the toes.

Good, and the other leg.

We're stretching the shin too, and the top of the ankle, right in here.

With your shoes on all the time, it can be very hard to get full ranges of motion.

Now flex and pull.

Good, and the other one.

Pull, keep pulling, stretching your calves.

[gentle music] Good, all right, two feet.

Let's just turn them in and out.

Working those ankles, the pigeon foot, duck foot.

Keep it going.

Turn as far as you can, maybe just one leg at a time here, and rotate, rotate it in, rotate it out.

Good, other side, rotate it in and out, in and out.

[gentle music] Now lift that leg and try to adduct and abduct just through the ankle.

That's not an easy one to do.

Especially on, one side's easier than the other.

Good, other leg, lift that knee and tip that ankle.

Tuck it and try to move it to the outsides are the hardest part.

You might have a little more flexibility on the adduct.

All right.

And then let's just turn it sideways a little bit, little gentle pressure down against the floor.

It's a nice stretch, deep up into the calf.

Up behind the knee.

Let's do the other side.

All right, we'll turn sideways in your chair, facing the right, we're half on, half off the seat.

Just hook your arm around the back.

And we'll start working the toes and the tops of the feet.

So gentle pressure down through the top of your feet and we'll curl and tuck the toes.

If this is one of the first times you've taken your shoes off, you might find that your feet are so stiff.

So work real slowly, gently, not a lot of force.

I don't want you to get a charlie horse.

That's super common.

All right, and shift, across the top of your toes.

And then let's just do a little bit more for the calves.

So find that sweet spot where it's not too far back and not too far forward.

You lean down on the leg and it's a good stretch.

I gotta to pull it back a little bit, there we go.

The idea is to reduce this angle right here, between your shin and your foot, stretching the calf.

Very good, switching sides to the other side.

Once again, hook your arm, half off the seat, shifting that top of the foot around against the floor.

[inhales and exhales] Good, and gentle presses down into the floor and rocking back and forth on your toes.

[gentle music] Just a little bit.

It might take a while to loosen up your toes, but they will loosen up, and you'll find you have much more energy.

We can get exhausted and not really know why.

And it's because we never take our shoes off or exercise our feet.

Tightness leads to pain and exhaustion.

It can be exhausting, being in pain all the time.

So, all right, so this is a nice stretch to the calf again.

All right, and face forward, nice, wide legs.

We're going to press down through the top of your legs.

Lifting those heels, we're on the ball of the foot.

We're not going sideways like that.

We're on the ball of the foot.

Grip with your toes and press, lift and press, just a few times, [inhales] press.

Make that foot do the work, don't just lift your legs.

All right, almost done.

This is a great one for the arches.

Keep the whole foot down and just lift the toes.

The ball of the foot is pressing down into the ground, into the floor, lift, lift, lift.

Couple more, hold it here.

[inhales] Lift the heels and lift the toes.

Great for the arches.

I'm sure that was different from any fitness class you've ever taken, but we can't ignore the parts of our body that do so much for us.

Come back tomorrow to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit, where you'll find more whole body workouts that address every aspect of fitness.

See you soon.