- Injuries can occur from any repetitive movement, or lack of movement, but a little self-care done daily goes a long way to preventing them.

Hello, I'm Cassy with today's Quick Fit workout, for all of you who work on a computer all day.

If you find yourself with this forward head position, and/or drooping shoulders, then follow along with me today as we bring relief to these areas.

[bright music] Let's begin with some simple arm swings.

Just let the momentum bring your arm back.

Fitness doesn't have to be difficult to be effective.

These simple arm swings use momentum to stretch and warm up your muscles.

Let's think about your posture while we're at it.

Have your head and neck up over your shoulders, and a nice, long spine.

Switching arms, forward and back.

Lift it and let it swing back.

Lift and swing.

Fantastic.

[inhales and exhales] All right, now across and open.

Try not to let your spine twist.

We actually wanna stretch the chest at this point.

Across and open.

[inhales] Nice, big breaths.

Switching, across and open.

Letting momentum bring that arm back.

Across and back.

All right, now lift that arm up, and let the elbow bend.

You can slap the back of the neck.

Lift and bend.

Feel that tricep stretch.

Switching arms.

Okay, up, bend that elbow.

Lift, slap the back of the neck.

Few more of these, and then two arms.

Okay, open and cross.

Now we're stretching both of those arms, your chest all the way across.

Cross and open.

And shoulder circles, lift and down.

Lift, like you're doing a backstroke.

Lift, you can rotate the hand to make it a little bit more comfortable through the shoulder, lift.

And like you're reaching back to grab that water.

Other arm up.

Reach and pull, up.

Twist and pull, lift.

I hope you're still standing nice and tall, lengthening through your spine.

And down, halos.

So do some circles.

You can begin right in front of you.

And then as your shoulder gets more warm, up over the head.

Make sure you're reaching that elbow behind you with every repetition, and then get the hand around the back of the head.

Good, we're deepening that stretch through the chest, and the armpit, and the shoulder.

Good job, nice and slow.

And then we'll switch sides.

So the halo begins small in front of you, little circles.

Getting that elbow nice and high.

As long as you don't have any pain, that's the key.

We don't wanna work into any bad pains.

We're about pain relief.

Getting pain relief by stretching and improving your mobility, and strengthening the weak muscles.

All right, and behind the head.

Get that elbow up and move it behind you.

Good, now some nice, big, wide arms.

Opening the chest.

And let's turn the neck.

Do it again, lift.

[inhales] Look the same direction.

[exhales] Again, breathe it in.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] All right, now we'll look the other way.

[inhales] Elbows nice and wide, exhale.

[exhales] Breathe it in and blow.

Last time, breathe it in.

Exhale.

[exhales] Left arm, reach to the sky.

Reach up, extend through the shoulder.

Do the other side, reach.

Poke a hole in the ceiling.

Now let's rotate right from the shoulder joint, but every time you do, lift to open up the joint, and then perform the rotation.

Good, let's do the other side again.

Lift, exhale, reach.

Circle right from the shoulder.

Remember, try not to do it from your elbow.

Lift and use your back to pull that arm further behind you.

Lift and use the back.

Good job, all right, two arms down, then lift them both up, making like a great big Y with your body.

Now squeeze your back to move those arms back.

And again.

Let's drop the elbows, making like a W, and move them to the back.

Stretch the chest and squeeze the back at the same time.

Exhale.

[exhales] One more time with the Ys.

[inhales] Extend.

Open the back, or squeeze the back to open the chest.

Drop the elbows.

Same thing.

Squeeze the back, stretch the chest.

Fantastic, now let's move into those targeted neck stretches.

I'd like you to extend your right arm, and then look to the left.

And lift the chin.

[inhales and exhales] Now reach down further with that arm, trying to hold your posture straight.

So you're extending that arm towards the floor, lifting the chin.

All right, and come out of that.

Keep extending this arm, your right arm if you're mirroring me.

And now I'd like you to drop your ear directly towards the shoulder.

You might not get very far.

You might only get a little bit, and then you wanna turn your neck, but try not to do that.

Just go as far over as you can with your neck towards the ear, without turning the neck.

You can pause, breathe in.

[inhales] And then exhale.

[exhales] If you need to support the head a little bit with your hand, by all means do that.

Your head might be a little too heavy for your neck at this point.

All right, slowly come out of that.

Let's put your hand behind your back.

[inhales] Good job, and now turn towards that armpit.

And drop the chin.

Good, lift.

And turn, and drop your chin towards the other armpit, very nice.

Halfway out, breathe it in.

Exhale.

[exhales] Let the gravity pull the head down.

If that feels okay, and you want a little deeper stretch, reach up and a little, gentle tug.

Now this time, lift the head into your fingers, and your fingers are gonna keep that head right there.

And now release, and let gravity stretch that neck.

Fantastic, let's do the other side.

Extend the arm.

So you're reaching down slightly away, actively stretching, and then look in the opposite direction.

Breathe it in.

[inhales and exhales] And lift the chin.

You're still actively reaching out with that arm towards the floor, lifting the chin.

Then we'll come out of that, and then drop that ear straight over.

Actively reaching towards the floor, don't forget.

Pausing, breathe in, and over again.

Supporting the head if you need to.

And come out of that.

All right, rotate that arm so you can tuck that hand behind your back, and then turn and look at that armpit.

And then come up.

And the other armpit, dropping that chin.

I hope you're still standing nice and tall.

[inhales and exhales] Reach up; if you'd like a little deeper stretch, tug gently.

Then lift the head into the fingers.

And release.

Very good, slowly coming out of that.

[inhales and exhales] Good job.

These exercises can be performed anywhere.

If you work in an office, take breaks every hour, and invite a coworker to join you.

You can also go to pbswisconsin.org/quickfit for more pain-relieving classes designed to help you age well and end the day energized, because life is movement.

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