Squeeze Review
I'm (becoming) a rabid home exerciser, so I thought I'd post the occasional video review here. I don't do a video unless I really like it. My opinions tend to be snarky, but if I'm telling you about it, it's a good 'un.
Squeeze is Tracy Effinger's workout system and she's a "fitness guru to the stars" type. She's also a painter, blah blah blah. Luckily, you can skip her intro if you don't want to see it every time.
Squeeze is in the same vein as The Bar Method and the Lotte Berk Method - calisthenics, which must be Greek for "using one's body to hurt oneself." Old school calisthenics consist of all the exercises I know and hate: push-ups, squats, crunches, etc. However, new school calisthenics have thrown out the boring stuff and have gone in for small, targeted muscle movements designed to sculpt long, strong lean muscles and make the exerciser shriek like a banshee.
In addition to Squeeze, I own two Bar Method DVDs and four Lotte Berk DVDs. Out of all of them, Tracey Effinger's workout is the most athletic. (The others emphasize "body of a dancer" while Tracy's emphasizes "find your inner athlete.")
Even though the exercise on this DVD hurt like hell and I couldn't do some of the moves, I still love it and I'm working it into my weekly routine.
Exercise running time: 55 minute Full Body Squeeze, 30 minute Power Squeeze plus an option to customize your own Squeeze routine. (This review is of the Full Body Squeeze - the Power Squeeze has "minimal instruction" and I assumed I'd need more instruction for a first time run.)
Equipment required: 10" rubber playground ball, 1 -3 pound weights, something about hip height to rest your leg on (or lower if you aren't that flexible), a sturdy chair or a barre, a wall that will still allow you to see the screen, a mat or carpeted floor.
The DVD costs $29.95 on both Tracy's website and Amazon.com. It may seem pricey, but it really is worth it for the exercise. There's very little BS on the DVD.
Sections:
*Warm-up: simple knee raises with big arms swings to get your heart rate up.
*Arms: Killer! Using weights (I used 1 lb weights and I had to put them down a couple times), Tracy takes you through a continuous circuit of exercises with NO breaks unless you take them. The idea if to make your muscles burn, and boy do they ever!
*Triceps: Triceps get their own section here. It's a very simple exercise, done like so many of the new calisthenics exercise: you lift to where if feels challenging,
then move from there. The movements are very small, but they burn like a mofo. I went from screeching to roaring.
*Push-up: Yeah, all that arm work, then do some modified push-ups. Great. This section also includes triceps dips, which is also called a "reverse push-up." It's done balancing the weight on the hands and feet, facing the ceiling with knees bent so that the butt hovers over the floor. Then you bend and push up with your triceps and call down curses from Zeus. I can't even get my big booty off the floor; I do them sitting and they
still burn like crazy.
*Sides: Works the obliques from a standing position. Some big moves and some small moves, but twist crunches don't get into the muscle like this. These also isolate the upper body; the legs are in a wide plié squat with the pelvis tucked and the abs locked. This makes it hard to cheat.
*Leg Stretch: OW. This is where the hip height chair comes into play. Tracy is very flexible, but she does reassure you throughout this section (and the entire workout) that if you can't mimic her, just do what you can - and take breaks when you need them. This is a lovely, super-deep hamstring stretch and I can barely move once I get my leg up. But I can feel it working, and that's what counts. This is followed very deep stretching on the floor with the eventual intent of getting into the splits. Yeah, okay. This is the only part of the video that's genuinely uncomfortable for me. My knees were weak for a long time. They're strengthening up fast, but a couple of the stretches required a lot of weight on the knees. It's fine if I use my thigh muscles to support my knee, but I wish she'd offered modified version of these stretches.
*Thighs: Very like Lotte Berk and the Bar Method. Holding onto the back of a chair, turn out, rise to the balls of the feet, and bend the knees, getting into the zone where it challenges you. Again, Tracy can go insanely low, but if you can't, ignore her. Once you're in this challenge zone, you lift and lower an inch, pulse, and sometimes rock your pelvis forward. This burns unlike anything I've ever experienced. It's very hard work, and Tracy doesn't give rests until you move into the next position, which is a wide plié (and at one point it includes pulling the knees back in small pulses, which is must be something they invented during the Inquisition to torture heretics.) Finally there's the chair position, which Tracy grimly calls, "The Chair . . . the Uncomfortable Chair." Here, as in a few other places in this video, you can tell that this workout is serious work for her too. It's very reassuring.
*The "L": Leg lifts with the legs at a 90 degree angle to the body. Easy at first, but then agonizing. As she said at the beginning, "In my classes, they say "The 'L' is hell," and she is SO not kidding. Again, small movements, dips, and pulses with NO rests. It's very easy to hate Tracy at this point.
*Abs: Not crunches so much as leaning back (the others call it a "C curve") with the ball gripped between your lower thighs to squeeze against (and force you to keep good form). The movements are done by contracting and scooping the abs, not flexing from the hips. It SUCKS. There's no lying down. If you want to rest, you sit all the way up. Needless to say, I flopped to the floor quite a few times. It's one of the most intense abs workouts I've done this week.
*Glutes: Again, very similar to Berk and Bar. They're performed lying on the floor with your feet on the wall, calves at a 90 degree angle to straight thighs. Then you lift your pelvis, keeping your ribcage flat on the floor. Big scoops, then pulses at the top, then a ton of variations in the foot positioning, causing a great deal of burning, gritted teeth, and roaring.
There's some light stretching at the end, as well as a quick stretch integrated into each section. It's not as deep as I would have liked, but there are other DVDs for that. This is a HUGE amount of very effective exercises squeezed into a relatively short period of time. The stretch is to lengthen the burning muscles, and that's it. It's not to meditate, breath, or relax. As Tracy said, this is an athletic workout.
She also throws on a little innovation. At the end of each series, you move to the top of your challenge zone and
hold it there for 3 - 5 seconds. It's horrible, but it feels so good to let go and it increases your flexibility and range of motion like crazy.
Tracy is a good instructor, cuing clearly and encouraging you by counting down (and at a couple points, saying, "burning, burning,
burning!" like it was killing her too.) I liked her obvious distaste for some of the exercises. I love how I feel afterwards, but there are some moves, like lunges, that I loathe even though I know they're good for me. Seeing this reflected in a "fitness guru" made me feel better.
This morning, I'm aching lightly all over but nothing is anguishing. No baboons with rocks, in other words. As hard as the DVD was, I'm looking forward to doing it again.
I recommend this DVD highly to people who want a challenge; it's kick butt at any level. For complete beginners, I'd suggest one of the Bar Method DVDs or the Lotte Berk Basic Essentials DVD. (The Bar Method: Fat Free would be my number one. The cuing on the Lotte Berk DVDs takes some getting used to, big time. I'll review it at another point.)
If anyone gets the Squeeze DVD, let me know what you think of it!
