Squeeze: Stronger

Tracy Effinger
Year Released: 2008

Categories: Abs/Core , Ballet/Barre, Lower Body Strength , Pilates/Core Strength , Upper Body Strength


This DVD was my first experience with instructor Tracy Effinger and her Squeeze series of workouts. At almost 78 minutes, Squeeze Strong is a LONG workout, and although you are only using light to moderate weights for much of the routine, it is definitely quite challenging! Tracy works out alone, cuing live, but the artistic filming style flashes to images shot of her in another studio/outfit as well as alternates between color and black-n-white.

The main format that Tracy uses throughout this workout is to perform supersets for each muscle group, complete exhausting that area before moving on. In general, she completes 3 sets of 15 repetitions, although sometimes the number of reps varies depending on the exact exercise. She starts the short (3m) Warm-Up with sets of deadlifts alternating with knee raises. For the deadlifts, Tracy recommends using your "heaviest" weight (8-15 lbs.), but given that she does these pretty quickly (AND that it was just the warm-up!), I stuck with 5-lb. dumbbells, which felt right.

Tracy then moves into arms work; here she recommends using 3-8 lbs. First up is biceps. The three exercises in this superset (6.5m) are a "W" curl, a close-grip bicep curl, and an alternating twisting bicep curl. I stayed with my 5-lb. dumbbells, which were definitely heavy enough for me! I also used the same weight for the shoulders superset (6m), which included a front raise, a lateral raise (Tracy begins with the hands "behind the seam of your pants"), and a bent over rear delt raise. In the next segment (5.5m), Tracy recommends that you lower your weights to 1s, 2s, 3s or even use no weight--I started with 3-lb. but quickly decreased to 2-lb. This series involves a set of exercises that are only performed once each: for the chest, scissors, chest fly, and pec deck. Then, leaning forward, shoulder extensions with arm circles plus triceps pulses. Waist work follows. Here Tracy uses her "Squeeze Stick," but a regular broomstick would work fine. Again using supersets, she alternates side bends and side twists with knee raises with "side kicks"--these are performed holding onto the back of the chair with both hands and lifting a leg up high, and they really work the back of the waist (trust me--I definitely felt them the next day!). The second waist round adds a standing intercostal crunch. Tracy finishes off the arms work with push-ups: one set traditional (on knees), one set triceps push-ups (on knees), and one set one-armed triceps push-ups (on each side).

Whew--on to legs! Tracy begins with standing leg work using the chair for balance. She performs a series of plies which include athletic v-plie, "sissy" squat plie, and ball squeeze plie variations (Tracy squeezes a playground ball between her hands; you could easily skip the ball or use a small dumbbell instead). Although this segment is only 6 minutes long overall, Tracy adds plenty of little variations to make it challenging. From here you go down to your knees for the brief (2 minutes) knee dancing segment. Those familiar with Callanatics or Lotte Berk will recognize this move, which involves reclining the body back and then coming back forward, leading in a pelvic tilt; Tracy starts slow but speeds it up and uses alternate tempos. Before moving on to the floorwork, Tracy does a short (4.5m) yoga-like stretch series. The next segment is KILLER, and at 12 minutes, it's also the longest sequence in the workout. Starting in a seated position, Tracy performs the pretzel, another traditional move from barre workouts, but I really liked how she explained/setup this exercise. She moves into what seemed like endless variations, so although you begin with the leg behind of you, you eventually will have both legs in front of you and will finish with a series of clams moves; then, of course, you have to repeat the entire sequence on the other side.

Finally, you move on to abs. This was the one segment I wasn't crazy about on the DVD. At 10 minutes, it felt overly long to me. Tracy uses the stick again here, and the moves feel Pilates-inspired, such as the roll-down and the rowing. Following the abs work, you will lie down on your mat for back dancing, or a series of quick pelvic lifts. This nicely finished off the butt, with several variations including hip circles; I only wish that it had been longer than 3 minutes. Tracy concludes the workout with some nice reclined twists as well as a brief seated stretch for the hamstrings. Unfortunately, given the length of this workout, this short final stretch (it is only 4 minutes total) clearly felt insufficient; I definitely would have preferred less abs, more stretching!

And believe me, you will need the stretching--the first day after I did Squeeze Stronger, the entire back side of my body was sore, from my upper back through the sides of my waist to my butt and hamstrings! Oh, and I definitely felt it in my arms as well. Tracy states in her Introduction that beginners can do this workout by taking it slowly, but personally, I would recommend this DVD for experienced exercisers only. I probably won't be using the entire workout myself again anytime soon; instead, I will rely on the Premixes--which include Upper Body & Waist (40 minutes) and Lower Body & Abs (43 minutes)--as well as the Mix & Match Menu. Overall, this DVD was definitely a good purchase for me, and I know that I will get a lot of use from it.

Instructor Comments:
As I mentioned, this was my first workout with Tracy, and I liked her. She is encouraging, often using the term "squeeze harder!", but she is not overly effusive. She does not mirror cue, but given that there really aren't many left-right situations in this workout, this wasn't much of an issue. She does give some decent form pointers, although I still would not recommend this workout for beginners.

Beth C (aka toaster)

03/10/2010