Squeeze by Tracy Effinger

On Wednesday, I did Tracy Effinger's Squeeze for the first time. It's a combination of Callanetics, yoga and isometrics.

The Callanetics related movements use far less than 100 movements, but I believe are just as effective as those found on Callanetics 10 Years Younger in 10 Hours, if not more so. The arm, inner thigh and outer thigh movements are definitely better than those in Callanetics.

There is one movement on Squeeze called "the L" which works the thighs and buns. My legs were shaking so badly during the move that it was like watching the ground during an earthquake. I've never had my legs shake so much. I could barely do any of the thigh movements 20 minutes later in the bun & thigh section. It's been 2 days and I can still barely move my legs.

For the arm section, she recommends 2 pound weights, but says that even if you don't have weights you'll get an effective workout. I agree! If you really focus on isometrics (stretching yours arms as far as possible and resisting the movement - what Tracy calls squeezing), you'll probably never need weights.

My only complaint about the workout is that Tracy is more flexible than the average person and it would have been nice if she had shown how to do some of the stretches at different levels. Modifications are pretty easy to figure out, but I think most people would like to see someone demonstrating modifications just to make sure that they're picking the best way to do it.

The first time you do this workout, you might want to take it a little bit easier. For me, my muscles are sorer today even though it's been two days since I did the workout. If I had known this would happen, I would have worked out a little less intensely so that I could pace myself better, workout again today, and slowly build up my strength.