RSSSqueeze by Tracy Effinger
August 18, 2009
I like transformations that are outer AND inner.
Nobody can pretend that looks and first impressions don’t make a difference. Absolutely, we should be judged only on the person we are inside, but how it should be is not how it is. Or will be in the foreseeable future.
When you develop and learn and change on the inside as well as outside, it feels like moving more towards what the world SHOULD be like.
Exercise is that way. It is about so much more than what you look like.
Tracy Effinger is well-known as a fitness personality. She created the amazing Squeeze workout videos. You can read about the Squeeze concept here, on her site.
I spoke of the one that started it all in 3 Workouts You Should Know. Tracy e-mailed to thank me for the mention and asked if I’d be interested in another program. She sent me Squeeze Stronger.
I like this woman’s delivery. Her plain-speaking personality really shines through. She doesn’t soften the message just because she’s a girl. She doesn’t talk to you like you’re a girl and need careful treatment. Without being military, she is passionate and serious about helping you get this job done. You can watch clips at Collage Video.
She’s gorgeous, she’s powerful, and obviously doesn’t buy into the Barbie body mentality that fitness people are probably pressured with, especially if they work with celebrities. A fit body is supposed to empower you to resist that and love yourself as you are, so when they give in to the knife, it feels a bit of a letdown. If they, with their strong bodies and mental images, could not resist the social pressure, then how should the rest of us?
But she is also a painter and a jewelry designer, and very accomplished at both. You can see more of her art work at her website.
I love this pendant. It’s a reminder to all of us to “squeeze all we can out of life”.
In Tracy’s own words,
“I have actually gotten painting commissions from my website when customers went there to buy DVDs. Also, all the art work in my DVDs are blown up versions of my paintings! It is very important to me to have my art in the DVDs and I do think of painting and exercise the same way…tapping into who you are and using your energy source to make more of yourself.”
She sees all the things she does as feeding into one another, in a self-perpetuating loop. It is not a question of carving out time for yet another thing, but rather that every element would suffer if one were to be lost. Like the most successful of businesses, when you own and value cog in the wheel, then you create a far more powerful and unified product with more ease. Your life is the most important business you are invested in, whether you wanted to be or not.
Tracy’s programs are shining testaments to how much you can accomplish by exercising at home with minimal equipment. The movements are so effective that you’ll feel them with a 1lb wt. They are so different that even experienced exercisers discover muscles they didn’t know about. Her cues are exact and the moves are not complex so you can feel the right muscle without any uncertainty. The workouts would surely be equally useful to men and women but it’s clear that an intelligent woman is teaching them.
It’s all in the visualization cues. “Pretend you’re pulling your belly away from your T-shirt”, or “reach and flatten your back as though you’re trying to place your chest on the wall in front of you and your buns on the wall behind”, or “imagine a set of cables on the wall in front of you and pull as though you are trying to resist in both directions”, these help adjust your body to do the movement correctly.
It also occupies my mind better. When you’re doing 3 sets of 10, having the instructor count all 30 makes time drag. I much prefer imagining, using your right brain to learn. It works so well that there are books using that approach in almost every sport, but I think they’re especially effective with women. Men think in terms of numbers and facts. With women, pictures and stories work better. That’s how Tracy writes the script.
Most every review at Collage is 5 stars for all Tracy’s videos. They really are that good. Some people had a few minor objections, none of them mine. As hard as it is to be negative when someone gives you something, goes against the grain of good manners, my personal thing was this : when I like an instructor a lot, as I do this one, I will buy every program they make. I’m really happy when no move, not even a stretch, is repeated. I like everything to be new and different. There is barely any repetition between the 2 programs, but there is a little in a couple of movements. Just something I’m sensitive to.
Is this not gorgeous? If I had a meditation room, I’d put this on the wall.
The first release of the DVD had a small glitch in the Lower Body and Abs premix, where part of the warm-up was left out. The track with Play Whole Workout was fine and it was easy to go from the warm-up back to the lower body premix. You’ll see it called The Dead Lift Glitch in the reviews at Collage. I asked Tracy if there was anything she would like people to know and her response was so interesting :
“I had wanted it perfect and had worked so hard to get it that way. The imperfection was a great metaphor for impermanence and accepting imperfections….just like we have to do with our bodies. I had to just accept it and let it go! I had spent so much money on replication, I could not go back and fix it right away, another hard thing for me. I had to accept whatever reactions were going to result from it.”
How fascinating would it be to have lunch with this woman. Her mind thinks way beyond the surface of things. Finding the connections between seemingly separate elements is one of the great talents of female brains. It always sends a spark in me when I see it.
We are all so much more than one thing. Each activity feeds and strengthens and inspires the others. In a man’s head, each part of his life is compartmentalized. In a woman’s brain, the screens all flow together. Every file contains some data from every other file. It makes our lives more difficult when we’re working mothers because we can’t keep the components apart, but in terms of making our lives richer and our problem-solving more textured, we’re got something special.
You don’t have to do it daily. You don’t have to do every set. I don’t. DVDs that I can complete the first time disappoint me. There is only 1 thing nobody but you can do : start. 1 minute. Just 1 minute. If you’re not doing it, it’s not because you can’t (unless you’ve been injured). It’s because you don’t WANT to. What defines who gets what they want, and who doesn’t, isn’t their ability. It’s how much raw want they put on it.
Then stand back and watch your arms change shape and your legs stop jiggling.
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3 Responses to “Squeeze by Tracy Effinger”
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Christine,
I googled my name today to check on some art projects I am doing, and came across your review. To put it simply, Your words moved me to tears. I have never felt so seen or understood in a review and therefore, never have I been so flattered by someone’s depiction of me.
Just know, I would be thrilled and fascinated to sit down to lunch with you as well, so please let me know if you are ever in LA!
I’m 6 and a half months pregnant now and undergoing all sorts of life changes. perhaps I’ll be back with more to share after this experience, but I may move on into being a mom and my art:)
Thanks again for your insightful words.
Best,
Tracy
Tracy! A baby!! You will LOVE this. The life changes have only just begun. Mom-hood is a funny thing. The days can drag on but the years fly by. We’ll be enjoying your videos and watching the influence this will surely have on your art. All the very best to you and your growing family. C.