Bret Contreras Programs

PiscesIntuition

Has anyone bought any of his programs? I believe his most popular one is “Strong Curves”. From my understanding, it includes training schedules for: full body, lower body, glutes only.

If you know anything (pros or cons) about these programs, please share!

Thanks!

cupcakesandproteinshakes

Yep I followed the strong curves advanced programme for 6 months. I enjoyed it. It’s full body with more focus on lower body than upper. Lots of exercises for glutes. There are a few people on the weight gaining and bodybuilding boards that follow strong curves. I moved on to an upper lower split cos I wanted more upper body work. Good luck

sardelsa

I've run Strong Curves before in the past (pretty much versions of all the programs), and I had subscribed to his (now discontinued) Get Glutes for many months. I really enjoyed them. Lots of emphasis on the lower body, however not a whole lot of upper (which some people find a con, however you can always add an extra exercise at the end of each session which he has recommended if you want let's say some extra shoulders or bicep focus).

The programs are fairly high rep and hypertrophy based while you will get stronger, they are not specifically focused on strength itself. Some people don't like this.

Also because the lower body is split between 3-4x per week, it may not feel like you are doing a lot at once which some people don't like (they feel like they didn't work hard enough per session) but the high frequency over time can be really effective, provided you stick with it and add progressive overload.

PiscesIntuition

@cupcakesandproteinshakes
@sardelsa
AMAZING reviews and descriptions!
Thank you so much.
It sounds like something I will keep in mind to switch things up a bit from time to time. Again, THANKS for your reviews!

PiscesIntuition

Anyone else who’s done Bret Contreras Strong Curves, feel free to chime in!

Chef_Barbell

It wasn't for me. Not enough volume, not enough upper body and too much lower, glute focus for me.

mochapygmy

The Strong Curves book is an excellent resource if you are new to lifting. I still refer to it occasionally. It has clear photos of lots of lifts, from really common ones to obscure lifts. The photos are from each stage of a lift. The book also has photos of bad form so you can avoid that.

I've never used his program per se but the reference photos are worth the cost to me.

PiscesIntuition

@Chef_Barbell Thank you! Upper body workouts are my fave!

@mochapygmy Visuals are everything! Thanks for sharing!

Anna022119

Big fan here.
Love Strong Curves and I've made so much progress with this program.

I now add some upper body exercises towards the end to balance it out a bit more.

Chieflrg

I have all of his programs in my library as a reference for when a person I'm training decides to get more personalized training and results and they having been running his templates.

The guy is very smart on many things but every now and again his science based facts are sometimes misleading and even some of his other "assumptions" about different style training is not in line with the actual stimulus or training style. The guy is extremely good at marketing for that I can't blame him for trying to make a buck in his niche.

That being said, you would get results just like any other program if you are novel to lifting and you adhere to his templates. I surely feel after that, there is better programming as well if ways to produce more optimal results out there.

PiscesIntuition

@chieflrg Thanks! I throw a few weights around, but after reading so much about various lifting programs, I may be a novice. I read quite a bit about the other programs in the Gaining forum. I’m almost leaning toward one of those (StrongLifts) instead. THANKS FOR SHARING!

TheChristianSimone

His nickname is the glute guy so its not surprising most of his stuff is lower stronger and as for most women, they are obsessed with bigger bums for financial and male gaze. I kinda want his stuff just for my library and I am always looking at things for upper as its the area that is slowest to give me ROI. I also love that your wanting to lift more formally...I don't find many ladies that want to. Most just want some squats.

PiscesIntuition

@TheChristianSimone Thank you! I’ve worked out pretty much all my life. I’ve done a few rounds of P90x as well. That’s what I’m doing now, but I’m about done. Next, I want to LIFT lift! 💪🏾❤️

kshama2001

I bought "Strong Curves" 18 months ago and immediately incorporated the "testing exercises" that I wasn't already doing into my routine but couldn't get the workouts to work for me.

I don't remember why exactly, so was flipping through the book to refresh my memory.

• Part of the problem was likely that there was too much flipping around the book.
• Also, some of the so-called beginner exercises were not actually suitable for beginners, even though I'm not a beginner and am very experienced at modifying, so that was annoying.

I remember thinking it would be nice if there were a video I could follow along and just have the book for reference.

I switched to The RBG Workout: How She Stays Strong . . . and You Can Too! and am very happy with it.

It's a little book - I start at the beginning and work through it. (I do add foam rolling in the beginning and add and subtract a few exercises because of my goals and bad knees, but initially was very happy with it exactly as written.)

It doesn't have a real focus on progression - I just do more weights and/or reps as I feel ready for it.

PiscesIntuition

@kshama2001 Thanks a lot for sharing your experience!