Strong Curves vs NROL4W

karmahead

What do you recommend for intro to lifting books: Strong Curves or NROL4W? Of course NROL4W is like the grandmommy book of lifting for women, but I've heard that it's now a bit out of date. Strong Curves just came out and also has good reviews. I'm thinking of asking for one of them for Christmas and I'm not sure which one to get.

Thanks!

FrnkLft

Well I can see how MAYBE some of the information in a strong book on fitness can eventually get dated, but NROL is mostly a book about basics, fundamentals. I haven't yet read anything new that contradicts any of the info in that book.

That said, I have not read Strong Curves. More likely than not, provided Strong Curves isn't full of it, the information is going to be the same, just with a better title and subtitle for women. So... marketing lol


EDIT: Ok so I just browsed through the 6 or so chapters that he makes available online for free, and all this guy focuses on it seems is the glutes... and not by suggesting anything new. He calls himself the "glute guy". Smart, he knows what women care about... thing is there's nothing special about exercise routines, no "miracle routine." It's all about diet and the basics lol

Again, I only read the free sample, but I'm pretty confident that you should buy NROL4W first, I think you will get a ton more out of it including exercises for your glutes. After that, maybe consider this book, or don't, and don't worry anyway, there's nothing revolutionary in there but the title.

mustgetmuscles1

NROL4W is a proven program that many have seen great results with.

Strong Curves is also a great book. Cassandra Forsyth (one of the authors of NROL4W) actually writes the forward in Strong Curves. Bret Contreras is pretty solid on the latest and greatest information. The nutrition info in the book is based on recommendations from Alan Aragon and the workouts are based on the research Contreras has done with Brad Shoenfeld (another very solid source on anything hypertrophy related).

I read Strong Curves and started including glute work into my lifting.

cwolfman13

What do you recommend for intro to lifting books: Strong Curves or NROL4W? Of course NROL4W is like the grandmommy book of lifting for women, but I've heard that it's now a bit out of date. Strong Curves just came out and also has good reviews. I'm thinking of asking for one of them for Christmas and I'm not sure which one to get.

Thanks!

I don't know how NROL4W could be "dated"...for the most part, it focuses on fundamental lifting...those fundamentals have been around for pretty much a century at least. IMHO, both books are good...why not ask Santa for both of them.

LishieFruit89

Why not look into Stronglifts or Starting Strength instead?

I made in through 1 stage of NROL4W and then it gets really complicated and all of the place (in terms of equipment location in my gym).
I switch to SL5x5 which is far simpler and less time consuming.

karmahead

Thanks for all your help! Exactly, I've heard amazing things about New Rules so I think I'll check that out first. Glad to know it's not "out-of-date". I think I'll borrow Strong Curves from the library and decide later if I want to own it.

CorvusCorax77

I think of strong curves as "assistance work" level lifting.... ie. I only do it after I've done my serious work out. But it's also true that my introduction to lifting was focusing on the four major compound lifts (deadlifts, squats, OHP, and bench) and then diving into a program called 5/3/1 which is supposedly an intermediate program.

After about a year of doing 5/3/1, i realized that the routines that used to take me an hour now only took me about 20 minutes. And i wasn't bored per se but i wanted to do something new in addition to my routine. So i went to the bookstore and bought the only book that showed a woman with a barbell - Strong Curves.

My glutes got bigger from deads and squats, but strong curves made it even bigger (in a good way). There are two other things I really like about Strong Curves: (1) some of the exercises feel a bit more like HIIt than lifting (high step ups anyone?) and I like having some diversity in my work out; and (2) my lower back pain actually improved as a result of doing strong curves- the author suggests that working the glutes can help wtih lower back pain and I honestly didn't believe him, but it's true.

So i guess in the end I think as long as you are doing the four major compound lifts (which are featured in both NROLFW and Strong Curves) it doesn't matter which book you get. I personally think neither book feels like it encourages you to push yourself in terms of weight to lift, but I bought both after I had already been approaching "advanced" one rep maxes on most of my lifts, so that's probably why.

Good luck!