Bret Really Likes Big Butts….

The guy’s tagline is “The Glute Guy”…

He’s popularized what is probably the best Glute-centric exercise, the Hip Thrust and it’s variations (dumbbell, single leg, barbell).

Word to the wise:

If you’re going to do Barbell Hip Thrusts, buy an Airex Pad or a ~~Tampon~~ Thick Bar Pad, your hips will thank you.

He’s previously written a 675 page book dedicated solely to the azzz.…so obviously he has a lot to say about butts.

Which is kinda awesome since the Glutes are the (arguably) the most important muscles of the body, for every-body…

“the single nagging issue that prevents you from running like a well-oiled machine is that your glutes shut down. That’s right. The glutes actually stop working properly due to inactivity” -Bret Contreras

Not only are they a key player in athletic performance but also injury prevention.

“Most low back injuries are preventable, but only if strong glutes are part of the picture. Even the slightest lower body injury will cause your glutes to shut down….The Gluteus maximus is a strange muscle. It’s always trying to find a reason to shut down.” -Bret Contreras

So why do so many people have shitty, weak, underactive glutes?

Could it be Desk Jockey Syndrome?

“Once your hip flexors tighten up your glutes decide it’s time to hit the road, and they start to shut down. This happens because the tightening (caused by adaptive shortening) of your hip flexors doesn’t allow for full hip extension at the range where your glutes work their best” -Bret Contreras

Strong Curves: A Woman’s Guide to Building a Better Butt and Body is a fairly comprehensive look at the realities of training women.

All the PC things like:

Women usually find out being strong is awesome.
Women don’t have the same training goals as most guys.
Women want to be “healthier”.

Along with the non PC things like:

Women don’t want to be “muscle(y)”.
Women start out with really low strength expectations.
Women should use the same exercises as guys but not necessarily in the same volume and intensity (depending on the exercise).
Womens “wants” from a training program are different from most guys.
Women are generally doing it wrong, wasting away on the treadmill “burning fat”.
Women would prefer not to have an ass that looks like 2 potato sacks full of cottage cheese.

I know, with the whole backlash against Thinsporation and Fitsporation it’s not cool to say it, but here’s the cold hard truth.

99% of women workout (guys too) to look better.

Yeah, there are lots of other perks that come exercise and sometimes those overtake the looks part in terms of relevance, but the fact is most people start working out to ~~increase their chances of getting laid~~ look better….

FACT.

Let’s not kid ourselves guys…….

Strong Curves takes you through every aspect of a solid training program and with the help of co-author Kellie Davis of Mother Fitness.com, breaks a lot of the myths that exist when it comes to training/ exercising/ being a women.

“it was the curse of being a mom. I believed what I had been told-that babies steal your beauty and ruin your body…..We either succumb to that hopelessness and give up on ourselves or we take action” Kellie Davis

Chapter 2-3: Basic Female/ Glute anatomy

Chapter 4-5: Factors influencing muscle growth and nutritional guidelines.

Chapters 7-14: Exercise technique, workout tracking and benchmarks for progressions and the various training programs themselves.

Glossary: Includes these sections with descriptions, rational and exercise examples

Definintions,
Self-Myofascial Release
Stretching
Mobility
Strength Training (he breaks it down more, Glute Dominant, Glute Accessory, Quad Dominant)

The Exercise descriptions and example pictures are quite good, detailed and include troubleshooting for common technique errors.

Unlike most workout books, this is an actual “training program”, not just a bunch of random workouts.

Once you’re through the book you not only have programs, workouts that build and progress off of each other, you have an understanding of the why they are constructed that way, how to get the most out of them and quite honestly enough information that you should be able to program your own workouts, and take sole responsibility for your training if you wanted to eventually.

It’s a good book for the average woman who’s looking to build a better physique, especially if you’re looking for ~~a better ass~~ glute improvement.

Strong Curves: A Woman’s Guide to Building a Better Butt and Body is well worth the $23 for the actual book and a steal at $10 on the Kindle.