Strong Curves

Strong Curves was written by Bret Contreras, known as The Glute Guy for the biomechanics research he did popularising the hip thrust, together with strength coach Kellie Davis. The book grew out of Contreras's frustration that most strength programs treated the glutes as an afterthought behind squats and deadlifts, when a muscle that large deserves direct, deliberate training. It was marketed toward women who wanted a rounder, stronger posterior without the bulky look often associated with generic strength programs, but the exercise selection and hip-hinge emphasis works for anyone who wants to build the glutes and posterior chain specifically rather than as a side effect of squatting and deadlifting.

The program runs 3 days a week, typically on non-consecutive days like Monday, Wednesday, Friday, cycling through three distinct workouts, A, B, and C, across 4-week blocks for 12 weeks total. Here is a concrete week. Monday is Workout A, Hip Hinge Focus: Barbell Hip Thrust 3x10 with a hard glute squeeze at the top, Romanian Deadlift 3x12 feeling the stretch through the hamstrings, Walking Lunge 2x15, Side-Lying Clamshell 3x20 each side, and Plank 3x30 seconds. Wednesday is Workout B, Squat Focus: Squat 3x10 with a controlled descent driving through the heels, Hip Thrust 3x10, Good Morning 2x12 with light weight, Band Hip Abduction 3x20, and Side Plank 2x30 seconds each side. Friday is Workout C, Deadlift and Glute Isolation: Sumo Deadlift 3x10 with a wide stance driving the knees out, Step-Up 3x12 each leg, Glute Bridge 3x15, Cable Pull-Through 3x12, and Donkey Kick 3x20 each side. You repeat A, B, C every week for four weeks, then move into the next 4-week block.

The main barbell lifts, hip thrust, squat, and sumo deadlift, are the strength-focused movements and progress block to block rather than session to session: add roughly 5kg to your hip thrust and 2.5kg to your squat as you move from one 4-week block into the next, as long as all sets and reps were completed cleanly through the block. The isolation and posterior-chain accessory work, clamshells, band hip abduction, donkey kicks, glute bridges, and the plank variations, progress differently, through rep quality and added resistance rather than heavy loading. In the final block you add resistance bands to the hip hinge movements specifically to keep continuous tension on the glutes through the full range, which is a form of progression separate from simply adding plates.

If your hip thrust or squat weight will not move going into a new block, do not force a jump. Hold the same working weight for another block and put your effort into the mind-muscle cue instead, a full one-second squeeze at the top of every hip thrust rep, since that connection is usually the actual limiter, not raw strength. If you are feeling run down going into a new block, especially once bands are added in the final phase, treat that as a cue to keep the load steady, prioritise sleep and recovery, and let the added band tension be the only new stimulus that week rather than adding weight on top of it.

A few mistakes come up often with this program.

• •Setting up the hip thrust with poor bar placement or letting the hips shoot up before the shoulders are stable, which shifts the work off the glutes and onto the lower back.
• •Chasing heavier weight on the hip thrust and squat while losing the top-of-rep squeeze, which was the entire point of the mind-muscle emphasis in weeks 1 to 4.
• •Skipping the isolation and band work, clamshells, hip abduction, donkey kicks, because the main lifts feel like enough, when this accessory volume is a large part of what shapes the glutes.
• •Loading the Good Morning heavy when it is written as a light-weight hamstring-stretch movement, risking lower back strain for no extra benefit.
• •Neglecting the single-leg work, walking lunges and step-ups, which builds side-to-side balance that the bilateral lifts do not train.

Realistically, expect the barbell numbers to move first, most beginners can add meaningful weight to their hip thrust and squat through the first couple of blocks, which is what the program's own benchmark targets are built around. Visible shape changes in the glutes take longer and follow the usual hypertrophy timeline, most people notice a real difference by the end of the full 12 weeks with consistent training and enough food to support muscle growth. Treat each 12-week cycle as one phase, then start a fresh block with updated working weights rather than expecting indefinite week-to-week progress on the same numbers.