Proven program, faithfully implemented
Strong Curves
Strong Curves is Bret Contreras and Kellie Davis’ glute-focused method, and it is built around the hip thrust rather than treating it as an accessory. Four twelve-week programmes ship and you pick one at the start: Bootyful Beginnings for a first go at hip-thrust training, in the authors’ 3-day or optional 4-day form; Gluteal Goddess, the heavier four-day block; Best Butt Bodyweight for training at home; and Gorgeous Glutes, a lower-body-only block the community built from the book’s template. Every session is one glute-dominant lift, one quad-dominant, one hip-dominant, a glute accessory and core — and there is nothing to set up first: no maxes, no percentages, just rep ranges you beat and then add a little weight to.
About the program
Created by: Bret Contreras & Kellie Davis — Strong Curves: A Woman’s Guide to Building a Better Butt and Body.
- Creator: Bret Contreras & Kellie Davis — Strong Curves: A Woman’s Guide to Building a Better Butt and Body
- These implementations were built from Lift Vault’s transcriptions of the programmes, not from the book itself: Strong Curves Program Spreadsheets — Lift Vault
Who it's for
- Best for: Building the glutes and hamstrings specifically, with a full-body programme rather than a leg day bolted onto something else.
- Experience: Beginner to intermediate. Bootyful Beginnings and Best Butt Bodyweight assume no hip-thrust experience and teach the patterns unloaded first; Gluteal Goddess and Gorgeous Glutes expect you to be comfortable under a barbell.
- Time: Three days a week, or four if you pick Gluteal Goddess or the 4-day Bootyful Beginnings. Twelve weeks either way, and the supersets keep a full-body session to about an hour.
How you can run it
Strong Curves runs five ways, and you pick which one when you start it — Iron Forge builds the sessions to match.
- Bootyful Beginnings · 3 days · beginner (12 weeks)
- Bootyful Beginnings · 4 days from week 5 · beginner (12 weeks)
- Gluteal Goddess · 4 days, A B A C · advanced (12 weeks)
- Gorgeous Glutes · 3 days · lower body only (12 weeks)
- Best Butt Bodyweight · 3 days · at home (12 weeks)
How it's built
The shape of the program — sessions, sets and rep scheme. Iron Forge fills in the exact weights for you from your maxes. Shown below: the Bootyful Beginnings · 3 days · beginner (12 weeks) layout — see “How you can run it” above for the rest.
Phase 1 — Bodyweight & Dumbbell
Workout A
- Bodyweight Glute Bridge — 3×10-20
- One-Arm Dumbbell Row — 3×8-12
- Bodyweight Box Squat — 3×10-20
- + 5 more exercises
Workout B
- Single-Leg Glute Bridge — 3×10-20
- Lat Pulldown — 3×8-12
- Bodyweight Step-Up — 3×10-20
- + 5 more exercises
Workout C
- Glute March — 3×30-60
- Seated Cable Row — 3×8-12
- Bodyweight Squat — 3×10-20
- + 5 more exercises
Phase 2 — Barbell Introduced
Workout A
- Bodyweight Hip Thrust — 3×10-20
- Seated Cable Row — 3×8-12
- Bodyweight Step-Up — 3×10-20
- + 5 more exercises
Workout B
- Single-Leg Glute Bridge — 3×10-20
- Chin-up — 3×1-5
- Bodyweight Walking Lunge — 3×10-20
- + 5 more exercises
Workout C
- Bodyweight Hip Thrust — 3×10-20
- Inverted Row — 3×8-12
- Goblet Squat — 3×10-20
- + 5 more exercises
Phase 3 — Barbell Emphasis
Workout A
- Barbell Hip Thrust — 3×10-20
- + 7 more exercises
Workout B
- Single-Leg Hip Thrust — 3×10-20
- Chin-up — 3×1-5
- Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squat — 3×10-20
- + 5 more exercises
Workout C
- Barbell Hip Thrust — 3×8-15
- + 7 more exercises
How Iron Forge runs it
How it works
Twelve weeks in three four-week phases, whichever programme you pick. The same workouts repeat every week within a phase, so you are always trying to beat last week’s numbers on a movement you already know.
Every workout is built the same way: a glute-dominant lift, a quad-dominant lift, a hip-dominant lift, a glute accessory, and core. The first two pairs are supersets — A1 then A2, rest, repeat — which is what keeps a full-body session inside an hour. Gorgeous Glutes is the exception: it is lower body only, four movements a session, and you add your own upper-body work if you want it.
Which one should I run?
Bootyful Beginnings if you have not done much hip-thrust or glute-focused training. It starts on bodyweight and dumbbells, brings the barbell in at week 5, and finishes with the barbell hip thrust, squat, Romanian deadlift and good morning carrying the load. Pick the 3-day form, or the 4-day form if you can train four times a week — that is the authors’ own option, and it repeats Workout A from week 5 rather than from the start.
Gluteal Goddess when you want heavier loads, lower reps and more volume, and can train four days a week. Its final phase runs Contreras’ named hip-thrust methods — rest-pause, constant-tension and isohold — on different days.
Best Butt Bodyweight if you train at home. It needs a mat, a bench or sturdy box, a Swiss ball, sliders or a towel, and something to pull on. It is a complete twelve-week programme, not a warm-up for the barbell versions: the progression is the movement itself getting harder — knee push-up to negative to inclined to full, and four inverted-row angles.
Gorgeous Glutes if you only want the lower-body work and will programme your own upper body. Note that this one is a community build from the book’s template rather than a programme the authors published.
How the weight goes up
Double progression, and there is nothing to set up first — no maxes, no percentages, no calibration.
Pick a weight you can move for the listed reps with good form. When you beat the TOP of the rep range on all sets, add a little weight next time and work back up the range: about 5 lb on lower-body lifts and 2.5 lb on upper-body ones (2.5 kg and 1.25 kg). If you cannot reach the bottom of the range, take weight off.
On Best Butt Bodyweight most movements carry no weight at all, so the progression is reps first and then the harder variation the next phase already lines up for you.
Supersets and timed holds
Movements the source pairs as A1/A2 and B1/B2 are supersets: one set of the first, one set of the second, then rest and repeat. Rest is short between the accessory pairs and longer after the bigger lifts.
Planks, side planks, the glute march and a few of the band holds are prescribed as time rather than reps, and are logged in seconds.
Strong Curves in Iron Forge
FAQ
- Do I need to know my one-rep max?
No. Strong Curves prescribes rep ranges, not percentages, so there is nothing to set up before you start. Pick a weight that is hard for the listed reps and log what you actually did.
- How many days a week is this?
It depends which one you pick, and where the authors offer a choice you get the choice. Bootyful Beginnings is three days a week, or four if you take the authors’ optional extra Workout A — that form starts the fourth day at week 5, not week 1, which is where they put it. Gluteal Goddess is four days by design, run A B A C. Gorgeous Glutes and Best Butt Bodyweight are three days each.
- Why does Workout A appear twice in a week?
Because that is the programme, on Gluteal Goddess and on the 4-day Bootyful Beginnings: Workout A is the heaviest glute day, so it is the one repeated. B and C stay at once each.
- Is Gorgeous Glutes in the book?
No, and it is the one programme here that is not. Its workbook describes it as the lower-body variant built by the Strong Curves community from the book’s template. It is offered because it is a real, complete twelve-week programme people run — but it is a step further from Contreras and Davis than the other three, and it is labelled that way so you can decide.
- Is there a deload week?
No. None of these prescribe one — twelve weeks run straight through, with the phase change every four weeks providing the variation. Nothing has been added that the authors did not write.
- What are the rest-pause, constant-tension and isohold hip thrusts?
Contreras’ named intensity methods, used on different days of the final phases. Rest-pause is a set of 6 followed by singles at the same weight; constant-tension is 20-30 reps taken non-stop without locking out; isohold is a timed hold at the top. They are separate slots here so each keeps its own working weight — a weight right for a heavy five is not a weight right for thirty non-stop reps.
- Best Butt Bodyweight uses no weight. How does it get harder?
The movement does. Push-ups run from the knees, to negatives, to torso-inclined, to full; the inverted row goes through four body angles; the single-leg hip thrust adds shoulder elevation, then foot elevation, then a three-second pause. Each is a separate slot with its own log, so you can see the step up rather than watching one number stay flat.
- Some exercises are named slightly differently from the book.
A handful of movements — the side-lying clam, the X-band walk, the glute march, the reverse hyperextension among them — have no catalogue row of their own, so they resolve to the nearest movement for their demonstration and muscle mapping while keeping the book’s name on your screen. Every substitution is listed in the programme doc.
- Do I need a barbell?
Not for all of them. Best Butt Bodyweight needs none at all. Bootyful Beginnings phase 1 is bodyweight and dumbbells, with the barbell arriving at week 5. Gluteal Goddess and Gorgeous Glutes are barbell-led.
- Is this only for women?
It is written for women and the book is addressed to them, but the method — hip-thrust-led glute training on a full-body split with double progression — is not sex-specific and nothing here gates it.
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