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Old 07-23-14, 10:21 AM  
glamgal
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Brazil Butt Lift or Bret Contreras for glutes?

I would like to start a rotation for glutes. I have Brazil Butt Lift and have been reading some of Bret Contreras online material. I'm not sure which one would best meet my goals.

I've lost 45 Lbs this year due to diet changes. However, I still have 55 lbs to lose. And I've been stuck at a plateau for the past 5 or 6 weeks. I haven't added any consistent exercise to my routine and I think it's time.

My goals are to increase muscle (to burn more calories throughout the day and to decrease my body fat percentage) and lifting/toning for vanity reasons. ETA: I also would like to lean out my thighs, as those are always the last body part to lose weight. For example, right now my waist and butt are ready for a smaller size pant, however the thigh fit is snug. This means that by the time I comfortably fit into a smaller pant size, the current pants have been big in the waist and drooping in the butt for 2-3 weeks. Not attractive!

It would be easiest for me to pop in the BBL DVDs and go, since I already have them. However, I want to maximize results and get the most out of my exercise sessions. So if Bret Contreras would be the better option, I want to go with his program.

Another obstacle for me is that I find paper workouts and a lot of his articles confusing. I'm not sure exactly what equipment I need for his program or where to start.

I would love to get your feedback or suggestions!
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Old 07-23-14, 10:28 AM  
Jane P.
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I bought the Contreras book and returned it. Too much for me. I'd stick with the BBL dvds.
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Old 07-23-14, 10:35 AM  
edensmom
 
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If you actually want to build muscle I'd go with Brett. I have the book and he has a couple plans you can follow to the letter. However, I'd agree popping in a dvd might be easier, depending on your ability to follow a written program.
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Old 07-23-14, 11:46 AM  
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First of all, congratulations on your weight loss achievement!!!
In terms of your next goal, I'd recommend Brazil Butt Lift, since its emphasis is strengthening and lifting the gluteals without adding size or bulk to the thighs.
I've quickly scanned Brett's book at a bookstore, and I may have missed a lot but it looked very equipment-heavy and gym-focused. Plus you already have BBL so you can get started right away - always a plus!
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Old 07-23-14, 01:07 PM  
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Originally Posted by Lucky Star View Post
I've quickly scanned Brett's book at a bookstore, and I may have missed a lot but it looked very equipment-heavy and gym-focused. Plus you already have BBL so you can get started right away - always a plus!
No, you're correct. It's equipment heavy. I didn't need to do it in a gym, but I do have a lot of equipment (including a squat rack and Oly barbell/plates).

So if you want to keep it equipment minimum, Bret's book is probably not for you. He does have some bodyweight routines in it, but even so, he admits that he does not consider them ideal for *his* type of programming, more of something you'd sub in for weeks you're away from the gym.

Congrats on your current loss, and it sounds like you'll be able to save money on the cost of a book this round
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Old 07-23-14, 01:14 PM  
susan p
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I had good results with BBL. It really does lift and tone your butt without overworking your thighs.

I did like Bret Contreras book very much, though; and I'll tell you what I did with it: I started adding glute bridges to EVERY STRENGTH WORKOUT I DID. And seriously, he spends a lot of time focusing on a few key exercises, bridges being one of them, and they are SO easy to add on to a workout! Just pause at the end of your workout, when your glutes are nicely preexhausted, and add in a set of glute bridges with heavy weights and meticulous form (so you're really targeting glutes and not lower back or hamstrings), then hit play and go right on with the cooldown and stretch of whatever workout you're doing.

Having done both BBL and some or Contreras' stuff (although never a full rotation as written of Contreras' stuff), I think this would be a very easy way to get the best of both worlds.
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Old 07-23-14, 01:25 PM  
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I did like Bret Contreras book very much, though; and I'll tell you what I did with it: I started adding glute bridges to EVERY STRENGTH WORKOUT I DID.
Susan brings up an excellent point! This is super useful to do. And you won't even need to get the book for this.

Look for Alta's thread on videos with glute bridges/hip thrusts in them, there are good suggestions there. I bet you anything it's easily You-tubeable, as well.
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Old 07-23-14, 01:57 PM  
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I'd suggest getting Bret's book at the very least for reference sake. He also has a whole rotation that uses only body weight if equipment is a problem.

I have both BBL and Strong Curves and I've found that Bret's stuff and his suggestions actually put 2 inches on my butt. He goes into a lot of what can make a change in the backside and he advocates a lot of different tactics, not just heavy lifting. He also went into how to work the glutes without activating the quads and hamstrings so much, but I think that was info on his website that was addressed after the book came out.

I find a lot of his advice helpful. For example, for years I heard you needed to do heavy, butt to the ground deep squats to build your butt. But, personally, I rarely feel squats in my backside. Bret had a post how goblet squats actually hit the glutes at a lower weight than back squats for a lot of people. I tested it out and, sure enough, I get a lot more burn in the glutes from goblet squats with a 25 lb. dumbbell than with 100 lb. back squats.

I also am one of those people who feel glute bridges more in the glutes than hip thrusts. The thing that I like about Bret is he makes clear that it is not a one size fits all and that many different approaches may be needed to build that muscle.

He's also all about finding out how to activate your glutes, which for most of us are fairly lazy muscles that you may have to have some different approaches to get working the way you want them to.

I'm not saying BBL isn't good (and there is a lot of overlap in the exercises they both use, especially for activation), just that the cost of the book is fairly low and perusing Bret's website is free (though he has NSFW pictures on there sometimes, though it has gotten a lot better since he got a lot of negative feedback about the TNation/Maxim type pictures).

Even if you get BBL you'd still get a lot out of Strong Curves. I'd definitely get the book and look at the website before joining Get Glutes (Bret's pay by the month training web site), since at $20 a month it is fairly pricey unless you are committed to working out that way.
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Old 07-23-14, 02:22 PM  
slysam
 
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Okay, I've done 4 weeks of both: BBL's lift and slim (or slim and shape--I forget) rotation and phase 1 of Strong Curve's beginners program. I had good results with both and can actually see doing a hybrid of the two (though I haven't).

I think Strong Curves would be better for building muscle. There are a few 12 week programs in the book: beginners, lower body only, advanced and bodyweight. I didn't perceive the phase I did as being especially equipment heavy. It was a full body workout mostly concentrated on the lower body. The upper body work was one push and one pull exercise. Some of the workouts the pull exercise involved a cable machine--I substituted resistance tubing and it worked fine. I used weights, a transfirmer step (as a bench and for step ups) and my bodylastic tubing--I think that was all the equipment. The core work was mainly planks though there were sometimes other. In the first pahse the lower body exercises were mainly bodyweight--I used my step for step ups and dumbbells for deadlifts. But the squats, bridge ups, clam shells, leg lifts, etc were bodyweight. There are a lot of exercises in the index and some of them involve expensive equipment. But not all the programs are particularly equipment heavy--this wasn't anymore equipment heavy than Venus Factor and was less so than some Cathe and Horizontal Conditioning workouts. The bodyweight only one was surprisingly high as it involved pullups (assisted or unassisted). I did feel it was heavier resistance than BBL.

However, I had good fat loss results during a 4 week hybid of BBL and Venus Factor.

I am not sure how easy it would be to do a hybrid of Strong Curves and BBL... You could replace the Sculpt for a strong curves beginner workout. Strong curves does suggest doing light resistance/glute activation exercises daily and some of them are similar to some exercises in "high and tight" so I think you could combine it with High and Tight from BBL--but you might need to watch for over fatigue. Strong Curves also suggested a couple days or cardio of your choice (it suggested intervals on a limited basis if you have energy--once or twice a week but otherwise mild cardio, walking, yoga, being active). You could do Bum Bum and Cardio Axe as the cardio. There isn't much ab work in Strong Curves, so I don't think Tummy Tuck would conflict much if you wanted to use it. When I did BBL I loaded up on ankle weights during high and tight (I have a pair of adjustable ankle weights up to 5 pounds each so I eventually wore both at once), if I were doing it along with Strong curves I would do H&T unweighted.

I haven't used any of Brett's online workouts, just Strong Curves book (I have the kindle version).

You might do well with BBL especially if you use challenging weights. I noticed more fat loss than strength/muscle gain though, bu8t that was the rotation I followed. But with Strong Curves, I thought I noticed very slight gain (big strength gain) in the 4 weeks--in my case it was apparent as the area where my back and bum meet looks higher and more pronounced than it did before. I am not sure others would notice this as much, but a few weeks in DH started complimenting me about my backside and fondling whenever he had a private chance. He knows I workout, but I don't talk to him about the specific program so he didn't know what rotation I was doing. The other sign of strength--around week 3 my golf swing improved so I was hitting the ball a lot farther. I get the power from thrusting through the hips partially so I think my thrust was just stronger. But strength/power improvements are not always about increased muscle mass especially on a new program it is often the brain/body connection/coordination (not explaining that right).

Another option, maybe start with 4 weeks of BBL and consider from there. I could see BBL as a good foundation for Strong Curves since in the early phases/beginner programs a lot of the exercises are intended to improve glute activation. I think BBL would also improve glute activation as I didn't find his exercises that hard to follow probably because I've done BBL, TA, barre and kettlebells before (and heavy lifting--but heavy lifting doesn't always mean good glute activation). I think it would be awfully hard to complete a BBL rotation without learning to engage your glutes!
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Old 07-23-14, 02:41 PM  
slysam
 
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Adding on, about the quads...

With Strong Curves the lower body portions were, I believe one quad dominant exercise (lunges, squats, or step ups), one hamstring dominant exercise (i.e. deadlifts), one glute dominant (usually thrusts or bridge ups of some sort), and one adductor/abductor exercise (clam shells, leg lifts with a band, etc). Each workout starts with some RAMP, glute activation type exercises as a warmup and some of these are similar to BBL. The core work was usually one ab exercise and one rotational exercise. The upper body was one push and one pull. There were 2-3 unique workouts in the week for each phase so it wouldn't be the same exercises each time. I liked that in the book the reasoning behind the exercise selection is explained and it includes an index (involving more exercises) for substitions or to design your own programs in the future. Brett does have a Youtube channel with demonstrations of most of the exercises--which helped me follow the paper workout to see the exercises in motion. So there is a quad dominant exercise in each workout--just one though. The workouts took me about 35-40 minutes not counting the warmup. My warmup was a little long because I added some upper body physical therapy exercises and sometimes did a Tracy Anderson or short barre worout as my warmup. That and I did foam rolling or yoga flowing stretches during my rests so my workout may have been longer than necessary.

BBL does a good job of not using the quads as much--though Bum Bum does use them (bodyweight squats and lunges are involved). I have never followed BBL Sculpt since I was subbing it for Venus Factor.
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