Movie Star Body Kinobody Review (2024)

Introduction

If you’ve been on the internet in the past few years, you’ll have seen the Kinobody Movie Star Body program– the brainchild of Greg O’Gallagher.

This brand is built around offering a program to help normal people develop physiques like movie stars. Hence the name of the brand and the program.

But does the Movie Star body program really work? Can it transform your body? And, crucially, what do you need to know about it before you consider using it?

I’ve gone through the course in-depth, looking at workouts, nutrition, and demonstrations, so you don’t have to. Today you’re going to get all the information you need to know if the Kinobody Movie Star Body course is right for you.

Kinobody outline: what you need to know

The Kinobody movie star body program is both a workout and nutrition program and a course. Greg delivers both through the materials of the course, offering both a guided and documented form of everything he wants you to know to get your movie star physique.

I’ve worked with the platinum program, which offers a 12-week body transformation program. It’s a

What does the Movie Star Body program include?

Sets out training modules. Nutrition. Key lifts outline and demo.

Greg sets out his own goals: strength and PRs. Lean-ness. Recomping.

Greg loves the sound of his own voice but the course intro does a good job of covering both the why and the what.

What? – Greg outlines all the most important things you’re going to cover in the course and program, providing a basic expectation that you’ll be going over the most important exercises, the program, the lifestyle basics, and the Greg O’Gallagher approach to nutrition.

Why? – Greg spends a lot of time convincing you that you’ve made the right choice and that you’re going to get super shredded, muscular, lean, athletic, and aesthetic – and other similar words.

What’s in the course?

The course outline and structure are a series of basic talks on the Kinobody approach to training – and the actual course is a 12-week program that breaks down into an 8-week accumulation block and then a 4-week weight-loss block.

The idea is to eat for muscle gain for 8 weeks as you accumulate volume through the workouts, then spend the final 4 weeks at high rep, low-intensity exercise to burn fat. The goal is to maintain lean muscle mass during that latter phase and attempt to recomposition.

Overall, the structure is definitely viable for a 12-week program and the regular variance between massing and cutting is a good way to stay metabolically sensitive. It’s a good pattern and you could definitely repeat the high-level 2-months up, 1-month down pattern 4 times a year with a week of rest between each.

Disclaimer: there are some less-useful parts of this course that don’t fit this basic template. Some of the bonus stuff like self-hypnosis really doesn’t add much value for most users. It’s a free addition, but it does harken back to the idea that Greg isn’t feeling very secure about the substance of what he’s selling you, despite it being a relatively comprehensive product already.

1. Movie Star Body Program Training Fundamentals & Workout Program

This module is about setting out the goals of the program and making sense of the overall process.

Greg sets out the importance of the weekly focus of each workout and exercise selection relative to the whole program’s goals.

Monday:

• Overhead press
• Weighted chin-ups
• Tricep extensions
• Lateral raises

This is a relatively solid if uneventful first workout with an ‘upper’ focus – though it does potentially lack some variety in the form of a horizontal pull, which you’re not going to get throughout the week.

The exercise selection is fine – but the workout does trade off a more comprehensive exercise selection to keep it short. Arguably, tricep extensions and lateral raises would be better used with a second pressing variation, and then the spare time could be used for vertical pulling (e.g. a cable or barbell row)

Overall, a decent pressing-focused upper body workout, and weighted chin-ups are good. Arguably, the weighted chin-up is going to be by far the hardest part of this workout and you may need to scale if you’re not super experienced with the movement.

Wednesday:

· Bulgarian split squats

· Romanian Deadlifts

· Glute training

· Leaning shrugs

A decent lower body day with traps added in. This workout is really strong for the use of the Bulgarian split squat and Romanian deadlift – two of the best lower body exercises. Arguably even better than normal squats and deadlifts for the beginner, these exercises are fantastic for building stability, strength, muscle mass, and injury-resilience in the lower body.

As ever, Greg’s demonstrations of the exercises aren’t the best and you may want to get some secondary technical source material from YouTube.

Glute training is a great choice – as this is one of the most important but often-neglected muscle groups. It’s a great way to open up the hips, develop the muscles at the rear of the hips, and stabilize the lower back.

Leaning shrugs are a great variation but feel a bit out of place on a lower-body day. It would be better to add ab exercises and any rehab exercises instead of shrugs, which would better suit an upper body session.

Friday:

· incline press

· seated pinned curl

· rear delts

· weighted ab exercises

· optional: neck exercises

This is another upper body day, reflecting the goals of Greg and the people who like to use Kinobody programs. This session has far less focus than other days and lacks some of the clarity and smart exercise choice you’d like to see.

The incline bench press is a good all-around upper bodybuilder, and would probably have been better paired with the weighted chin-up on the previous day. Combining it with rear delt exercise here does provide some balance – but still leaves the Movie Star body program with a strong bias towards pressing and a lack of heavy horizontal pulling.

Seated pinned curls are very mild as an exercise but are good for biceps while weighted ab exercises are good but would make more sense at the end of the Wednesday workout. Optional neck exercises are fine – probably a good choice – but not super valuable to the whole physique or training process.

This workout is where the weaknesses of the program really show up. Monday and Wednesday training are good workouts while this feels like an after-thought: it has only one really substantial exercise and the rest are “finisher” exercises you could easily put at the end of a different workout. It could do with a heavy horizontal pull like barbell rows (between incline press and curls) to round it out.

Rep Scheme and Progression

The basic rep scheme for all workouts is 4-6/6-8 and/or 6-8/8-10 on main lifts – and then 10-12 / 12-15 on everything else. This latter scheme also includes exercises that it doesn’t really work well with, like the Romanian Deadlift (RDL) for some reason.

Note: This is called Reverse Pyramid Training. Reverse pyramid training is what Greg uses in all of his workout routines. Whether that be the Greek God Program or the Aggressive Fat Loss Program, & yes, this Movie Star Body Program, Reverse Pyramid Training is included in his fitness programs.

Here’s a basic outline of the program, using month 1 as the template:

The progression is very basic with a volume ramp up from month 1 to month 2, with very little guided progression. The actual workout to workout improvements are not the best since they’re poorly structured and quite a “do as you feel” approach.

Autoregulation is fine, but you’d expect some form of intensity prescription from a program costing $100 that isn’t individualized. Rest pause training is fine but not really that useful in this context.

In case you were wondering, Kino Rep Training just means you add weight to each set. Crazy, nobody has ever done that before – the use of a new name is just some weak marketing sauce.

Month 2

The increased volume into month 2 is a good move and it does have benefits – it just feels like waiting 4 weeks at a time for progression doesn’t make sense for Greg’s target audience. It would definitely make sense to increase volume every 2 weeks, rather than a single 4-week bump.

The exercise selection in Month 2 is by far the worst on the program. Without any real rationale, Greg pivots away from RDLs (a ridiculously good exercise) into sumo deadlifts (a ridiculously bad exercise for most people) without any ramp-up or proper development. They don’t even hit the same muscles at priority.

Adding calf raises is needless, but leg curls are a great addition if you’ve got the equipment for them. Adding a dumbbell press is a good choice, but not a massive improvement. The real problem is adding weighted dips – despite not having used normal dips at any point in the program. Dips are amazing for upper body development but this is an irresponsible approach to progression and loading.

Month 3

Month 3 involves more reps and less rest, which is basically fine – and the program becomes a 1-2 heavy set approach, followed by “burner” sets with lightweight and high reps. This is basic and is paired with a 5/2 approach to dieting that integrates refeeding – a good system for improving workouts early in the week and keeping diet moderated against exercise output.

Exercise selection and density do improve towards the end of the program – and the final month is unquestionably the best month of the Kinobody program. This is the kind of training we’d like to see throughout the program – but it does make the rest (especially month 2) look very lackluster.

Summary

So what’s the basic summary of the program?

First, it’s not amazing – it doesn’t break new ground or offer anything particularly exciting. It’s going to be an effective program that offers some basic benefits – especially in the upper body development that gives it the ‘movie star’ title.

Greg compares this look to guys like Brad Pitt (in troy or fight club – take your pick) and others. This upper body development is definitely apt, though it does come at the expense of a more well-rounded physique and a more well-balanced approach to accessory exercises.

Exercise Choice

Second, the exercise choice is quite rough around the edges. It’s clear that Greg’s got some favorite exercises that he’s building a program around, rather than building a program out of the exercises that make the most sense.

This is clearest in the missing horizontal pull exercises and the misplacement of the optional exercises and leaning shrugs. The lower body training is okay, but the upper body training is very press-biased and day 3 is just crying out for a heavy pulling exercise since it feels quite ‘fluffy’ otherwise.

Details

Finally, some of the details are just slightly off.

Greg’s demonstrations aren’t great for a lot of exercises compared to some free resources out there. They’re not terrible but they’re not perfect – which can feel a bit off for a product with this price tag.

The interpretation of how strength and physique development overlap is also not quite there. Greg seems to overlook the fact that you can get stronger without getting bigger – and some of the strongest and most dynamic lifters in the world (as in lower-class powerlifting or just about any weightlifting nation outside of China) are not very muscular.

The exercise tutorial videos are also a little low-quality for the cost of the product – Greg’s just sat in a room in his home (maybe) with low-quality editing. This was a bit jarring because so much of Kinobody is built around slick production values in advertisem*nts and marketing collateral:

Safe to say this isn’t the quality of presentation you get in the course (but Greg is also far less annoying in the course, so there’s a trade-off).

The training modules are okay – but it definitely has a roughness around the edges that could do with a little polish and a more-expert approach to programming and developing trainees.

2. Nutrition Basics

Greg’s idea of this whole system of nutrition is a simple development of Recomping – which is perfect for the beginner and early intermediate audience Kinobody is targeting. The Recompositioning pace that he sets out – with around a 400 calorie deficit with lots of carbs and protein is a really good nutritional rule of thumb for lean gains and recomposition.

He offers really simplified tracking with a clear focus and a priority on routine. There’s nothing to bash here: everything Greg says in this early “general approach to nutrition” is what you need to hear as a beginner coming to nutrition for strength and size for the first time.

The TDEE is oversimplified – Greg suggests eating your body weight multiplied by 15 calories – which fails to account for a lot of factors. You’d be better off using a TDEE Calculator online that factors in your exercise regularity, height, weight, age, and sex. These all change your needs, and 15*BW is a bit too general for Recomping, which is notoriously fiddly.

The primary goal is to change your body fat percentage.

Routine and Intermittent Fasting

From a routine standpoint, Greg’s suggestion of 2-meal dieting is actually a really solid and common technique that you’ll see in a lot of fitness enthusiasts and elite athletes. The proper intake of lunch and dinner cut out breakfast (not actually the most important meal of the day, as it happens) and promotes a good focus on high-quality foods.

While intermittent fasting is more of a nutritional meme than an actually-unique strategy, it has some benefits in keeping overall calorie consumption manageable while still hitting macronutrients and feeling sufficiently full. Morning fasting is a simple but effective way to make a Recomping diet easier, if not uniquely beneficial.

Meal Structure

The structure of one small meal per day and one large meal is another good habituation trick that helps people lose weight. Smaller lunches are also – anecdotally – a great way to stay nimble through the day while providing basic carb and protein intake to support a post-lunch workout.

Late-day large meals are something of a nutritional-recovery “perfect fit” and Greg even recognizes the importance of pairing your large “feasting” dinner with sleep as a way of improving recovery.

This is another lifestyle and routine/habit tweak that makes dieting easier and more effective, especially with a focus on weight training – and keeps luxuries in your diet in a healthy and measured way.

You’ll also typically use a chocolate dessert as a way to manage cravings and maintain good balance – which is a simple tip but adds some quality to the diet in a way we like.

Summary

Greg’s diet advice is a little meme-heavy with his personal focus on intermittent fasting, but below the surface level, it’s really solid advice for improving the lifestyle and habitual foundations of a good diet.

The focus on small and large meals and the combination of food and sleep for better recovery is a really good pairing to make a diet fit lifestyle more effectively. All in all, the main goal of the movie star body program is building muscle, reducing to single-digit body fat, and overall, obtaining a muscular body.

Bodyweight training program:

Kinobody also offers both the bodyweight& weight training program for those who don’t use a gym – which is a less effective but mildly well-developed program for calisthenics training. This definitely isn’t as well built as purpose-built calisthenics programs and does feel like an afterthought.

We won’t go into this too far, as it’s definitely a bonus addition and not the main product. There are a few things that characterize the bodyweight version of Kinobody and we can list them ahead of time to get a good idea:

· Push up progression

· Handstand push up progression

· Chin ups and pull-ups

· Pistol squatting

· Single leg hip thrusts

· Leg raises

These are solid options that develop moderately well through the program. The failure to adequately build a progression system into the workouts is perhaps the main failing – where it lacks the scaling and leverage-progression that defines good calisthenics or gymnastic strength training program.

Phase one focuses on 3 workouts:

Day 1: handstand push-ups, one arm chin-ups, push-ups, curls, and oblique crunches

Day 2: Pistol squats, squat jumps, Bulgarian splits squats, single-leg hip thrusts, single-leg calf raises, and L-sits

Day 3: one-arm push-ups, chin-ups and rows, triangle push-ups, curls, and hanging leg raises

Phase Two

The second phase of this program adds a set per exercise which is a relatively uninspired way to add volume. It works, but we’d like to see more progression through leverage – working for 4 weeks to add a single set to an exercise is a relatively low rate of progression compared to what you could reasonably get out of advancing leverage or complexity in these exercises.

Phase 2’s Day 2 (Wednesday) adds step-ups, lunge jumps, and RDLs (if you have dumbbells). These are mild improvements and add a little progression to the lower body but do require the addition of dumbbells to get the best effect – overcoming a limitation of bodyweight training by not doing bodyweight training.

Day 3 does not change – and that’s a relatively weak form of progression since it’s the most-recoverable workout (with 2 rest days in a row) and could be loaded more heavily. It’s not bad, just a missed opportunity after 4 weeks of practice – meaning 8 weeks without change to this workout.

Phase 3

Phase 3 is almost exactly the same as phase 2, working through the progressions Greg set out for the more challenging exercises while the rest of the movements stay the same. There’s no intimation of increasing volume or challenge outside of these exercises.

Interestingly, Greg pulls out the jumping lunge in Phase 3 for no reason and adds Bulgarian split squats back in so that you’re doing step-ups and Bulgarian split squats. This could’ve been worked throughout phase 2, and there’s no real benefit here aside from a mild uptick in volume.

Days 1 and 3 remain the same throughout phase 3 with no significant addition, change, or improvements. This means that Day 1 is stagnant for 8 weeks (phases 2 and 3) and day 3 does not change, progress, or improve from week 1 to week 12 – which is a huge missed opportunity for the most recoverable day on the program!

Summary

This is basically just an okay bodyweight program that leans on a simple progression in reps, and a “do more when you can” progression system that lacks some excellent exercises, in the latter stages. It also doesn’t progress where it would be most valuable, offering a relatively weak sense of momentum.

Many of Greg’s favorite ways to progress here just involve buying equipment that changes it from bodyweight training to something else – like bands, dumbbells, and a weighted vest. These are good additions but it certainly doesn’t make up for a $97 program that doesn’t do its job very well.

The nutrition section adds nothing new in this module and the Hybrid workouts are good ideas – but they don’t add any value since you have to do them in a gym anyway (where you may as well do the real MovieStar program).

The trap routine is good but unnecessary and doesn’t integrate well with the overall bodyweight program. The dip blaster makes no sense, and feels like padding. Bonus content using the TRX, abs, rope, triceps, legs, shoulders, biceps, hip thrusts, and other tutorials are performed badly.

The Tarzan training phase adds absolutely nothing to the program and feels completely useless – an addition that is just there because it seems cool. Greg’s demonstrations are worse in these sections, too – especially on the Bulgarian split squat, RDL, trap bar deadlift, Pendlay row, and sumo deadlift.

3. Recipes segment: they’re simple and easy

These are take-or-leave – they’re useful inspiration if you’re feeling uninspired in the kitchen but don’t add anything significant that a normal adult hasn’t encountered before. They’re useful guidelines but definitely don’t add serious value to the package.

Typically, our advice for recipes would be getting a good online resource (there are many out there) or just getting a thrifted recipe book. Most of cooking for fitness is finding good choices for sauces and macro-friendly basics, then experimenting and gaining confidence.

Greg’s recipes are a bonus for sure, but they’re nothing new.

4. The Fat Loss Accelerator

The fat loss accelerator is a basic addition to the package that feels like repeating many of the most important things Greg has already said about nutrition – but with the addition of extra walking, which is not a particularly unique or novel interpretation of fat loss.

This is perhaps the least useful form of added content since it doesn’t even add anything – it just offers the same information in a different format. The value of information is literally 0 since it takes time to receive it and doesn’t expand on what Greg has already offered.

Skip this segment.

Movie Star Body Program: FAQ

Does the Movie Star Body Program Help You Lose Body Fat?

The MovieStar body program will help you drop body fat percentage if you follow nutrition advice. The mild calorie deficit is perfect for losing body fat while being able to maintain or improve performance, and even build muscle mass.

The result is a consistent shift in body composition towards a leaner physique and burning body fat.

Does the Kinobody Program Work?

The Kinobody system is relatively effective – it definitely works. It’s not the best system on the market and there are some areas where it falls short – like exercise programming – but the nutritional advice is solid and the habitual changes are very useful.

The Kinobody system does require you to make smart dietary choices but will reward you with a consistent change towards a more muscular and lean physique with time and effort.

Are Kinobody programs good?

The workout programs are perhaps the weakest part of the Kinobody package – especially with the MovieStar body program. There are some poor progression and exercise choice ideas, and the overall weekly structure isn’t as good as some programs on the market.

The bodyweight program is just as bad for the poor progressions and general lack of structured momentum. It’s a weak overall offering relative to the price – but the program and its constituents will work – just with a lot of missed opportunities to be better!

Pros: What MovieStar Body Does Well

• Nutrition advice is relatively solid
• Dietary habit and the routine building is prioritized and effective
• Some workouts (e.g. Phase 1 day 1) is good, though not perfect
• The breadth of resources is somewhat positive – even if some are lacking in clarity or quality

Cons: Problems With Kinobody MovieStar Program

• Lacks effective exercise selection with a few major issues
• Poor progression from month to month, especially for beginner-intermediates (the target)
• Inconsistent quality of exercise demonstrations
• Some “take it or leave it” advice like intermittent fasting and self-hypnosis

Conclusion: Our Verdict on The Kinobody Movie Star Body Program

Overall, Kinobody Movie Star Body is a decent package but does under-deliver in some areas relative to the price. At $97 for the package, there are some aspects of the training program that don’t live up to the cost or the hype – as well as occasional issues with the presentation of materials.

These could be easily improved with sleeker production (which we know Greg is capable of getting), better coaching from a more-expert source, and a little more time and care in exercise selection and progression.

Right now, the Movie Star Body Kinobody Program definitely isn’t the best use of $97, though it could be a viable option if you like the program and other aspects we’ve outlined so far. This makes it a solid 6/10 choice for us, with the capacity to easily become an 8/10 with some small tweaks – and then even further with additional time and effort.