Illustration of a skinny person building muscle and bulking up.

Build Muscle. Gain Strength. Outlift Yourself.

If you're a guy who wants to build muscle, gain strength, and get fit, I think you'd love our newsletter.

26,258 newsletter subs and counting!

Illustration of a man doing a dumbbell biceps curl workout to build bigger arms.

We're Shane and Marco, known for founding Bony to Beastly and Bony to Bombshell, two of the most popular muscle-building sites for naturally thin people, each with tens of millions of readers.

We have fifteen years of experience coaching clients ranging from everyday people all the way up to college, professional, and Olympic athletes.

We consider lifting research, and we take it seriously, but we also delve into the darkest corners of lifting lore. There's wisdom in bodybuilding traditions, powerlifting programs, and callisthenics routines.

If you want us to walk you through the process of building muscle, start to finish, with personal feedback along the way, check out our programs. We have an unconditional 30-day refund policy on everything we sell.

If you want to peruse the blog, here are the best articles to start with:

Hypertrophy Training

If you're interested in building muscle, we've written about almost every aspect of hypertrophy training. I recommend starting with our big hypertrophy training guide.

Here are some of our more in-depth articles about hypertrophy training principles:

How to Lift Weights

If you want to learn how to lift weights, build muscle, and get stronger, I recommend starting with our article about how to get stronger at the 5 big compound exercises.

You can read about the nuances of each lift here:

Hypertrophy Workout Routines

We've got a bunch of free workout routines you can look through. The articles will teach you how to follow these routines or build your own from scratch.

Healthy Lifestyle

We've also got some articles about how to live a healthy lifestyle, eat a good diet, maintain good body composition, and combine weight training with cardio:

Common Lifting Questions

Here are some of the more common lifting questions we've gotten over the years:

If you have any questions about anything, comment on the most relevant article. I answer every comment.

Before and after photo of an intermediate lifter bulking
Before and after photo of a skinny guy becoming muscular
Skinny-Fat to Muscular Transformation
Before and after photo of a skinny-fat guy becoming lean and muscular
Women's weight gain transformation
Before and after photo of an intermediate lifter building muscle

Recent Articles

Illustration of a man doing two different leg exercises for his leg muscles.

How Many Exercises Should You Do Per Muscle Group?

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | September 21, 2024

Doing 2–3 different exercises per muscle group gives you more balanced muscle growth and a lower risk of injury (systematic review). It’s one of the more important parts of building…

Read More
Illustration of an intermediate male bodybuilder doing a Push/Pull/Legs hypertrophy workout routine to build muscle.

The Best Push/Pull/Legs (PPL) Routine for Building Muscle

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | February 3, 2024

Push/Pull/Legs (PPL) routines divide your muscles into three groups: your pushing muscles, your pulling muscles, and your legs. Each group of muscles gets a dedicated training day, allowing you to…

Read More
Illustration of a bodybuilder with a huge bowl of food. Illustrated by Shane Duquette for Outlift.

How Many Calories Should You Eat to Build Muscle?

By Shane Duquette | May 18, 2023

To build muscle, you need extra calories. Those calories don’t always need to come from food. Many of us carry quite a lot of extra energy in our guts. If…

Read More
Illustration of a man walking to burn calories.

How Many Calories Does Walking Burn? (Calorie Calculator)

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | October 3, 2023

Most people burn about 100 calories per mile that they walk or run (study). This calculator can do a little better by factoring in your body weight. All we need…

Read More
Illustration of a bodybuilder with a muscle pump in his biceps and triceps.

How Long Does a Muscle Pump Last? What About Swelling?

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | September 21, 2024

A muscle pump looks impressive for about 30 minutes, then quickly fades over the next 1–3 hours. I surveyed 400 people to double-check. 61% said their pump lasted less than…

Read More
Illustration showing an artificial giant with too many fingers. He is holding a skinny man who is bulking up to become muscular.

How to Bulk Up: The Complete Guide for Skinny Guys

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | November 2, 2023

I was underweight well into my twenties. I would read guides about how to build muscle, and I would try them, but they wouldn’t work. They would urge me to…

Read More

How Much Muscle Can You Gain in a Year Naturally?

By Shane Duquette | June 27, 2024

The common rule of thumb is that a natural male lifter can gain about 20 pounds of muscle in his first year, 10 pounds in his second, 5 in his…

Read More
Illustration of an Outlift energy drink and pre-workout supplement.

Pre-Workout vs Energy Drinks: Differences Explained

By Shane Duquette and Cassandra González Duquette | April 10, 2024

Pre-workouts and energy drinks both have the same main ingredient: caffeine. The difference is that pre-workouts are specifically for improving exercise performance, fitness, and muscle growth, whereas energy drinks put…

Read More
Illustration of a weight lifter flexing his chest muscles after his Chest Day workout.

Chest Day Routine: The Best Chest, Shoulder & Triceps Workout

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | July 3, 2023

I have a fond spot for Chest Day workouts. I started bulking with absolutely no idea what I was doing. I gained my first 20 pounds while following a workout…

Read More