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 men's Beastly newsletter.

    27,519 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 showing a skinny man with belly fat.

    The Guide for Skinny Guys With Belly Fat

    By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | September 23, 2020

    Why do some skinny guys have belly fat? If you aren’t overweight, why is fat accumulating, and why is it clustering in your midsection? There are a few reasons this…

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    Illustration of a buff weightlifter confused at why he isn't losing weight.

    Why Aren’t You Losing Weight in a Calorie Deficit?

    By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | May 31, 2023

    If you ask about why you aren’t losing weight in a calorie deficit, the common answer is: “Because you’re not in a calorie deficit. You need to eat fewer calories.”…

    Read More
    Illustration of a weight lifter eating 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day.

    Do You Need 1 Gram of Protein Per Pound Per Day?

    By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | March 3, 2026

    Most bodybuilders try to eat about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day. Muscle is made out of protein, they say. If you want to maximize…

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    Illustration of a guy tracking his calories with the MacroFactor calorie-tracking app.

    A Review of the Macrofactor Macro-Tracking App (2026)

    By Shane Duquette and Sunny Suba | February 3, 2026

    We’ve been using the Macrofactor calorie-tracking app since it launched 6 years ago. We’ve tested it against all its major competitors, used it ourselves, and used it with hundreds of…

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    Illustration of a bodybuilder doing a 3-day workout split.

    The 3-Day Workout Split (Full Workout Routine)

    By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | September 10, 2024

    A 3-day workout split is enough to maximize your overall rate of muscle growth, especially if you’re still in your first couple of years of lifting. To maximize the growth…

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    Illustration of a bodybuilder jogging to improve his cardiovascular fitness.

    Concurrent Training: How to Schedule Cardio & Weight Training

    By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | January 18, 2023

    In this article, we’ll teach you how to improve your cardiovascular fitness while building muscle and getting stronger. We want the health benefits of doing cardio, but we aren’t trying…

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    Image of a natural male bodybuilder calculating his natural muscular potential.

    How Big Can You Get Naturally? FFMI Breakdown

    By Shane Duquette | June 7, 2025

    There’s an old myth that natural lifters can get up to a fat-free mass index (FFMI) of 25. The idea is that if someone has an FFMI under 25, they…

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    Illustration of a man with sore muscles after lifting weights.

    Is DOMS a Sign of Muscle Growth?

    By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | April 10, 2025

    Most people think delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is a sign of muscle growth. The idea is that if you train a muscle hard enough to make it sore, then…

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    Illustration showing a man doing pull-ups.

    How Many Pull-Ups Can the Average Man Do? What’s Good?

    By Shane Duquette | May 9, 2025

    When I surveyed our YouTube audience, half could do 0–9 pull-ups, half could do 10–19 pull-ups, and a handful could do 20+. Quite a few guys were stuck at 0.…

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