Build Muscle. Gain Strength. Outlift Yourself.
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. Your results are fully guaranteed. We have an unconditional refund policy on everything we sell.
If you want to peruse the blog, here are the best articles to start with:
- How to build muscle (for everyone)
- How to bulk up (for skinny people)
- How to recomp (for overweight people)
- How to do cardio
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:
- Progressive overload
- The best hypertrophy exercises
- How to structure your workouts
- How many reps should you do per set?
- How long should you rest between sets?
- How many sets should you do per workout?
- How often should you work out?
- How range of motion affects muscle growth
- How close to failure should you lift?
- How fast should you lift and lower weights?
- Which isolation exercises do you need?
- How to do supersets
- How to do giant sets
- How to do drop sets
- How to do lengthened partials
- Stimulus-to-Fatigue Ratio
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.
- What training split should you use?
- 3-day workout splits
- 4-day workout splits
- 5-day workout splits
- 6-day workout splits
- The Bro Split
- The Upper/Lower Split
- The Push/Pull/Legs Split
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:
- How to gain weight with a fast metabolism
- Is lifting weights good for burning fat?
- How much protein do you need?
- How to sleep for muscle growth
- How to schedule weight training with cardio
If you have any questions about anything, drop a comment in the most relevant article. I answer every comment.
Recent Articles
Review of the X3 Bar by Dr John Jaquish: Is It Good for Building Muscle?
Dr John Jaquish is quickly becoming known for making extravagant claims about the benefits of training with his resistance band system, the X3 Bar. According to him, the product that…
Read MoreAre Weight Lifting Belts Good for Building Muscle?
Some argue weight lifting belts help us build muscle because they allow us to lift more weight while protecting our lower backs, and there’s some truth to that. If we…
Read MoreReview of the Max Size Workout Program by Athlean-X
Our specialty is hypertrophy training. More specifically, we help naturally skinny “hardgainers” bulk up. But before that, Marco worked as the strength coach for several college, professional, and Olympic athletes.…
Read MoreWhen Should You Lift to Failure?
Should we lift to failure when trying to gain muscle size? That’s a tricky question, and the answer depends on the situation. For example, experienced lifters are able to lift…
Read MoreMuscle Size vs Strength: Is Gaining Muscle Mass Good for Gaining Strength?
Many people start weight training because they want to improve their appearance. They focus on building bigger muscles. Hypertrophy training. Bodybuilding. And that’s great. Building bigger muscles can make us…
Read MoreThe Bent-Over Barbell Row Hypertrophy Guide
The barbell row, also known as the bent-over row, is one of the more popular compound lifts, and it’s commonly used in both strength training and bodybuilding programs. But most…
Read MoreStarting Strength vs StrongLifts 5×5: What’s the Difference?
What’s the difference between Starting Strength and StrongLifts 5×5? Which workout program is better for beginners, which is better for building muscle, and which is better overall? There are a…
Read MoreGreySkull LP: Is It Good for Gaining Muscle Mass?
GreySkull LP (GSLP) is a powerbuilding program designed to help beginners get bigger and stronger. It’s one of the more popular programs in the strength training community, and it’s often…
Read MoreThe Skull Crushers Hypertrophy Guide
Skull crushers are one of the best exercises for building bigger triceps, and they’re quite good for increasing bench press strength. They also tend to be fairly easy on the…
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