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.

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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 man doing a lat pulldown.

Lat Pulldown Alternatives: How to Train Your Lats With Free Weights

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | November 10, 2020

One of the most common questions we get is how to do lat pulldowns without a lat pulldown machine. People are training at home with either a barbell or dumbbells,…

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Illustration of a skinny guy building muscle by doing workouts that are exactly the right length.

How Long Should Your Workouts Be to Build Muscle?

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | March 27, 2024

A good rule of thumb is to start with three full-body workouts per week, each lasting 45–90 minutes. When those workouts start to feel too long or tiring, add a…

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Cartoon illustration of a beginner doing a cardio program.

How to Do Cardio—The Complete Beginner Guide

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | January 23, 2024

The guidelines for general health are simple: you need at least 150 minutes of cardio per week. If the cardio is twice as hard, you only need half as much.…

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Illustration of a muscular bodybuilder doing the bench press to work his triceps.

Does the Bench Press Work Your Triceps? Yes, But Only Sort Of

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | March 9, 2024

The bench press does work your triceps, but it only works two of the three muscle heads, and not always very well. The third head (the long head) crosses the…

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Illustration showing a man doing wrist curls to build bigger forearms.

The 3 Best Exercises for Building Bigger Forearms

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | September 22, 2020

Forearms are one of those extremities that only extremists remember to train. The average lifter assumes that including some barbell rowing, strapless deadlifting, and weighted chin-ups in their workout routines…

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Illustration of the different types of barbells.

The Barbell Buyer’s Guide (for Bodybuilding & Hypertrophy Training)

By Shane Duquette | March 23, 2019

While writing our guide on how to build a barbell home gym, I dove way too deep into researching barbells. Which companies make the best barbells, which coatings do the…

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Illustration of a muscular man doing a one-armed dumbbell farmer carry while also carrying a barbell.

How to do the Farmer Carry: Benefits & Workout

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | March 8, 2024

The farmer carry, also known as the farmer’s walk, involves going on a short walk while carrying heavy weights. It’s popular with strongmen and athletes but less so with bodybuilders,…

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Illustration of a muscular bodybuilder or powerlifter setting a PR in the gym.

What Does PR Mean in the Gym?

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | March 7, 2024

In gym lingo, “PR” stands for personal record. Getting PRs means your workout routine is working, that you’re adapting, and that you’re growing gradually bigger, stronger, or fitter. They’re important…

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Illustration of a guy doing exercise to reduce inflammation.

Does Exercise Reduce Inflammation? How? And How Much?

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | March 2, 2024

Exercise both increases and reduces inflammation. The stress of exercise causes a surge in inflammation. This inflammation helps you recover and adapt. When that inflammation fades, it drops down to…

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