Illustration of a skinny person building muscle and bulking up.

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 programsYour 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:

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:

If you have any questions about anything, drop a comment in 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 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…

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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 of a man doing the close-grip bench press

The Close-Grip Bench Press Guide

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | October 1, 2020

The close-grip bench press is an assistance lift for the bench press done with a narrower grip. This narrower grip shifts emphasis away from your chest and onto your upper…

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Illustration of a man doing general strength training

How to Gain Strength

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | June 5, 2020

What’s the best way to develop general strength? We get this question a lot. CrossFit claims to emphasize functional exercises to develop functional strength. Is functional strength a real thing?…

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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 a weight lifter flexing their leg muscles during a Leg Day workout.

The Best Leg Day Workout for Building Muscle

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | June 28, 2023

Leg Days work all the biggest muscles in your body, giving you chiselled thighs, round glutes, and muscular calves. They’ll also give you a thicker torso, making you sturdier from…

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Illustration of a man doing a sumo deadlift (outlift)

The Deadlift Hypertrophy Guide

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | August 30, 2019

The deadlift strengthens us from our forearms down to our calves. In fact, it’s such a good indicator of overall strength that it’s the only lift in both powerlifting and…

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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 bodybuilder doing dumbbell goblet squats as part of his leg workout.

The Best Dumbbell Leg Exercises & Workout

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | December 15, 2023

Dumbbell leg exercises are great for beginners. They’re perfect for gaining your first 30–40 pounds of muscle. Think of exercises like goblet squats, dumbbell Romanian deadlifts, and step-ups. Our main Bony…

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