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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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 8 different exercises in a workout.

How Many Exercises Should You Do Per Workout?

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | September 18, 2024

You should probably do 4–7 exercises per workout, depending on your workout split, experience level, and goals. You need a balanced mix of exercises that target all of the muscles…

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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 the emphasis away from your chest and onto your…

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Illustration of a man doing a barbell overhead press.

The Overhead Press Hypertrophy Guide

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

The overhead press (often referred to as the military press) is the best lift for bulking up our shoulders. It’s also fantastic for our upper traps, upper chest, triceps, posture,…

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Illustration of a man doing a barbell bench press

The Bench Press Hypertrophy Guide

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | December 6, 2020

The bench press is the best lift for building a powerful chest. It’s also great for bulking up your triceps and the fronts of your shoulders, making it a great…

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Illustration of a bodybuilder doing the drag curl exercise to build bigger biceps.

Drag Curls Aren’t As Good As Regular Biceps Curls (Here’s Why)

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

A drag curl is a type of biceps curl where you keep the weight close, “dragging” it up your body. The idea is to make the curl easier at the…

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Illustration of a weight lifter doing compound exercises to gain muscle and strength.

The 5 Best Compound Exercises for Building Muscle

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

All the best muscle-building programs are built on the idea of progressively overloading the big compound exercises. If you aren’t able to progressively overload those exercises, then you won’t build…

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Illustration of a skeleton who had a pre-workout supplement before lifting weights.

Are Pre-Workout Supplements Bad for You? (Full Breakdown)

By Shane Duquette and Cassandra González Duquette | April 11, 2024

Pre-workout supplements have had their share of controversies. Think of a crazy professional bodybuilder using all kinds of performance-enhancing drugs. Now imagine the stimulants that guy might be interested in.…

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Illustration of a bodybuilder doing long-muscle-length shoulder training for his side delts.

Long-Muscle-Length Training (Aka Stretch-Mediated Hypertrophy)

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

For at least a few decades, bodybuilders have favoured exercises that challenge their muscles at long muscle lengths. “Go deep! Feel the stretch!” The mechanisms weren’t known, and the results…

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Illustration of a bodybuilder doing biceps curls for the Arm Day of his Bro Split Workout routine.

The Perfect Bro Split Workout Routine

By Shane Duquette | May 23, 2023

The Bro Split is surprisingly controversial. Most guys assume it’s for casual lifters who never took the time to learn how to program a proper workout split. That’s not the…

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