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:

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 barbell Pendlay rows.

Chin-Ups vs Barbell Rows for Back and Biceps Growth

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | March 30, 2020

There are two lifts that are generally considered ideal for building our upper backs and upper arms, and both by very different groups. People who are more interested in strength…

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Illustration of a man doing the barbell row.

The Bent-Over Barbell Row Hypertrophy Guide

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | September 27, 2020

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…

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Illustration of a muscular shirtless bodybuilder man doing a biceps workout.

The Best Biceps Workout (Dumbbell, Barbell, or Full Gym)

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | June 17, 2024

I recommend training your biceps with 3–5 sets of vertical pulls (like chin-ups and lat pulldowns) followed by 2–5 sets of biceps curls (like preacher curls and lying biceps curls).…

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Illustration of a man doing a dumbbell pullover workout to build bigger back muscles.

The Best Dumbbell Back Exercises & Workout

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | December 11, 2023

You can build a big, strong, and balanced back with just dumbbells. Chin-ups and pull-ups are the foundation of most back workouts, but it’s pretty easy to replace them with…

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Illustration of a man doing a dumbbell biceps curl workout to build bigger arms.

The Best Dumbbell Arm Exercises & Workout

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | December 13, 2023

Dumbbell exercises are fantastic for building bigger arms. They’re often better than the barbell, cable, and machine variations. You don’t need anything more. Our main Bony to Beastly Program heavily emphasizes dumbbells. Some of…

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Illustration of a bodybuilder building bigger back muscles with dumbbell lat exercises.

The Best Dumbbell Lat Exercises

By Shane Duquette | June 29, 2024

Your lats pull your elbows in closer to your body, meaning that the best dumbbell lat exercises are some variation of dumbbell row. And dumbbell rows are fantastic. That’s all…

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Before and after results of a skinny guy building muscle.

How to Build Muscle—Full Guide

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | October 28, 2021

To build muscle, you need to do 3 things: challenge your muscles enough to stimulate growth, eat enough food to fuel that growth, and then recover. We’ve helped over 10,000…

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Illustration of a bodybuilder with a huge bowl of food. Illustrated by Shane Duquette for Outlift.

How Many Calories Do You Need to Build Muscle?

By Shane Duquette | May 18, 2023

To build muscle, you need extra calories. Those calories don’t always need to come from food. Many of us carry quite a lot of extra energy in our guts. If…

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Illustration showing an artificial giant with too many fingers. He is holding a skinny man who is bulking up to become muscular.

How to Bulk Up: The Complete Guide for Skinny Guys

By Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS | November 2, 2023

I was underweight well into my twenties. I would read guides about how to build muscle, and I would try them, but they wouldn’t work. They would urge me to…

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