Bony to Beastly

Milk, Muscle and Marcel

by Shane Duquette and it's about Ectomorph Transformations, Milk

Marcel's Bony to Beastly Transformation + Milk

One summer I decided I was going to bulk up. This was back when I was 130 pounds and sick and tired of being 130 pounds. I was working at an ad agency as a junior designer on the illustration team. I was new there, and also newly determined to gain 20 pounds. Drinking an entire bag of milk (1.3 litres) each day was part of my plan to do that.

Err … okay that’s not entirely accurate – I didn’t quite drink the entire bag each day. A couple months into the summer one of my particularly caffeinated coworkers started complaining to everyone that by the end of the day, each and every day, I would always finish the milk, leaving none for her afterwork coffee. She was appalled that I was so inconsiderate. I don’t blame her – drinking 1.3 litres each day of communal office milk is certainly an office foul. Shame on Shane.

When this was brought to my attention I felt awful. This was a really awkward situation. First, I had to tell her that I knew what she was saying behind my back, then that I understood her concerns … and then that I wasn’t drinking communal milk – I was bringing my own bag of milk in with me each morning. She’d been using my milk for her coffee throughout the day each day. At that point someone pointed out that there were communal milk and cream cartons in the door of the fridge. She wasn’t impressed: “How on earth would I know that? Who brings in milk to work like that?! You even have your own milk pitcher here … ”

Who brings milk to work like that? Desperate skinny boys who are trying to build muscle, that’s who. Milk’s a controversial drink though, and I’ve learned a lot since then about building muscle. So what’s the lowdown on milk?

May 9, 2013 14 Comments

Ectomorph Weightlifting

by Shane Duquette and it's about bench press, deadlifts, ectomorphs, proportions, squats, weightlifting

Ectomorph body type Strengths and Weaknesses

There are two things us ectomorphs often forget when it comes to weightlifting. The first is that when we first start taking it seriously, well, we’re still novices. We can’t be expected to perform lifts that require high degrees of athleticism – athleticism that we don’t necessarily have yet. We can develop mobility, strength, stability and power simultaneously with size, so that’s not the end of the world. We do need to learn how to move and lift while we’re getting bigger though, otherwise we’re setting ourselves up for building an imbalanced body that looks funky, performs poorly and is vulnerable to injury. Hardly what we’re trying to accomplish by hitting the gym.

The second thing we forget is that we don’t have the same bone or muscle structures that most bodybuilders and powerlifters have. Most of those guys have highly specialized bodies, accomplished both through decades of training … and also their genetics. They’re often born with proportions that suit the lifts they do. Just like the tallest guys are drawn to basketball, weightlifters typically gravitate towards the lifts that they naturally excel at. This means that the guys you’re watching do the bench press are often the worst ones to get your cues from – the lift is very different for them. They’ve got big muscle bellies, short thick bones, stubby limbs and barrel chests. We’ve often got long tendons, long slim bones, long lanky limbs and shallower rib cages. Taking their cues is like asking a 7’2 guy how to dunk a basketball – he may very well say “uh just reach up and put it in.”

Overall we’re just longer people. We make better decathletes than shot-putters; better quarterbacks than linebackers. Hardly anything to be upset about. It’s not like thin guys can’t kick ass at athletics and build amazingly powerful bodies … but we do need to take a different approach, and it’s not the approach you’d likely see the biggest guys in the gym taking.

So let’s talk about lifting like ectomorphs so we can turn ourselves into big strong ripped athletic dudes. Time to turn to the physics of lifting. Let’s dig into the three main lifts a little bit:

March 6, 2013 20 Comments

17 Ways to Save Money on Groceries and Supplements while Bulking

by Jared Polowick and it's about Cutting costs, groceries, Supplements

top-ways-to-save-money-muscle-bulking-costs-protein

It’s May 1st, 2010 and Shane and I just graduated from university a few days earlier. We’re living in a high-rise apartment with our good friend Payam in a less than ideal neighbourhood. We’re just starting our “Muscle May” experiment – a one month challenge Shane presented to Payam and me. The idea was to have all three of us roommates hold one another accountable for 30 days of extreme diet and exercise change.

At this point I have about $500 dollars left on my nearly maxed out credit card, $38 dollars in my bank account, and $0 savings. To make matters worse I have no income, as Shane and I just started up our design business a few days earlier. We’re looking for our next client, are in the process of applying for a business loan, and rent payments are coming up.

“Wait, so I’m going to need to spend more money on groceries?” I say, weighing in at a soaking wet 130 pounds of pure bone and a large head.

“No, you’re going to need to spend a normal amount on groceries. You’re horribly underfeeding your body right now. We all are.” Shane said in response.

“How the heck am I supposed to pay for rent, more food and these supplements you keep talking about … like this nitrous oxide–“

“– it’s nitric oxide. Nitrous oxide is what you put in your car.” Shane cut me off. “And it’s only for 30 days. Plus, some supplements, like protein powder, are actually cheaper than real food.”

Fast forward 30 days and I’m now 30 pounds heavier than I was before. (22 pounds from the nutrition and training + 8 pounds from the creatine.) I feel pretty damn incredible. Looks like I had better figure out a way to pay for this new “normal” amount of groceries. Inside are the top 17 tricks I’ve found for cutting costs over the past 2 and a half years without compromising results.
read more

January 21, 2013 22 Comments

Ectomorph Aesthetics (Long Article)

by Shane Duquette and it's about aesthetics, ideal proportions, male attractiveness

Every straight guy knows how a girl’s femininity can tug on our heart strings. And our lust strings. Sometimes a woman’s shape, personality, face, voice—it all just adds up to make her absolutely irresistible. Women feel the same way about us men … just based on a whole different set of traits.

For better or worse, the impression we give off can have a huge impact on our life. Even if we train and eat well for our health and performance, we also want to attract great women, and ultimately spending the rest of our lives with the one we want is a pretty damn big deal. And of course, even once we have her that doesn’t mean we should stop striving to be the man of her dreams.

It’s not just about women either—getting the respect of other men is important to us too, both in our personal and work life. Aesthetics, muscle, health and masculinity are all so closely related that how we train and eat can roll over into every area of our life. It makes sense for us to care.

The tricky part is that some of the traits we portray are obvious … but some we’d never even think to think of.

November 8, 2012 37 Comments

Should you Run?

by Shane Duquette and it's about Cardio, ectomorph training, jogging, running

Hauling heavy weights, training for a triathlon and chugging along on your mum’s treadmill will all result in your body adapting to the training stimulus. You’ll create more blood vessels, develop more mitochondria in your cells, trigger gene expression and transform your body right down to a molecular level. Badass.

You’ll become better at what you’re training to do and collect the corollary benefits: health, fitness, energy, handsomeness. You’ll also spend more of your life feeling awesome, since exercise affects your neurotransmitters and releases endorphins. There are limits to how quickly you can adapt though, and generally the more things you train for at once the slower your body will adapt to any one of those stimuluses.

We’re ectomorphs looking to build muscle, get and stay lean, achieve optimum health, and develop powerfully functional physiques. Does running help with that? We also have a lot of guys who do martial arts, play soccer, bike, rock climb, etc. Should they run? And we have guys who run for fun but want to get beastly. So, what are the pros and cons of running?

October 2, 2012 24 Comments

Mastery of the Trickiest of Devils: Sugar

by Shane Duquette and it's about articles, ectomorph nutrition, sugar

ectomorph-muscle-building-sugar-artificial-sweeteners

Sugar’s a pretty sensationalized nutrient these days among the health-conscious. Many people rave about how high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is the evilest of sugars, that fruits are a bad choice when trying to lose fat, that sugary foods are bad for you, artificial sweeteners are devilish chemicals, or say, that agave nectar is a more healthful choice than typical sugar.

It’s a bias-ridden topic, and most people weighing in seem to be pushing something. I feel like we showed up to the sugar party naked, because we don’t have an angle. I mean, we aren’t funded by the corn industry, we aren’t dogmatically defending an ideal, we aren’t trying to become the next fad—Hell we don’t care if you’re a paleo carnivore or a vegan, we simply care about what you can accomplish through your nutrition and training.

So where does the sweet truth lie if you turn to science? What does the experience of us and our members tell us about applying that research in the real world? If you’re trying to build muscle and lose fat who’s your ally? And if you want to lead a healthy life which artificial sweeteners are on your side?

September 3, 2012 12 Comments

Posture & Muscle: a Match Made In Muscle-Heaven

by Marco Walker-Ng and it's about ectomorph posture

Jared-ectomorph-transformation-posture-vs

I’m a huge fan of improving posture. It may not be the most “hardcore” thing to focus on in a training program, however, it will turn your body into a hard-core machine. If you took a look at all the people in super hero movies you will find some commonalities. They are usually devilishly handsome, very muscular, big fans of Bony to Beastly and they all have great posture.

I get it, your parents have already told you a thousand times to sit up straight and I’m sure you’ve already heard that it improves the way you look, improves your performance, and maybe even that it improves your energy levels and how you feel. All true.

But HOW???

July 23, 2012 5 Comments

The Beastly Vice Guide—Indulgent Foods that Give You Bear Strength & Make you Feel Fantastic

by Shane Duquette and it's about ectomorph nutrition

There are a lot of great “vices” out there that have a bad reputation. Where did they get their bad reputation? Rumours combined with bad science. They usually spring from silly myths that are then backed up by poorly conducted correlation studies.

There’s no need to be eating grilled chicken salads all day long. You can eat well day in and day out, love life and be a beast of a dude. So how can you eat kickass food that makes you feel great and perform fantastically well?

July 19, 2012 7 Comments

Ectomorph Muscle-Building Supplements (Updated 2013)

by Shane Duquette and it's about supplements for ectomorphs

Best-ectomorph-muscle-building-supplements

We’ve gotten a lot of questions about the best supplements for ectomorphs, what brands we recommend, and whether we need them at all. The answer to that last question is simple: of course you don’t need them. You can build muscle just fine with or without them. In fact, until you know how to build muscle without them you really shouldn’t be buying them at all. Once you’ve got the fundamentals down though, adding in some key supplements can drastically improve your results, make your life a hell of a lot easier, improve your health and even save you some money—if you’re smart about it.

These probably aren’t the supplements you expect though, and you might not be taking them for the reasons you expect either. Us ectomorphs need to supplement a little differently. So we’ve put together a protocol. We aren’t just recommending supplements, we’re recommending a specific combination of supplements taken at particular times that work incredibly well for strength training ectomorphs looking to build muscle and stay lean.

July 11, 2012 166 Comments

No Need to be a Freak to get a Superhero Physique—Just Eat like Clark Kent

by Shane Duquette and it's about ectomorph nutrition

I had coffee a few weeks back with a good friend of mine from Montreal. I had just finished a couple months of the Bony to Beastly program, and I’d put on 20ish pounds of muscle since she last saw me. She was wowed by my progress and told me I looked a Hell of a lot stronger. My physical health was obviously not a problem, but she was worried that I was headed down the road to obsession. She knows that I barely train 3 hours per week, so there’s obviously no obsessive behaviour there. But she also knows that I’m extremely fascinated by the role that nutrition plays with fat loss, health and building muscle—especially for us ectomorphs. So, despite the fact that we had just finished pouring rum into our coffees, she was concerned that I was developing an obsession with eating healthy foods and only healthy foods.

The interesting thing is that eating healthy and only healthy foods can actually hinder your results. Many people struggle to build muscle, lose fat, love life, and accomplish their goals because they place too much emphasis on “healthy” eating. The true secret to becoming superhuman isn’t to eat superfoods, it’s to eat “Clark Kent” foods—everyday foods that will give you superhuman results.

Curious?

June 18, 2012 9 Comments

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