Muscle-Building for Skinny Guys
by Skinny Guys
We Help Hardgainers, Skinny & Skinny-Fat Guys Bulk Up
For the past ten years, we've specialized in helping so-called hardgainers, ectomorphs, skinny-fat, and regular skinny guys build muscle, get strong, and gain weight. People say it's a small niche. And they're right, it is. But give us a little more time. If this bulk goes according to plan, we'll soon be the biggest, most muscular niche on the internet.
I'm Shane Duquette, and I gained 55 pounds in a little over two years. I was lucky. I had the help of my business partner, Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS, PN, a naturally skinny strength coach who had already gained 63 pounds. We also helped our other business partner, Jared Polowick, gain 50 pounds. Not all of the weight we gained was muscle, but the vast majority of it was, and all of us finished looking leaner than when we started.
And then we founded Bony to Beastly (for skinny men), Bony to Bombshell (for skinny women), and Outlift (for post-skinny lifters), where we've spent the past ten years helping over 10,000 skinny people build muscle, with clients ranging from MDs to RDs to PhDs, from college students to senior citizens, and from office workers to our Canadian Olympic rugby team.
The proof is in the protein shake, too. Check out these absolutely gnarly muscle-building transformations from guys doing the Bony to Beastly Program.
How to Build Muscle, The Skinny Way
If you've been surfing the world wide web, searching for how to build muscle as a naturally skinny dude, hoping to find community, muscle, and everlasting abs—welcome! That's what we're all about.
- If you're a so-called hardgainer, where no matter how much you eat, you find it nigh impossible to gain weight, we hear ya. We've got an article on why it's so hard for us to gain weight.
- If you've got an "ectomorph" body type, with thinner wrists and narrower shoulders, and you worry that you won't ever be able to become visibly strong, we had that same fear. Fortunately, we actually tend to build muscle pretty well, especially while making our newbie gains.
- If you're skinny-fat, getting bigger and smaller without ever getting leaner or stronger, we've been there, and we can help you escape the skinny-fat trap.
- Or if you're just a regular dude who wishes he wasn't quite so thin, we can help you bulk up. That's what we do best, and we do it better than anyone else.
People call us the Costco of muscle. You can find anything you want, but everything is in bulk. We write about things like how to eat more calories, how to eat a good bulking diet, how to lift for maximal muscle growth, and how to make homemade weight gainers. You know, topics that skinny guys are interested in.
On being a skinny dude:
- What's an Ectomorph? Is That Even a Real Term?
- How Much of an Ectomorph Are You?
- How Fast Should Skinny Guys Gain Weight?
On training for muscle size, strength, and aesthetics:
- A Skinny Beginner's Guide to Lifting Weights
- How to Build an Attractive, Aesthetic Physique
- How to Build Broader Shoulders
- How to Build A Thicker Neck
- How to Build A Bigger Chest
- How to Build Bigger Arms
- How to Build Bigger Forearms
- The Skinny Guy's Guide to Getting Abs
- How Much Do Your Legs Impact Your Appearance?
On eating for lean muscle growth:
- The Conventional Bulking Diet Guide
- How to Eat More Calories
- The Best Bulking Foods
- Is Intermittent Fasting Good For Building Muscle?
- Is Keto Good for Building Muscle?
On training at home:
- How to Build Muscle with Bodyweight Workouts
- How to Build a Dumbbell Home Gym
- How to Build a Barbell Home Gym
- Are Resistance Bands Good for Building Muscle?
On fitness and health:
Kick back, relax, and enjoy some moderately heavy reading. We'll teach you everything you need to know to go from lean to mean, from stick to thick, from Bony to Beastly.
Our Recent Bulking Articles
The Bulking Guide for Skinny Beginners
In this guide, we’ll teach you how to bulk up, even if you’re skinny, and even if you’re a total beginner. This is our specialty. We’ve spent the past decade helping over ten thousand skinny guys build muscle. Marco is a strength coach with a Health Science degree, and he…
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The Full-Body Workout Guide for Beginners
If you’re a beginner, 3-day full-body workout routines are perfect for gaining muscle mass and strength. They’re also incredibly good for your health. Once you reach an intermediate level, they remain great, but a few more good options open up. Until then, full-body workouts are the best. There’s nothing better.…
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How to Train Your Back Muscles
Our backs are made up of layers of overlapping muscles, all of which can work together, but all of which have different functions. Even within the same back muscle, there can be different regions that respond better to different exercise variations. For example, your upper lats have a slightly different…
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The Cutting Guide: How to Burn Fat While Building A Bit of Muscle
Cutting is when you burn fat while keeping your muscle. You may even be able to gain a bit of muscle while cutting, especially if you’re overweight, out of shape, or new to lifting weights. Whether you’re bulking or cutting, the goal is to be strong, muscular, lean, and healthy.…
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Hollywood Bulking Transformations ARE Realistic for Skinny Guys
There are a ton of articles talking about how Hollywood body transformations are unrealistic. There’s some truth in that. Most guys are overweight. For them, even just dieting down to a healthy body-fat percentage can be surprisingly difficult. Most Hollywood transformations are coming at it from the other side, though.…
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The Grey Truth About Skinny Muscle-Building Genetics
There’s a war raging in the natural muscle-building community. The white warriors are fed up with nihilistic blackpill hardgainers who give up on building muscle before they even start. They argue we should set lofty goals and fight to accomplish them, genetics be damned. After all, they started off skinny,…
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Should Skinny Guys Get Strong to Get Big?
A bigger muscle is a stronger muscle. If you want to get big, you’ve got to get strong. That was the main bulking dogma when I was first trying to bulk up, but I didn’t understand it properly, and my results left me feeling confused. Everyone was preaching some variation…
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How Long Should You Rest Between Sets to Build Muscle?
Rest times are often brushed aside. You’ll hear that they matter, sure, but that they aren’t one of the more important factors—that they’ll only have a negligible impact on your muscle growth. That’s not necessarily true. If we look at the research, using proper rest times can double your muscle…
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Does the Mind-Muscle Connection Actually Increase Muscle Growth?
Most bodybuilders absolutely swear by the mind-muscle connection. They slow their reps down, really focusing on squeezing the target muscle, feeling it do the work. The idea is that the better their connection with the muscle is, the better they’ll be able to engage their muscle fibers, and so the…
Read MoreIf none of these articles tickle your fancy, we've got dozens more.
Or if you're ready to start building muscle, check out our bulking program.