Muscle-Building for Skinny Guys
by Skinny Guys
We Help Hardgainers, Skinny & Skinny-Fat Guys Bulk Up
For the past 12 years, we've specialized in helping skinny guys build muscle, get strong, and gain weight. People say it's a small niche. But give us a little more time. If this bulk goes according to plan, we'll soon be the biggest 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 60 pounds. We also helped our other business partner, Jared Polowick, gain 50 pounds.
We're the founders of Bony to Beastly (for skinny men), Bony to Bombshell (for skinny women), and Outlift (for post-skinny people). We've spent the past 12 years helping over 10,000 skinny people build muscle, with clients ranging from college students to senior citizens, from MDs to PhDs, and from office workers to professional athletes.
The proof is in the protein shake, too. Check out these muscle-building transformations from guys doing the Bony to Beastly Program. We consistently get our clients the same results we did. Sometimes better.
The Skinny on Building Muscle
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 get it. We're the same. 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. We can guide you out of the dreaded skinny-fat labyrinth.
- 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, and how to lift for maximal muscle growth.
On being a skinny dude:
- What's an Ectomorph? Is That Even a Real Term?
- How Fast Should Skinny Guys Gain Weight?
- The Best Bulking Programs for Skinny Guys
On Stimulating Muscle Growth:
- How to Bulk Aggressively (to Build Muscle Fast)
- How to Bulk Leanly (But More Slowly)
- A Skinny Beginner's Guide to Lifting Weights
- The Full-Body Workout Guide
- How to Build an Attractive Physique
On Training Different Muscles
- How to Build Broader Shoulders
- How to Build a Thicker Neck
- How to Build a Bigger Chest
- How to Build a Bigger Back
- How to Build Bigger Arms
- How to Build Bigger Forearms
- How to Build Bigger Abs
On eating a Good Bulking Diet:
- How to Eat a Bulking Diet
- How to Eat More Calories
- The Best Bulking Foods
- Is Intermittent Fasting Good For Building Muscle?
- Is Keto Good for Building Muscle?
- The Best Bulking Supplements for Skinny Guys
- Should Skinny Guys Use Mass Gainers?
On Building Muscle 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 Aggressive Bulking Guide: How to Build Muscle FAST
If you’re a skinny guy desperate to bulk up fast, I get it. I remember hungering not for food but for muscle. I was too eager to heed any of the many warnings. I bulked up as fast as I possibly could. And to my great surprise, it worked. I…
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The Skinny Guy’s Guide to Bulking Supplements
Over 5,000 shares and 500 comments later, here’s our revised supplement guide for skinny guys trying to build muscle in time for last summer. We’ll cover supplements that speed up muscle growth, such as creatine. We’ll review supplements that help skinny guys bulk up, like mass gainers. We’ll talk about pre-workout…
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The Best Bulking Programs for Skinny Guys in 2023 (Critically Reviewed)
In this article, we’re reviewing the five best bulking programs for skinny guys. To get this list, we started by surveying our readers, the vast majority of whom have successfully bulked up. They’re naturally skinny, they’ve tried different bulking programs, and they know firsthand what worked for them. From there,…
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Are You Too Old to Bulk? How Does Age Affect Muscle Growth?
How old is too old to bulk? Can older guys build muscle as quickly as younger ones? We can start by looking at the research that initially shocked hypertrophy researchers, then gradually became conventional wisdom. Next, we can look at what we’ve seen while helping over ten thousand skinny guys…
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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.…
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.
