Muscle-Building for Skinny Guys
If you're a skinny dude who wants to build muscle, gain strength, and get fit, I think you'd love our newsletter. It kicks off with a 5-part series that covers:
- How to train for muscle growth
- How to gain weight as a skinny guy
- How to thrive with skinny genetics
- How to get stronger, healthier, and better looking
After that, we'll send you 1–2 newsletters per month to keep you updated on the latest muscle-building research and methods.
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We Help Hardgainers, Skinny & Skinny-Fat Guys Bulk Up
For the past 14 years, we've specialized in helping skinny guys build muscle, get strong, and gain weight. People say it's a small niche, but if this bulk goes according to plan, we'll soon be the biggest community 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 thin strength coach who'd 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. We've helped over 10,000 skinny people build muscle, with clients ranging from college students to senior citizens, MDs to PhDs, and office workers all way the way up to college, professional, and Olympic athletes.
The proof is in the smoothie, too. We consistently get the best bulking transformations on the internet. Check out these muscle-building transformations from guys doing the Bony to Beastly Program.
Bigger, Stronger, & Fitter
Bony guys are defined by their scaffolding. We're here to help you fill out that frame with muscle, reaping all the long-term health and fitness benefits as you bulk up.
- Maybe you're a "hardgainer," where no matter how much you eat, you can't gain weight. You aren't crazy. There's genetic variation in stomach size, appetite, and metabolism. Many of us are genetically predisposed to thinness. We need to find a diet that suits us.
- Maybe you're an "ectomorph," with thinner wrists and narrower shoulders, worried your frame can't support muscle growth. We had that same fear. It isn't true. Thin guys tend to be able to build muscle faster than other body types.
- Maybe you're skinny-fat, getting bigger and smaller without ever getting leaner or stronger. That's frustrating. You're one of the rare few who eats the right amount of food, yet it's being stored as fat instead of muscle. We need to reverse that, and we can.
We're the Costco of muscle. You can find anything you want, but everything is in bulk. We write about how to eat a healthy weight-gain diet, how to train for muscle size, and how to live a lifestyle that supports muscle, strength, and overall fitness.
If you want us to walk you through the entire process of bulking up, check out our Bony to Beastly Program. We'll teach you everything you need to know, including diet, training, and lifestyle. We'll answer all your questions, give you feedback along the way, and support you through every step of the process.
We've also written hundreds of free articles about how to build muscle, eat a good diet, and live a healthy lifestyle. Feel free to drop a comment. I answer all of them.
Thin Genetics
Thin guys often have different genetics, giving us different struggles and goals and influencing how we eat, lift, and live.
- Why Are We Naturally Skinny?
- Why is it so Hard to Gain Weight?
- How Fast Can Skinny People Build Muscle?
- Do Skinny People Have Bad Muscle-Building Genetics?
- Do Skinny People Have Faster Metabolisms?
- Can You Be Skinny and Strong?
- How to Know If You're Skinny
- Is the "Ectomorph" Body Type Real?
- What Is Skinny Fatness?
- The Best Skinny Fat Workout, Diet, and Lifestyle
- Should Skinny Guys Use Mass Gainers?
The Art of Bulking
The only way to get bigger is to gain weight. The best way to gain weight is to prioritize muscle growth—to bulk. Nobody knows bulking better than we do.
- How to Bulk
- How to Dirty Bulk
- How to Clean Bulk
- How to Maingain
- What Are Newbie Gains?
- Does Bulking Make You Fat?
- How to Build Muscle FAST
- How to Build Muscle LEANLY
- How to Count Macros
- What's the Best Way to Bulk Up?
- How Long Should You Bulk For?
- What Bulking Results Can You Expect?
- How Long Does it Take to Gain 20 Pounds?
- How Fast Should Skinny Guys Gain Weight?
- Why You Can't Trust DEXA Scans or BIA Scales
- How to Know if You're Gaining Muscle or Fat
- Why Aren't You Gaining Weight in a Calorie Surplus?
- The Best Muscle-Building Programs for Skinny Guys
How to Train Your Muscles
One of the best ways to improve your results is to improve your training. The more muscle growth you can stimulate, the more calories your muscles will gobble up, leaving fewer to store as body fat. We'll show you how to stimulate more growth.
Plus, you may want to develop a certain muscle. Perhaps you're tired of having a thin neck, lanky arms, or a small chest. The best way to develop a specific muscle is to train it. We'll show you how.
- The Best Workout Routine for Skinny Beginners
- The Full-Body Workout Guide
- The Dumbbell Workout Guide
- The Best Workout Splits for Building Muscle
- How Many Sets to Do Per Muscle
- How Many Reps to Do Per Set
- How Long to Rest Between Sets
- How Often to Lift Weights
- How Fast to Lift & Lower Weights
- How to Build Broader Shoulders
- How to Train Your Side Delts
- 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
- How to Build a Bigger Jaw
How to Eat a Good Diet
It isn't hard to learn about how to eat a nutritious diet. However, most of that advice is for overweight people struggling to lose weight. We have the opposite problem. We need an abundant diet that's rich in calories and nutrients, supporting our health and muscle growth.
- How to Eat a Good Bulking Diet
- The Best Bulking Meals & Recipes
- How to Improve Digestion While Bulking
- How Many Calories Does it Take to Gain Weight
- How to Eat More Calories
- The Best Bulking Foods
- How to Make a Healthy, High-Calorie Bulking Smoothie
- How Much Protein Should You Eat at Breakfast?
- Is Intermittent Fasting Good For Building Muscle?
- Is Keto Good for Building Muscle?
How to Build Muscle at Home
Gyms are great, but you can build just as much muscle at home. I've bulked with adjustable dumbbells in my small apartment. Now I lift weights in my barbell home gym. In a pinch, you can even bulk with bodyweight workouts. You can use whatever you have, but be smart about it.
- How to Build a Dumbbell Home Gym
- How to Build a Barbell Home Gym
- How to Build Muscle with Bodyweight Workouts
- Calisthenics vs Weights for Building Muscle
- Are Resistance Bands Good for Building Muscle?
How to Improve Your Appearance
I've surveyed thousands of women to see what they say they prefer. I've also surveyed thousands of men to see what gives the best real-world results. And I've spoken with the world's leading researchers on attractiveness to ensure the science is sound.
- The Ideal Male Body According to Women
- How to Build an Aesthetic Physique
- The V-Taper Physique Myth
- The Myth of the Gymcel
- How Important is Height?
- Do Women Like Guys Who Take Steroids?
How to Get Leaner, Fitter & Healthier
All of our articles consider health and fitness. We're not in the bodybuilding or powerlifting scene. We're part of the fitness industry. We're natural lifters who want to be strong, fit, and healthy. Still, there are two things naturally thin guys need to know:
- How to Cut
- Is Cutting Healthy?
- Is Bulking Healthy?
- How to Switch from Bulking to Cutting
- Should You Do Cardio While Bulking?
- Can Cardio Kill Muscle Gains?
- How to Maintain Your Gains After Bulking
- How to Estimate Your Body Fat Percentage
Muscle-Building Supplements
Supplements are overrated but helpful. We don't sell supplements or use any affiliate links, keeping our supplement recommendations as unbiased as possible.
- The Best Muscle-Building Supplements for Skinny Guys
- Does Turkesterone Work? Explaining the Scam
- How Well Does Creatine Actually Work?
- The Creatine Guide for Skinny Guys
- Can Collagen Help You Build Muscle?
- How Much Protein Powder Can You Have Per Day?
- The Best Time to Have a Protein Shake
Muscle Calculators & Workout Templates
- Google Sheet Workout Template: This is a 3-day, full-body, customizable workout template programmed into Google Sheets. You can choose your exercises from dropdown menus, track how much weight you're lifting, how many reps you're getting, and compare your progress from week to week. The exercises link to 150 of our exercise tutorial videos.
- Ideal Weight & Muscle Measurements Calculator: This calculator asks for your height, wrist circumference, and goal body fat percentage, then it tells you your ideal body weight and muscle measurements.
- Natural Muscular Potential Calculator: This calculator uses your height, wrist circumference, and ankle circumference to estimate how big you can build your muscles.
- Bulking Calorie Calculator: This calculator lets you pick how leanly or aggressively you want to bulk, includes macronutrient recommendations, and has an option for hardgainers (who have especially hellish metabolisms).
- Cutting Calorie Calculator: This calculator lets you pick how quickly you want to lose weight, includes macronutrient recommendations, and is optimized for gaining/maintaining muscle.
- Body Recomposition Calorie Calculator: This calculator gives you recommendations that will help you build muscle and burn fat at the same time.
- At-Home Body Fat Percentage Calculator (Navy Method): This method accounts for muscle growth, making it the easiest and best way to monitor your body fat percentage if you lift weights. All you need is a measuring tape.
- FFMI calculator: FFMI is like BMI except that it measures lean mass. It's how bodybuilders compare their muscularity with one another. An "athletic" FFMI is good enough for most people, though.
- How Skinny is Too Skinny? This calculator takes your height and weight and tells you how much (if any) weight you should gain to improve your health and appearance.
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 Articles
Do Skinny People Have Bad Muscle-Building Genetics?
I think it’s important to talk honestly about muscle-building genetics. I don’t mean that in a pessimistic “blackpill” way. Every skinny person can build muscle. I’m naturally skinny. So is Marco. We’ve each gained around 70 pounds. And over the past decade, we’ve worked with over ten thousand skinny clients,…
Bulking Diet Plan: How to Eat for Muscle Growth
This bulking diet guide covers everything you need to know about eating for muscle growth. This is how bodybuilders have traditionally bulked up, how athletes gain lean mass, and what modern science shows is the most effective way to fuel muscle growth. Cassandra used this diet to gain over twenty…
How Often Should You Train Each Muscle Group?
Training each muscle group 2–4 times per week can maximize muscle growth while keeping your risk of overuse injuries low. But that isn’t the only way to train. Some workout programs train each muscle group once per week. Some recent research suggests those routines can be just as effective. Or…
Why Aren’t You Gaining Weight in a Calorie Surplus?
You used a bulking calorie calculator, which told you how many calories you needed to gain weight. Then, you meticulously tracked your calories for several weeks, logging every single food that went into your mouth. And yet, somehow, you haven’t gained any weight. Or perhaps you gained weight during the…
High-Calorie, High-Protein Vegan Bulking Meal Plan (With Recipes)
We’ve already covered whether vegan diets are good for building muscle and explained how to bulk on a plant-based diet. Now, let’s give you a full meal plan, complete with recipes and macros. All of these recipes are nutritious, high in calories, and high in protein. You might worry you…
The Vertical Diet: Full Overview & Review
The Vertical Diet is a bulking diet designed to help people get bigger, stronger, and fitter. It’s supposed to make it easier to eat enough food to gain weight, thus supporting muscle growth and strength gains. The diet is especially popular with professional bodybuilders and strongmen who use performance-enhancing drugs.…
What’s the Best Way to Bulk Up?
There are a few different ways to bulk. You could bulk dirty or cleanly, aggressive or leanly, or anywhere in between. I’ll explain the pros and each so that you can pick the style of bulking that’s best for you. We’ve been helping people bulk up for over a decade…
The Best High-Calorie Bulking Meals (With Recipes)
One of our most popular articles is about how to eat a good bulking diet. It covers all the most important principles—how to choose nutritious foods, what macros to aim for, how to calculate your calorie needs, how to adjust those calories based on your results (or lack thereof), and…
Can You Build Muscle on a Vegan Diet?
There’s been some drama about a study by Pinckaers and colleagues. It found that plant-based protein wasn’t as good as animal protein for stimulating muscle protein synthesis. This is just one of many studies, and a larger meta-analysis found that plant-based protein sources stimulate muscle-protein synthesis just fine. The latest…
If 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.