How We Went From Skinny to Muscular (+70 Pounds of Muscle)

Jared and I were skinny graphic designers. We didn’t know anyone who ate a good diet, lifted weights, or exercised. We didn’t know anyone fit or muscular. But I was clinically underweight and suffering from early signs of cardiovascular disease, and Jared had crippling tendonitis that prevented him from working his desk job.

We didn’t know anything about building muscle. I thought we could gain all the muscle we needed with a 30-day bulking challenge, and I convinced Jared to try it with me. That’s how “Muscle May” began. That’s what inspired our entire Bony to Beastly business.

After 30 days, we’d gained over thirty pounds between us. It was working. We were finally gaining weight! So we doubled down, extending our pact for another three months. By the end of those three months, we’d gained almost 60 pounds of muscle between us. Since then, I’ve gained another 30 pounds.

Here’s the full story of how we went from skinny to muscular.

As a naturally skinny guy, my biggest pet peeve was looking at “muscle-building” transformation photos and seeing buff guys who burned off some fat to reveal the muscle that had been there all along. It’s like Clark Kent taking off his glasses. That’s not a muscle-building transformation; that’s a fat-loss transformation.

With “bulking” transformations, there was a trend of guys losing weight when they went travelling or got sick. They’d take their before photos at these low points. Then they’d regain the muscle they’d lost and call it a skinny-to-muscular transformation. In reality, it was a muscle regrowth transformation.

The most famous celebrity is when Christian Bale bulked up for Batman, regaining the 100 pounds he lost after losing weight for the Machinist:

The most famous bodybuilding example is when Casey Viator got an infection, had an allergic reaction to the medicine he took, and lost dozens of pounds of muscle (while presumably stopping his PEDs). When he started training again (and presumably resumed his PED abuse), he regained the 60 pounds of muscle he’d lost: