Push / Pull / Legs
The program for skinny guys who want real size and strength, at the gym or at home.
Manga training · Home or gym
Skinny to strong. Every rule backed by a study.
Free training programs for beginners who want real size and strength, explained like a manga chapter: one body part at a time, every exercise drawn, and every rule tied to a published study you can check yourself.
Who it's for
For skinny beginners who want to get strong
You've trained for less than a year, or without a plan. You want a bigger chest, back, arms and legs. You train at a gym, or at home with a backpack, two bands and a pull-up bar. Ryu Training gives you a full program, shows every move, and tells you why each rule is there.
No supplements to sell, no "30 days to abs". Just the training rules that held up in studies, and the work.
The rule of the channel
Every rule backed by a study
Every study we cite was checked on PubMed, and every citation links to it. A few of the rules they support:
Hard sets build muscle
Each extra weekly set was linked to about 0.37% more muscle growth across 15 studies [Schoenfeld et al. 2017], with diminishing returns [Pelland et al. 2026].
Failure isn't required
Stopping 1–2 reps short of failure grew the quads as much as going to failure in 18 trained lifters [Refalo et al. 2024].
Adding reps counts
Adding reps at the same weight worked as well as adding weight over 8 weeks [Plotkin et al. 2022].
Push-ups work
Push-ups taken near failure grew the chest +22%, close to a light bench press (+26%) [Kikuchi & Nakazato 2017].
Free PDF programs
Three free programs
The full program is on each page: days, exercises, sets, reps, rest and effort. The PDF, with every move drawn and a training log, is free for your email.
Upper / Lower
Four sessions a week, every muscle trained twice. The best balance of results and recovery for most people.
5-Day Split
One body part a day: chest, back, shoulders, arms, legs. Long, focused sessions, with an honest look at the trade-off.
Which one should I pick?
Train like your favorite hero
Anime workouts
What the series actually show, what the studies say, and a version a real beginner can follow.
Saitama workout
Saitama's workout from One-Punch Man, with sources: 100 push-ups, sit-ups and squats plus a 10 km run. What studies say, and a plan you can follow.
Baki workout
A Baki workout you can actually follow: what we could and couldn't source from the manga, what studies say, and a 3-day program for home or gym.
On YouTube
Latest videos
Skinny Arms? You're Training The Wrong Muscle
Your triceps is about 2.6 times bigger than your biceps, and most skinny guys only do curls. Your upper arm is three muscles: here's how to grow each one, with what the studies actually measured (sources below).
How To Force Your Legs To Grow
Squats are the king of leg day, but they miss one muscle in the front and almost the whole back. Your legs are four muscle groups: here's how to grow all four, with one rule that ties them together. Every claim comes from a study (sources below).
Follow the training arc
New videos every week on YouTube, routines to save on Instagram.
Ryu is a fictional character, and the illustrations and voices are AI-generated. The advice comes from published research. Not medical advice: if something hurts, stop.
References
Every study below was checked on PubMed. Results in short, as the studies report them; most were done on young adults, often beginners.
- Kikuchi N, Nakazato K (2017). Low-load bench press and push-up induce similar muscle hypertrophy and strength gain. J Exerc Sci Fit. PMID 29541130.18 untrained men, 8 weeks: push-ups grew the chest +22% vs +26% for a light bench press, and the triceps +10.5% vs +5.7% (table 1 of the full text).
- Pelland JC et al. (2026). The Resistance Training Dose Response: Meta-Regressions Exploring the Effects of Weekly Volume and Frequency. Sports Med. PMID 41343037.67 studies, 2,058 people: more weekly sets meant more growth, with diminishing returns. Training a muscle more often added strength, but its effect on size was compatible with zero.
- Plotkin D et al. (2022). Progressive overload without progressing load? The effects of load or repetition progression on muscular adaptations. PeerJ. PMID 36199287.43 trained people, 8 weeks: adding reps at the same weight worked as well as adding weight.
- Refalo MC et al. (2024). Similar muscle hypertrophy following eight weeks of resistance training to momentary muscular failure or with repetitions-in-reserve. J Sports Sci. PMID 38393985.18 trained lifters, 8 weeks: stopping 1-2 reps short of failure grew the quads as much as going to failure.
- Schoenfeld BJ et al. (2017). Dose-response relationship between weekly resistance training volume and increases in muscle mass. J Sports Sci. PMID 27433992.15 studies: each extra weekly set was linked to about 0.37% more muscle growth.