Everyone can build muscle with consistent strength training over time — if you didn’t gain muscle once, it’s probably not your genes, just that specific training phase didn’t work for you.

Just because someone doesn't gain muscle in one workout phase doesn't mean they never will—everyone eventually gains muscle with enough training over time.

If you lift weights until you can't do another rep or stop a little earlier—but do the same total amount of work—your muscles will grow and get just as strong either way. So you don’t have to push to absolute failure to see results.

Lifting weights helps people build bigger, stronger muscles, probably because it makes their muscles produce more protein and release helpful signaling molecules that help them grow and work better.

Even though lifting weights makes your muscles bigger and more active, those changes don’t explain why you get stronger—meaning something else, like how your nerves coordinate movement, might be more important.

Doing varied weight workouts might hurt your muscles a little less than doing the same routine over and over—but you still gain just as much muscle, meaning you don’t need to feel wrecked to get stronger.