Squeezing the muscles during light workouts with a band seems to build strength just as well as heavy lifting — and this works just as well for older adults as it does for younger ones.

New lifters of all ages and genders get stronger faster with heavy weights than with light weights and blood flow restriction — no matter how long they train or whether they're male or female.

Squeezing the blood flow while lifting light weights seems to build just as much strength as lifting heavy weights, at least for healthy adults from their 20s to 80s.

BFR training doesn't make you stronger at lifting your heaviest weight — it helps with endurance and muscle size, but not with max strength tests like a one-rep max.

After six weeks of light weightlifting with blood flow restriction, older adults got stronger and could do more repetitions before getting tired.

For people who exercise casually but aren’t trained, doing light weightlifting with blood flow restriction helps grow fast-twitch muscle fibers almost as much as lifting heavy weights — and after 6 weeks, the difference between the two isn’t big enough to matter.