Lifting weights close to failure helps build more muscle the closer you get, but it doesn’t seem to matter as much for getting stronger—so the best way to grow muscles might not be the best way to get stronger.

If you lift weights and push your muscles closer to total exhaustion, you’ll likely gain more muscle size than if you stop earlier — even when doing the same number of sets and reps.

When you lift weights and push yourself almost to the point of not being able to do another rep, you’re more likely to build bigger muscles than if you stop earlier — even if you’re lifting the same weight or doing the same number of sets.

If you lift weights until you're almost too tired to do another rep, you'll likely build bigger muscles—but your strength gains won't be any better than if you stopped earlier, as long as you're doing the same total amount of work and lifting the same weight.

You don’t need to push your muscles to absolute exhaustion to grow them—working them pretty hard (but not all the way to failure) might give you just as much muscle growth as going all out.

Muscle size and strength don’t respond the same way to more training—strength peaks faster, so adding more sets helps muscle growth longer than it helps strength.