For young women, doing resistance training with lighter weights for 10 weeks can build leg strength just as well as training with heavier weights, with strength gains around 10-16%.

For young women, doing lighter weightlifting for 10 weeks can build leg muscle just as well as heavier lifting, with muscle growth between 3% and 12%.

For women new to weight training, doing either many lighter reps or fewer heavier reps for 8 weeks gives about the same muscle growth in the thigh muscles, showing both methods work well for beginners.

When women who haven't trained before do weightlifting for 8 weeks, they get much stronger (27-43% stronger) but their muscles don't grow much (only 3-4% bigger), showing that getting stronger happens faster than building bigger muscles at the start.

If young guys who’ve never lifted weights before do regular strength training twice a week for two months using moderate weights, their thigh muscles get bigger and stronger—whether or not they use special bands to restrict blood flow.

For young women, lifting lighter weights can be just as good as lifting heavier ones for building muscle and getting stronger, as long as you do the same total amount of work.