If you're an experienced lifter stuck in a plateau, doing some sets until you can't lift anymore might help you break through — but only if you do it once in a while. Doing it too much could lead to burnout or overtraining.

If you're someone who already lifts weights regularly, pushing your muscles until they can't do another rep might help you grow slightly bigger muscles than if you stop before reaching failure.

For beginners lifting weights, pushing until you can't do any more reps doesn't give extra strength gains compared to stopping earlier, as long as you do the same total amount of work. Both ways lead to similar improvements in how much you can lift.

If you're an experienced lifter trying to get stronger, building more muscle—like by sometimes pushing your sets to the max—can help boost your strength over time.

You don’t have to push yourself to the absolute limit during strength training to get stronger—studies show you can make similar gains even if you stop a few reps short.

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.