Your brain's signals to your muscles might affect how much they grow when you lift weights — so how well your nervous system works could change how good your workout routine is at building muscle.

If you're trying to build muscle with weight training, checking how your nerves talk to your muscles might help explain why some workouts work better than others.

Your brain and how tired your body gets during weight training might affect how much your muscles grow — so it's not just about the muscles themselves.

Even though your muscles get bigger and fire more during weight training, those changes don’t explain why you get stronger at dynamic movements but not static holds—something else, like how your brain coordinates the movement, is more important.

Getting stronger from lifting weights doesn’t always mean your muscles are getting bigger—and vice versa. Strength and size don’t go hand in hand.

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.