If you do weight training with a break every few weeks to go lighter, you’ll build muscle and get stronger just as much as if you kept pushing hard the whole time — at least for guys who’ve never trained before.

If you take it easy on your weight workouts for a little while during an 8-week training program, you won’t lose much of your strength gains—you’ll still get stronger.

If you take a one-week break from lifting weights halfway through a 9-week workout plan, you might lose a little bit of your strength gains in your legs, but your muscles won’t shrink any more than if you kept going, and your endurance and power won’t be affected.

If you take it easy on your weight workouts for a little while during an 8-week training plan, your arm and thigh muscles will still grow just as much as if you kept going full force.

You can get stronger, bigger, and more enduring muscles by doing one tough set followed by lighter ones without resting—faster than doing multiple heavy or light sets.

Taking breaks from intense workouts every few weeks doesn’t reduce your overall training volume or stop you from building muscle in the long run.