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.

If you lift weights without pushing yourself to total exhaustion, you might get stronger faster—especially if you end up doing more total lifts overall compared to people who do go all the way to failure.

If you lift weights until you can’t do another rep or stop before that—as long as you do the same total amount of work—you’ll get just as strong either way. You don’t have to push to absolute exhaustion to build strength.

If you lift weights until you can't do another rep, you might build more muscle than if you stop before reaching that point—but we’re not totally sure yet.

If you're already experienced with weightlifting, pushing your muscles to failure might help them grow bigger—but if you're new to lifting, doing the same thing doesn't seem to give you the same benefit. Your experience level changes how effective this technique is.

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.