If you’ve never lifted weights before, you can get stronger by doing either light or heavy weights — as long as you push each set until you can’t do another rep.

Women who had never lifted weights before got stronger in their arms and legs after doing 12 weeks of lifting light or heavy weights to exhaustion — and both ways made them just as strong.

Even though your body releases similar growth hormones after light workouts whether you rest a little or a lot, you still get stronger and bigger muscles either way.

Lifting heavy weights for 10 weeks makes you stronger, no matter how long you rest between sets or how many reps you do, as long as you’re lifting around 80% of your max.

Working out with weights three times a week for 10 weeks makes you better at doing more reps — but how much better depends on whether you used heavy or light weights.

Doing light weight exercises until you can't do any more for 8 weeks won't make your arms stronger or more powerful if you're new to lifting — you probably need to lift heavier or move faster to see real gains.