When people lift weights without going all the way to exhaustion, using machines that force a set speed might make fast lifting look better—but that’s because those machines don’t act like real free weights or gym machines we usually use.

Whether you lift weights slowly or quickly, you’re probably not going to build more muscle with one over the other — the difference is so tiny it doesn’t really matter.

Whether you lift weights slowly or quickly, you’re probably not going to build more muscle with one over the other — the difference is so tiny it doesn’t really matter in real life.

Lifting weights fast or slow doesn’t really make a difference in how much your muscles grow — the tiny difference you might see is so small it probably doesn’t matter.

How fast or slow you lift and lower weights probably doesn’t make much difference in how much muscle you build—but it might matter a little depending on whether you’re pushing down, pulling up, working a specific body part, or going all the way to exhaustion.

How fast or slow you lift and lower weights probably doesn’t make much difference in building muscle—unless you’re doing something very specific, but we’re not sure what that is yet.