Just because someone doesn't gain muscle in one workout phase doesn't mean they never will—everyone eventually gains muscle with enough training over time.

Everyone can build muscle with consistent strength training over time — if you didn’t gain muscle once, it’s probably not your genes, just that specific training phase didn’t work for you.

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 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 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.

Lifting weights until you can't do any more reps makes your muscles grow bigger than lifting weights without pushing to your limit, based on a big review of studies.