When trained men lift heavy weights using certain training styles, they spend more time under tension and generate more force per rep than with other styles, which might help them get stronger.

Lifting heavy weights with longer breaks between sets helps build muscle strength better than lifting lighter weights with shorter breaks, especially for guys who already work out.

Lifting heavy weights until you can't lift anymore makes young male athletes much stronger than lifting light weights over 8 weeks, even if both make muscles grow about the same size.

Lifting heavier weights makes you stronger and improves your brain-muscle connection more than lifting lighter weights, even if you do the same total amount of work and build the same muscle size.

If you're already trained in lifting weights, whether you use free weights or machines, you'll get about the same strength gains after 8 weeks—as long as you're lifting the same amount, at the same intensity, and moving through the same range of motion.

If you're a young guy lifting weights more often each week, you'll likely get stronger faster—but that doesn't mean your muscles will get noticeably bigger.