If young guys who’ve never lifted weights before do regular strength training twice a week for two months using moderate weights, their thigh muscles get bigger and stronger—whether or not they use special bands to restrict blood flow.

If you lift heavy weights with a special band that cuts off some blood flow, it doesn’t make your muscles stronger or bigger than just lifting heavy weights alone—even though your muscles feel more burned.

Lifting weights (3 sets of 8 reps at 80% of your max) three times a week for six weeks can increase the thickness of thigh muscles in young men who haven't trained before by about 2.9%.

When lifting heavy weights, doing more total reps and sets (higher volume) makes your muscles grow bigger, even if you rest less between sets.

Lifting heavy weights three times a week for six weeks makes untrained young men much stronger than lifting light weights, even though both groups gain about the same amount of muscle size.

If you do heavy weight training for eight weeks, your thigh muscles get stronger—no matter if you use a special band to restrict blood flow after your workout or not.