When men lift weights, doing more reps with lighter weights (like 12 reps max) gives less strength improvement than doing fewer reps with heavier weights (like 4 or 8 reps max), even if the total workout effort is the same.

When beginners lift weights for 10 weeks, doing fewer reps with heavier weights (like 4 or 8 reps max) builds more strength than doing more reps with lighter weights (12 reps max), even if the total work is the same.

Lifting weights in a certain way (doing 4 sets of 8 reps) gives the same muscle and strength benefits as another method (7 sets of 4 reps) in young men who are new to training, but it takes almost half the time per workout.

If you do the same total amount of weightlifting work, lifting heavier weights fewer times or lighter weights more times gives men about the same muscle growth.

When people lift lighter weights many times (12 reps max), their muscles get bigger and that's why they get stronger. But when lifting heavier weights fewer times (4-8 reps max), their strength comes more from their brain and nerves learning to use muscles better, not from bigger muscles.

Lifting heavy weights for just a few reps makes untrained young men much stronger than doing more reps with lighter weights, especially after 8 weeks of training.