Doing slow, low-intensity weight training twice a week for about three months can build muscle and strength almost as well as fast, heavy lifting in young men who don't normally exercise.

Doing gentle weight training slowly twice a week for 13 weeks makes young men's muscles about 7% bigger and 33% stronger, almost as much as regular heavy lifting, which made muscles 9% bigger and 41% stronger.

Slow, low-effort weight training keeps your muscles working hard and starves them of oxygen more than fast, heavy lifting, which might help build muscle and strength just as well by stressing the muscles in a different way.

Doing slow, gentle weight training can build muscle and make you just as strong as lifting heavy weights quickly.

Lifting lighter weights can build just as much muscle as lifting heavy weights in beginners over 12 weeks, even if you do fewer total reps.

If young men lift light weights with very short breaks between sets for 8 weeks, their upper arms grow more than if they lift heavy weights with long breaks—even if they do the same total amount of lifting—because the short breaks create more muscle-burning stress that helps muscles grow bigger.