Doing light weight training with restricted blood flow can still make your arm muscles grow bigger — and it doesn’t cause swelling or damage, according to a 3-week study on people’s biceps.

If you're new to lifting weights and do bicep curls with heavy weights, then wrap your arm tightly after exercising, you might end up with slightly less muscle growth in your upper arm compared to not wrapping it at all.

You can build muscle just as well by lifting light weights with your blood partially squeezed off, as you can by lifting heavy weights—so maybe it’s not the weight itself that matters most, but how much your muscles burn and swell up.

Doing heavy weightlifting with your legs squeezed to restrict blood flow doesn't make your muscles grow more than just doing heavy weightlifting normally — at least not for most people who haven't trained before.

When you do blood flow restriction training—like wearing tight bands on your arms or legs while lifting light weights—you build muscle mainly because your muscles fire harder and earlier, not because of the burn or buildup of waste products.

If you're new to lifting weights, adding blood flow restriction after your workout won't make your muscles grow any more than just lifting weights by itself—even if you do the same amount of work.