If you take it easy on your weight workouts for a little while during an 8-week training program, you won’t lose much of your strength gains—you’ll still get stronger.

If you take it easy on your weight workouts for a little while during an 8-week training plan, your arm and thigh muscles will still grow just as much as if you kept going full force.

If two groups of young men lift weights with the same total effort but one rests longer with heavier weights and the other rests briefly with lighter weights, they both get just as strong after 8 weeks—even though you’d think the heavy weights would win.

If you do weight training with a break every few weeks to go lighter, you’ll build muscle and get stronger just as much as if you kept pushing hard the whole time — at least for guys who’ve never trained before.

If you take a one-week break from lifting weights halfway through a 9-week workout plan, you might lose a little bit of your strength gains in your legs, but your muscles won’t shrink any more than if you kept going, and your endurance and power won’t be affected.

Lifting heavy weights for 10 weeks makes you stronger, no matter how long you rest between sets or how many reps you do, as long as you’re lifting around 80% of your max.