If you lift weights and push your muscles closer to total exhaustion, you’ll likely gain more muscle size than if you stop earlier — even when doing the same number of sets and reps.

When you lift weights and push yourself almost to the point of not being able to do another rep, you’re more likely to build bigger muscles than if you stop earlier — even if you’re lifting the same weight or doing the same number of sets.

Lifting weights close to failure helps build more muscle the closer you get, but it doesn’t seem to matter as much for getting stronger—so the best way to grow muscles might not be the best way to get stronger.

Doing more sets of weightlifting seems to build muscle more reliably than how close you get to failing on each set—whether you stop short or push to exhaustion doesn’t change the muscle growth much if you’re doing the same number of sets.

If you're lifting heavy weights and stop just before your muscles give out, you'll still gain about as much muscle as if you pushed to the very last rep you can possibly do.

If you lift weights until you're almost too tired to do another rep, you'll likely build bigger muscles—but your strength gains won't be any better than if you stopped earlier, as long as you're doing the same total amount of work and lifting the same weight.