Whether the women did 75 reps total or did four sets until they couldn’t do more, their muscles reacted the exact same way—no difference in swelling, strength, or nerve signals.

Surprisingly, right after doing these tough leg exercises with bands, the women got stronger over the next few days—not weaker, as you might expect.

When doing blood flow-restricted exercise, women can do more reps than men before getting too tired, especially in the second, third, and fourth sets of exercise.

When young women do light weightlifting with bands that squeeze their arms or legs, their muscles don’t get better at receiving signals from their brain—but they still get stronger. This means something else, like muscle swelling or chemical changes, must be making them stronger.

After doing leg exercises with tight bands around the thighs, the muscles in the front of the thighs get temporarily puffy right after, but go back to normal by the next day.

If you're a young guy new to weightlifting and you use a blood pressure cuff to restrict blood flow while lifting, it doesn't matter whether you squeeze the cuff while you're pushing the weight up or while you're resting between sets—either way, you'll gain the same amount of strength and muscle.