You can get just as strong by pushing weights up as by lowering them slowly—even if lowering them doesn’t make your muscles sore or damaged.

If you train by lowering weights slowly (eccentric), you’ll get stronger at lowering weights; if you train by lifting weights up (concentric), you’ll get stronger at lifting them up — and this happens no matter how sore your muscles get.

Lifting weights slowly (eccentric) or quickly (concentric) both make your quads stronger in about 10 weeks — and you don’t need to be sore or damaged to get stronger.

If you're already strength-trained and do upper-body workouts for 8 weeks, it doesn't matter much if you lift all the way up and down or just do part of the motion—your muscles grow and get stronger about the same either way.

You can get stronger by doing hard exercises just once a week—even if they’re tough—without your muscles staying damaged or sore.

Using machines or bands that change how hard they feel as you move might make your muscles work more evenly during an exercise, but that doesn’t always mean you’ll grow bigger muscles faster than with regular weights—especially if you’re just starting out.