If young men lift weights with the same total effort—whether they use heavy weights with long breaks or light weights with short breaks—they’ll still grow about the same amount of muscle. So, different ways of lifting can both work.

If you lift weights with either light weights and short breaks, or heavy weights and long breaks—but keep the total work the same—you’ll still build muscle in about 8 weeks. So, there’s more than one way to get stronger and bigger muscles.

If young men lift light weights with very short breaks between sets for 8 weeks, their upper arms grow more than if they lift heavy weights with long breaks—even if they do the same total amount of lifting—because the short breaks create more muscle-burning stress that helps muscles grow bigger.

Whether you lift heavy weights with fewer reps or light weights with more reps—as long as you push until you can’t do another rep—your muscles grow about the same amount.

Doing more weightlifting each week helps you build more muscle—but only up to a point. After a certain number of sets, doing even more doesn’t help much more.

Whether you lift light weights with lots of reps or heavy weights with few reps—so long as you push until you can’t do another rep—you’ll build muscle about the same amount.