Browse evidence-based analysis of health-related claims and assertions
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.
Descriptive
Whether you rest for 1 minute or 3 minutes between sets doesn’t make a difference in muscle growth, as long as you do the same total amount of work.
When lifting heavy weights, doing more total reps and sets (higher volume) makes your muscles grow bigger, even if you rest less between sets.
People did more total reps with their foot pointed up, but that didn’t make their muscles grow bigger or stronger than the leg with the foot pointed down.
After 10 weeks of leg curls, it doesn’t matter if your foot is pointed up or down—you’ll get the same muscle growth and strength gains either way.
Causal
Whether your foot is pointed down or up during leg curls doesn’t change how much your hamstrings are working during the exercise.
Even when people lifted with their muscles stretched 22% more or less, their muscles grew about the same — so you don’t need to go super deep or super shallow to get good growth.
Even though muscles might grow a tiny bit more at the far end when stretched more, it’s so small that it doesn’t really matter in practice — all parts grow about the same.
Doing strength exercises with your muscles stretched more or less doesn’t seem to make much difference in how much each part of the muscle grows — all parts grow about the same.
People used to think you couldn’t lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, but new evidence shows it’s possible if you eat right and lift weights.
When you combine eating more protein with lifting weights, you can lose fat and keep or grow muscle at the same time.
When people are trying to lose fat, eating more protein and lifting weights can help them keep or even build muscle instead of losing it.
For pacemaker patients, how big their waist is matters more for survival than how well their heart pumps or how old they are.
Correlational
Almost 4 out of 10 people with pacemakers have a large waist, and common heart meds like beta-blockers or statins don’t seem to reduce this obesity.
Pacemaker patients with a small waist are far less likely to die — only about 1 in 25 die from any cause over 6 years, while nearly 1 in 5 with a large waist do.
Even though people push with the same total force during hamstring holds whether their knee is bent or straight, their muscles are actually working less hard when the knee is more bent.
For people with pacemakers, how heavy they are (BMI) doesn’t predict death risk — but how much fat they carry around their waist does.
If you do hamstring holds with your knee almost fully bent, you might get stronger at that angle more than if you do the same exercise with your knee only slightly bent—even if you're pushing with the same total force.
Pacemaker patients with a smaller waistline (under 80 cm for men, under 75 cm for women) are much less likely to die from any cause or heart-related problems over the next few years than those with a larger waist.
Even if you're not pushing very hard, doing short muscle holds at different knee angles for eight weeks can make your hamstring muscles bigger and stronger, no matter if your knee is mostly bent or almost straight.
Whether you do strength exercises with your muscles stretched out or more shortened, your muscles grow about the same amount in different parts — no big difference.
Even if female athletes eat enough protein, not eating enough total calories can still stop their muscles from getting stronger or recovering properly during training.
When female athletes don't eat enough, their bodies start breaking down muscle, slow down their metabolism, and reduce key hormones that help build and maintain muscle.
When female athletes don't eat enough to cover both their workouts and basic body needs, their muscles stop building protein as well, which could make them weaker or slower to recover.