Does lifting slower make your muscles bigger?

To achieve the greatest increase in muscle size, perform resistance exercises with more than 12 repetitions per set, pushing close to physical limit, and avoid combining these sets with sustained aerobic activity.

Among highly trained people, performing resistance exercises with higher velocity loss during sets may result in slightly greater thickening of the quadriceps muscle after six weeks, compared to lower velocity loss, as long as the total amount of work is the same; however, improvements in maximum strength are similar in both approaches.

After six weeks of resistance training with either low or high levels of fatigue, highly trained people did not gain more muscle mass or improve their power in leg exercises, even though they got stronger and their muscles thickened slightly.

In highly trained people, using resistance training with either low or high amounts of fatigue loss for six weeks results in no difference in triceps muscle thickness, but the quadriceps muscle in the thigh shows a small increase in thickness regardless of training protocol.

After six weeks of resistance training with the same total workload, the thigh muscle (vastus lateralis) showed a small increase in size, while the upper arm muscle (triceps brachii) did not change, suggesting that the effect of training speed on muscle growth varies by muscle.