Can Cheating at Lifting Make Your Arms Bigger?
Do Cheaters Prosper? Effect of Externally Supplied Momentum During Resistance Training on Measures of Upper Body Muscle Hypertrophy
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Cheating produced 70% higher volume load without increasing muscle growth.
Common belief: more volume = more growth. Here, double the work didn’t lead to double the results—suggesting muscle growth has a ceiling tied to effort, not total weight lifted.
Practical Takeaways
If you're a beginner doing bicep curls or triceps pushdowns, feel free to use a little momentum to get through the last reps—just make sure you're truly going to failure.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Cheating produced 70% higher volume load without increasing muscle growth.
Common belief: more volume = more growth. Here, double the work didn’t lead to double the results—suggesting muscle growth has a ceiling tied to effort, not total weight lifted.
Practical Takeaways
If you're a beginner doing bicep curls or triceps pushdowns, feel free to use a little momentum to get through the last reps—just make sure you're truly going to failure.
Publication
Journal
International Journal of Exercise Science
Year
2025
Authors
Francesca Augustin, A. Piñero, Adam E. Mohan, M. Sapuppo, Max Coleman, Milo Wolf, P. Korakakis, P. Swinton, Jeff Nippard, B. Schoenfeld
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Claims (6)
When beginners do arm curls and triceps exercises with a little swing to lift heavier weights, their arms grow just as much as when they do the movements slowly and strictly—even though they lift way more total weight with the swing.
People who swing the weights while doing arm exercises can lift a lot more total weight over time than those who do it slowly and strictly—even though both groups end up with the same size arms.
Even though people who swing weights use their whole body more, their upper arms don’t get any thicker than those who lift strictly—so the extra movement doesn’t help build more arm muscle.
Even if you cheat a little to lift heavier, your muscles still grow just as well—so maybe the key to building muscle isn’t perfect form, but just getting your muscles to work hard enough.
Resistance training to muscular failure induces equivalent hypertrophy in both slow-twitch (type I) and fast-twitch (type II) muscle fibers, regardless of load or repetition range.