There's a common conception that the best way to build muscle quickly is to do fewer repetitions, or complete cycles of the exercise, with heavier weights.

For example, you might be encouraged to do five reps of arm curls with 15-pound weights instead of doing 12 reps of the same exercise with 8-pound weights.

A new small study published this month in the Journal of Applied Physiology (based only on men, unfortunately) suggests that's not true.

Instead, the paper suggests that lifting lighter weights for more repetitions is just as good as lifting heavier ones for fewer reps. That's good news for those of us who might have been turned off by the idea of having to pump hefty loads that could end up injuring us.