To get more visible results from your weightlifting routines, try adjusting the speed of each move. That’s the news from a recent study in the European Journal of Applied Physiology.

For nine weeks, 28 women completed three weekly strength-training sessions.

One group spent six seconds lifting and two seconds lowering during each exercise, while the other group did the opposite.

Even though both groups gained overall strength, the women who took six seconds to hoist the weight developed larger muscles.

The change wasn’t enormous, so women can rest assured they won’t bulk up excessively.

“It’s probably because of several factors — neural, mechanical, hormonal — but lifting more slowly stimulated muscle growth more effectively,” says Ellen Gillies, lead study author from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.

Once desired muscle size is attained, she adds, women can build strength without getting bigger by lifting and lowering the weight more slowly. [source: Allure]