Findings from our umbrella review including 14 meta-analyses suggest that RT is an effective means to improve proxies of physical fitness in healthy children and adolescents beyond a level achievable from growth and maturation.

This umbrella review indicates that there are few consistent moderating effects of maturation, age, sex, expertise level, or RT type on muscle strength and muscle power across the included meta-analyses.

This umbrella review identified current gaps in the literature and suggests that future RT research should consistently report data on participants’ maturational status. Pre-pubertal children as well as girls irrespective of their maturational status should be specifically targeted in future research.