Strength exercises may help pupils' thinking skills, but school results are unclear

The review

1. 01

   Who took part

   This review combined 10 studies with 1,235 children and teenagers at school, aged 5 to 18. Average ages in the studies ranged from about 9 to about 16.

2. 02

   What they did

   Pupils in the strength groups did exercises with free weights, elastic bands, medicine balls, kettlebells or their own body weight. The other groups did no exercise. The programmes differed a lot in how much, how hard and what kind of exercise, and most were run in schools.

3. 03

   What happened

   Thinking skills improved a little more than with no exercise. School grades, test scores and on-task behaviour showed no clear difference, but the discussion says these could not be analysed. The authors rated the evidence as low certainty, and there was some sign that weaker studies went unpublished.

What the review found

1. HelpedOther outcomes

   Across the studies, strength exercise helped thinking skills a little more than no exercise did.

   Pooled analysis of 0 studies · vs children who did no exercise · ⚠ signs that small negative studies went unpublished

2. No differenceFocus

   Across the studies, strength exercise made no clear difference to staying on task in class.

   Pooled analysis of 1 study · vs children who did no exercise · behaviour was recorded · ⚠ signs that small negative studies went unpublished

3. No differenceGoals

   Across the studies, strength exercise made no clear difference to school grades and test scores.

   Pooled analysis of 0 studies · vs children who did no exercise · ⚠ signs that small negative studies went unpublished

Source