The body of the elderly, in general, suffers impacts with the aging process, which may result in changes in the body as a whole, and exercise has been commonly used by health professionals as a form of intervention for the mitigation and prevention of changes in the aging process.

To compare the effect of two different exercise programs on strength, functionality, and quality of life in elderly people from Porto Alegre, Brazil

This was a randomized, blinded, intent-to-treat clinical trial in which 31 elderly subjects participated, 16 in the strength training group (G1) and 15 in the Pilates solo training group (G2), with a duration of approximately 1 hour, and frequency of 3 times a week for 12 weeks, with evaluations every 4 weeks of training. To measure strength the handgrip test and the isokinetic dynamometer (Biodex) were used for knee flexion and extension strength. For functionality the TUG, SPPB, Berg and TC6 were evaluated and for quality of life the SF-36 questionnaire was used.

Although the elderly gradually improved in the strength outcome, there was not statistically significant intragroup or intergroup difference. As for functionality, there was a statistically significant difference (p=0.010) in the predicted percentage of the 6-minute walk test between the groups in evaluation 4, where G1 walked 126.51±10.28% and G2 walked 112.11±5.99%. As for quality of life, despite the improvement in all domains, only in the Emotional Aspects domain there was a statistically significant difference (p=0.017), between groups G1 and G2 at Assessment 1 and Assessment 3, being respectively 72.92±32.70 and 55.56±41.25, and 77.78±28.87 and 100.00±0.0.

There was no significant difference in strength when comparing the groups. In functionality G1 presented a higher predicted percentage of the 6-minute walk test when compared to G2. In quality of life, in the domain of emotional aspect G2 was able to overcome G1 even though initially G1 had significantly higher values.

this work brings important knowledge to the literature, demonstrating the impact of each modality of physical activity on certain health indicators of the elderly individual. We also reiterate that further work, with larger samples and different training models, should be conducted to deepen these results.