Abstract: Methods 35 young men and women aging 20-30 and 35 old men and women aging 65-70 are randomly selected as the subjects and they are divided into 4 groups with different ages and genders.They are subject to five months of resistance training to their lower limbs , 3-4 times each week. Before and after the experiment, all the subjects’ lower limbs are tested with 12RM of the lower limbs and RM muscle testing, and dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is used to measure the BMD of lumbar (L2 - L4) and the near-end femoral zone (femoral neck, Wards triangle, greater trochanter). Single factor analysis of variance and multiple comparison are later used to detect the differences of the experimental data of each group. At the same time, Pearson correlation analysis is adopted to judge the relationship between BMD and muscle strength. Conclusion all subjects’ BMD at near-end of the femoral zone increases significantly with no age or gender differences. Only the BMD at the femoral neck of some young subjects is higher than that in some old subjects.

Key words: age, gender, resistance exercise, bone mineral density(BMD), bone mineral content(BMC)