INTRODUCTION: Fragility syndrome, very common in elderly people, consists of a set of signals and symptoms in which is present criteria such as not intentional weight loss (approximately 5%) in a year, reduction in the walking speed, low physical activity levels, subjective exhaustion and muscular strength reduction. The increasing effect of these changes related to age, which include sarcopenia, immunity functional disorder and neuroendocrinous misconduct, increase the vulnerability of the organism to stress, reducing the ability to adapt, compensate or modulate these stimuli. Several intervention proposals have been made to attenuate this process, and resistance exercises (RE) was one of the options studied. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effects of RE on the physiopathology of fragility syndrome. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A bibliographic review of the period 2004-2010 was made based on the data of LILACS, MEDLINE and PubMed. Results: Changes in the hormonal and immune systems were observed acting in a systemic way by reverting or minimizing the effects of sarcopenia. CONCLUSION: Resistance exercises should serve as therapy to those elderly who are fragile and do not present any health problems.
Frail elderly; Weight lifting; Exercise therapy