Participants will not be offered the exercise program in the three months before data collection.

From then on, participants will perform exercises during the resistance training protocol intervention.

Individuals in the control group will not be offered the exercise program in the three months before data collection and during the entire period corresponding to the 12-week intervention.

Interventions will include a three-phase strengthening training protocol.

1. Adaptation phase: three sessions, emphasis on learning the technique, body self-awareness, and movement coordination;
2. Basic phase: 12 sessions, to increase muscle strength; and
3. Specific phase: 21 sessions, to intensify the process of strength gain and muscular hypertrophy.

Participants will perform the following exercises during the strength-training protocol intervention: pec deck/seated lever fly, adductor, pulldown, abductor strengthening, alternating dumbbell curl, leg press at a 45-angle, triceps pulley, lateral raise, knee flexion and extension, ankle joint flexion and extension in the leg press, and crunches. If the participant has difficulty performing a specific exercise, an equivalent activity will replace it. From the eighth week onwards, participants will perform additional exercises focused on strengthening the gastrocnemius and soleus.

The body composition assessment will be performed through Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DXA) examination, on the first and last day of the study, in both groups, with the participant fasting, without having exercised in the last 24 hours (Andreoli et., 2009).

Muscle strength assessments will be performed at the beginning and end of the intervention (pre-test and post-test) in all study participants. After warming up the lower limbs, based on dynamic movements, for three minutes, each participant will perform between six and eight repetitions with 50% of the estimated maximum load and, one minute later, three repetitions with 70% of the estimated load. Three minutes after the specific warm-up, the test will start. An interval of two minutes will be considered between each attempt, and no more than five attempts will be made for each participant. The load corresponding to the last successful attempt will be considered as a result (Brown & Weir, 2001).

We will perform the handgrip test assessments at the beginning and end of the intervention (pre-test and post-test) in all study participants. We will use a dynamometer in the sitting position, with the shoulder slightly adducted, elbow flexed to 90º, forearm in a neutral position, and, finally, the position of the wrist can vary from 0 to 30º of extension. Three 3-second isometric muscle contractions will be performed, in order to record the handgrip strength obtained (Fernandes & Marins, 2011).

We will perform walking speed assessments at the beginning and end of the intervention (pre-test and post-test) in all study participants. Will be evaluated through the test of walking speed of 4 meters, participants will perform the test walking with normal stride speed throughout the course (Braden, 2012).

The Short-Form 36 (SF-36) questionnaire will be used; scores will be assigned to each question. Changing the scale from zero to 100, values closer to zero being considered a negative perception of quality of life and close to 100 as a positive perception of quality of life (Ciconelli et al., 1999).