and scanning electron microscopy (five each group). The results in light microscopy were obtained using stereological method and there were not statistically significant differences in relation to age and training for the parameters: total volume of the cartilage, total number of chondrocytes, volume density of extra cellular matrix and total volume of extra cellular matrix (P<0,05).The data were statistically significant in "border line" for age in the parameters chondrocyte volume density and mean chondrocyte volume (P=0,058) and for training in the parameter cellular density (P=0,058). By scanning electron microscopy was possible to observe that in S group, the surface of articular cartilage of the femoral head came flat and with areas of evident erosions, while, in T group, there were clear undulations, without the presence of erosions. These data take us to conclude that a program of constant physical activity during the aging promotes benefits for the articular cartilage of the femoral head by suggests that the cartilage of the animals of the S group was more susceptible to lesions than the ones of the T and C group and that the physical activity promoted the stimulation of the chondrocytes, increasing the resistance of the cartilage to the harmful modifications of the aging.