Muscle strength is a key component of physical functionality (PF) in human beings. PF decreases with advancing age, and has been related to the loss of muscle tissue denominated sarcopenia, causing frailty and disability in the elderly. In Mexico, other factors like modern lifestyle, progressing to sedentarism, feeding patterns becoming predominantly to industrial processed foods, rich in saturated fats, carbohydrates and salt, have driven the ageing population to high prevalence of obesity, diabetes mellitus and hypertension. In addition, the attention to the elderly is incipient, without health preventive programs addressed to such sector of the general population. The sum of the above mentioned factors makes of importance to characterize the strength of Mexican elder people. PURPOSE: to characterize the hand grip and knee extension strength in a sample of Mexican elder to be compared with internationally reported values. METHODS: a descriptive, transverse and correlational study of a group of 129 persons attending an open invitation to elder people (250) affiliated and assisting regularly to a gerontology centre. The knee extension and hand grip strengths (KES and HGS, respectively) were measured by dynamometry. To characterize the sample, body weight (BW), height, circumferences of the right arm (rAC) and right thigh (rTC), as well as skin folds were measured. Data was used to calculate body fat percentage (BF%), and body mass index (BMI). RESULTS: all expressed as mean ± s.d. were, age of the sample 70.1 ± 6.4 years; height 162 ± 0.1 cm; weight 67.2 ± 11.7 kg; BMI 28.7 ± 5.1 kg/m2. Mean rAC was 30.8 ± 6.0, while rTC was 50.6 ± 7.0 TC of/KES (right/left) were 14.9 ± 5.2/14.4 ± 5.5 kg, while HGS, in the same order were 14.9 ± 5.1/14.4 ± 5.5 kg. A significant correlation was found between muscle strength and age, for the right knee (Spearman, p = 0.001, r = -0.286). CONCLUSIONS: the results obtained indicate that muscle strength in Mexican elder people is reduced and lower than the values found in other international populations.