The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of aerobic exercise and resistance training on women's body image and comparison of their effect. The method used was semi-experimental and the population included those women (25-40years) who visited Sanandaj city’s sport complexes. Samples were three groups of twenty women, an aerobic training, resistance training and a control group; all completed Mendelson Body Image Questionnaire. The questionnaire reliability coefficient was 0.78, using Cronbach's alpha. After ten weeks of training, experimental groups re-completed the questionnaire and so did the control group. The collected data was analyzed by Paired correlation t test and ANOVA, using SPSS-16. Results of the dependent t showed that aerobic exercise ( p=0.001, t=3.070 ) and resistance training ( p=0.001, t=4.506 ) have a significant effect on body image. Comparison of the gained scores of the two groups indicated the superiority of aerobic exercise to resistance training in improving body image (p=0.001, f=9.006). Findings show that due to improvement in physical fitness and physical self-perception, aerobic exercise and resistance training result in body image enhancement in women. Also, because of its compatibility to women's goals, aerobic exercise is more effective on improvement of women's body image than resistance training.
