Sunday, May 25, 2025

Grip strength

Alert reader Jocelyn sent me an article about grip strength. According to the article, grip strength is one of the best metrics for determining healthy aging. That’s because it’s “an efficient proxy for total muscle conditioning, which is itself a great proxy for overall nutrition, physical activity, and disease profiles. In other words, it’s a proxy for a proxy.”

Grip strength effectively predicts the decline in muscle conditioning which is associated with aging and mortality. One study found that, among people who’d had their grip strength measured in 1965, the ones who lived to be 100 were 2.5 times more likely to have had grip strength results in the highest third.

Developing grip strength alone won't protect you against disease and early death. It's an indicator of your overall muscle strength and conditioning. Muscle strength helps to defend us against the ravages of age. It  cushions our joints and bones, protects us from falls, and even soaks up excess glucose in the blood to reduce the risk of developing type-2 diabetes or insulin resistance.

The way to measure grip strength is with a dynamometer, pictured here. 

Assuming you don’t have one of these lying around your house, you can also test yourself with a tennis ball (which you probably don’t have either). If you get ahold of one, you should be able to squeeze it hard for 15 to 30 seconds.

As luck would have it, the day after receiving this article I had an appointment with my hand surgeon to arrange another carpal tunnel release surgery. (I’ve had it on my right hand; now I needed it on my left.) I got a measurement of 50. I asked the doctor about my reading. He said it was “decent.” I looked it up on a chart. For my age group, my rating was between normal and strong. I guess that’s the same as decent.

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5 comments:

  1. Great to know as I continue to do physical therapy for a broken wrist - thanks!

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  2. I thought that this was really interesting. My 90 year old husband has a terrific grip, so I am glad to know he is super healthy! Cheers, Jil

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  3. Interesting and informative-as usual!

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  4. Though I believe I have a strong grip, I may not score high on the test since I have Dupuytren's Contraction in my right hand. My left hand should score high though.

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  5. A good way to test grip strength is to try to open a bottle of Kirkland water. :-)

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