Grip Strength and Your Health

When you hear “grip strength,” your mind may naturally travel to whether it feels easy or hard to twist the lids off bottles and jars. But your ability to firmly grasp objects with your hands goes way beyond this — research indicates that it can also provide deeper insight into your health, and even your longevity.

Grip strength, health, and longevity

A 2024 review calls hand grip strength “a proposed new vital sign of health.” In it, researchers explain that not only can this seemingly simple ability tell us about age-related declines in muscle size, strength, and function, but it can also be an indicator of disease or injury risk.

Grip strength is regarded as an important indicator of health.

Low hand grip strength has been linked with type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, kidney and liver diseases, some cancers, and fragility fractures, according to this review. People with less grip strength also tend to be hospitalized more often, are more likely to be malnourished, and are at a greater risk of abdominal obesity. All these factors affect physical health and longevity.

A different 2024 study found a connection between grip strength and mental health in older adults. It noted that subjects with stronger grip strength were less likely to experience feelings of depression. This study also points to previous research that connects low grip strength with increased feelings of helplessness and fatigue, and reduced cognitive dysfunction.

The importance of grip strength in aging

Grip strength is perhaps even more important for older adults. “Loss of grip strength may affect your independence— whether you can live on your own,” explains Robert A. Hayden, DC, PhD, FICC, an American Chiropractic Association (ACA) member in Griffin, Ga., adding that it can affect everything from getting dressed and brushing your teeth to eating, driving, or holding a cell phone. “Virtually everything you do during the day requires your hands,” he says, adding that a weak grip may also make it harder to break a fall to prevent injury.

Several factors can contribute to age-related declines in grip strength. They include natural reductions in collagen and testosterone production, blood flow reductions due to atherosclerosis, compromised nerve supply, and lack of exercise. Each of these reduces muscle strength, says Dr. Hayden. The result is a harder time gripping objects with your hands.

Grip strength isn’t necessarily about hand strength

“It is important to know that the muscles that allow you to grip are actually in the forearm,” says Dr. Hayden, “not the hand.” Muscles on the underside of the forearm are called flexors and help flex the hand. Muscles on the top are extensors and open the hand, extending the fingers. The extensors are inherently weaker than the flexors, says Dr. Hayden, which is why it’s important to strengthen them when working on your grip.

Exercises to improve your grip

One exercise that Dr. Hayden recommends for building the extensor muscles involved in grip strength involves rubber bands. “What I tell patients is to wrap a rubber band or two around the fingers and thumb,” he says. “Allow the rubber band to pull your fingers and thumb together. Then, open your fingers and straighten them against the resistance of the rubber band. Hold your fingers open for a count of 10.” You should feel this exercise in the upper part of your forearm.

It’s important to work both muscle groups, so grip strength exercises that Dr. Hayden recommends for working the flexors include:

• Tennis ball squeezes. To do it, hold the ball in your hand and squeeze as hard as you can for a count of 10. “It does not even have to be a tennis ball,” says Dr. Hayden. “I have used wash rags rolled into a cylinder shape for this purpose.”

• Grocery lifts. For this exercise, find something that weighs about five pounds, “like a bag of sugar,” says Dr. Hayden. Put it in a sack or grocery bag and lift it using your thumb and index finger. Hold the lift for a count of 10 and then set the bag down.

• Wrist flexes. Keeping the sugar in the grocery bag, pick the bag up and hold it with your palm facing upward. Flex your wrist toward your body and hold for a count of 10, then release.

Start with three sets of 10 repetitions per exercise, suggests Dr. Hayden, adding weight, repetition, or sets as you get stronger. Also, make sure to work both hands so you build the grip strength in each equally.

Hobbies can help build grip strength

Finding a hobby that involves your hands can also help with grip strength. Dr. Hayden is just getting back into playing guitar, for instance, but other options include typing, knitting, or anything else you can do with your hands. These activities not only help build grip strength but also offer other benefits as well.

“I think hobbies that you do with your hands are good for your heart, mind, and soul, as well as your hands,” Dr. Hayden says. That’s not all. “Maybe more importantly, they will maintain your coordination,” he adds.

Talk to your chiropractor

Your chiropractor can help you build your grip strength, too. Adjustments to the small bones of the wrist can in some cases help to strengthen a patient’s grip. “I have done it for 30 years with patients who were amazed at what they can do after an adjustment that takes literally seconds,” said Dr. Hayden. Talk to your chiropractor to learn more about how they can help you.

Written by Christina DeBusk, a freelance contributor to Hands Down Better.

SOURCE: ACA