Health
Get a grip: your hands may hold the secret to healthy ageing
Grip strength, like balance, is potentially a marker of healthy ageing. While gym junkies focus on strength and muscles, the power to open a jar of jam might be a mightier thing to attain.
By Alex Brooks
My grip is not what it used to be. I find it hard to turn on the tap (especially when my Herculean husband seems to turn it so far off that it will never move again).
Opening jars has never been easy for me and trying to buckle up my fiddly strappy shoes is not as fun as it once was.
Like my mother, I am getting osteoarthritis – it’s evident in some of my spine scans and my fingers and hands often ache. I bought a hand grip exerciser from eBay but I haven’t managed to squeeze my grip to success yet.
From everyday tasks like getting dressed or opening those childproof bottles of mouthwash, hands hold much of our body’s function and power. In fact, they are known as one of the key biomarkers of current health status and an indicator of future mobility as we get older.
The New York Times has reported a doctor saying human hands appear to be getting weaker, possibly because of the way we use smartphones and touch screens.
An Australian study into hand grip strength measured grip strength on an instrument called a dynamometer and came up with the following standardised strengths for age and weight.
Women are weaker than men, but the decline after the age of 50 is strong – as this chart shows.
We have 3 main types of grip strength:
- Crush: The grip that uses your fingers and the palm of your hand.
- Support: How long you can hold onto something like a heavy frypan or hang from something like a bar.
- Pinch: This refers to how firmly you can pinch something between your fingers and thumb.
Test your grip
The New York Times says there are two ways to test whether your grip needs strengthening:
- Hold something like a heavy pan and rotate it in one hand like you are emptying it.
- Support your body weight with your hands and wrists in a push-up position.
If you find either of those tests hard to sustain for a few seconds, then you might need to get a grip. Or work towards getting a better grip.
Experts say that exercises that strengthen your grip while engaging other muscles are the most effective because they mimic the movements of daily life. For example, carrying a heavy object in each hand while walking will work your grip as well as the core, arms, shoulders and back.
Like a panther
The panther walk – which involves walking along the ground on all fours – is another way to strengthen your grip alongside other muscles. My pilates instructor makes me do this and it hurts more than a push up.
The panther makes you push against the ground – using your hands, fingers and wrists – to propel your whole body forward. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. But this exercise will annoy you. I hate it.
The simplest way to strengthen your hands is by modifying any exercises you already do.
My son (the monster power lifter who can lift a ridiculous 300kg) recommends squeezing a tennis ball AND lifting weights for my old lady grip strength issues.
Read this too: Hello muscles: 10 benefits of strength trainingAnother simple exercise that works the wrists and forearms wetting a towel and then wringing it out til there’s no water left.
Physios-in-training (like my son) say most people don’t need grip-specific exercises unless they are recovering from an injury.
He says ‘just stay strong’. Like it’s easy. He’s the one who needs to get a grip.
Feature image: iStock/LumiNola; graphics and chart created by Alex Brooks
The information on this page is general information and should not be used to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease. Do not use the information found on this page as a substitute for professional health care advice. Any information you find on this page or on external sites which are linked to on this page should be verified with your professional health care provider.
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