Hand grip strength as a measure of life longevity

I found it very interesting to read that a powerful grip has been seen to correlate to longevity of life.

A study by the UK Biobank found ‘.. that lower grip strength was strongly associated with a wide range of adverse health outcomes. ‘

Basically, if your body is strong it is likely that your hand grip will be strong.  Although the physicality of a strong grip does not signify a healthy body in itself – in order to have a strong grip you have to have been strengthening the rest of your body.

Moreover, the study found that ‘The associations observed were consistent between sexes and remained robust after adjustment for deprivation, ethnicity, and several other health, lifestyle, and dietary factors.’

So, whether male or female, it appears that grip strength is an important measure for long term health – but this must be tempered with the fact that the grip strength needs to be a side result of a healthy lifestyle and not the goal of a workout.

Take dead lifts as an example.  Yes that typical weight lifting exercise where a barbell with weights on each end is lifted from the floor with bended knees and straight arms up to where the body is standing straight.

You would assume that the main point of the exercise is to work the hamstrings and the back but think about what is actually keeping the bar in place – your hands.

What about barbell squats ?  Each time you take part in the exercise of the squat with a bar across your shoulders with weights on each end you will have lifted the bar onto the rack with your hands, you will have lifted the weights onto the bar.

Your hands and therefore you grip is being worked as much as any other part of the body, in fact more, because the hands are involved at more stages of the exercise – the preparation, often the exercise, and the clearing up !

A structured strength-training program can help you improve overall muscle strength and physical fitness.

So we, at Racquets, can help you devise your strength-training programs.  If you want to see progress quickly we also suggest personal training with our experienced trainers.

Reference : https://www.bmj.com/content/361/bmj.k1651