Sept. 18, 2024 – At this month’s presidential debate, all eyes were on the candidates and how they interacted, right down to their handshake. It’s no surprise, because in the United States, people’s first impression is often the handshake. Firm, the thinking goes, relays confidence and strength.
Despite the cultural measurement of the handshake, your actual grip strength can mean much more than how confident you are. Grip strength, as it turns out, can serve as a reliable measurement of overall health – even as an indicator of the potential health of your heart and blood vessels. A strong grip matters more than just appearances.
“Our grip strength is a big indicator of health,” said Milica McDowell, a Montana-based doctor of physical therapy and founder of Clearwater Physical Therapy in Bozeman. “It tells us about muscular endurance, power, and bone health in the upper extremities.”
It can also inform on all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality. As surprising as it may be, research shows a link between grip strength and how well and long you may live.
“We found that muscle strength is a reflection of muscular frailty, and also vascular frailty,” said Darryl Leong, PhD, an associate professor and lead researcher at the Population Health Research Institute at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. “Grip strength is a good indicator of muscle health.”
Grip strength is also easy to measure, whether in a formal setting like a doctor’s office or subjectively. If you struggle to open a jar of pickles, for instance, or if walking and steadily carrying your coffee cup from the kitchen to the table is a challenge, you may be more likely to have issues with your heart and blood vessels or other illnesses. But frailty – as indicated by a weak grip strength – isn’t unavoidable. There are several steps you can take to keep your handshake firm and confident, boosting your health along with it.
What Grip Strength Means to Health
In his research into grip strength, Leong and his team considered that in about 25% of cases, doctors are uncertain of the cause of issues with the heart and blood vessels, or cardiovascular disease. Leong set out to identify new potential factors, grip strength chief among them. “Muscles and tissues deteriorate over time, and so does our cardiovascular system,” said Leong. “Measuring grip strength was an easy way to link them.”
Leong’s study measured grip strength in more than 125,000 adults using a dynamometer, a handheld device that detects force when squeezing it. While grip strength is the measurement, it’s not necessarily the cause of mortality when weak. Rather, “Grip strength is cheap and easy to measure,” he said. “You could also measure leg strength as the indicator.”
But what Leong’s study determined is that a weak grip likely means weak muscles everywhere, and that's linked to poor cardiovascular health. The takeaway, he said, is that you should be exercising regularly. “Not just household chores,” said Leong, “but dedicated exercise, and part of that should be strength training.”
As the cliché says, “if you don’t use it, you lose it.” And it’s never too early or too late to begin.
“Natural aging is going to reduce our grip strength as we age,” McDowell said. “I see so many people stop doing things because it’s hard, or it hurts. But when you stop, you’re not stimulating your systems.”
The antidote is exercise, she said, and a great place to begin is with a comprehensive approach to stronger shoulders, elbows, and hands.
Try These Moves
Improving your shoulder, elbow, and hand strength is “low-hanging fruit,” McDowell said. “It’s something you can easily squeeze into a day, and even just a couple of sessions a week can make a profound improvement.”
When working with patients, McDowell looks at their hands as a sign of overall muscle strength. Often, she spots atrophy in the space between the index finger and thumb, on the inside palm under the thumb, and near the pinky finger. “It can be very eye-opening, and we often see a difference between the dominant and non-dominant hand,” she said.
To deal with those weakening muscles, McDowell suggests these simple moves:
Shoulder shrugs: Begin with your arms hanging by your sides, a weight in each hand. Shrug your shoulders forward, up, back and down for one rep. Try to repeat this sequence for 20 to 30 seconds. If you can’t complete the sequence for that long, lighten your weights. Make it your goal to get up to a full minute. “The nice thing is that you can dial this up or down, depending on your current level of strength,” McDowell said.
Elbow rotations: Roll up a small towel and place a hand near each end of it. Extend your arms in front of you, and rotate each end of the towel in opposite directions, back and forth, like you’re trying to wring out water. Your palms will be moving back and forth, up and down, working both your supination and pronation, strengthening your forearms. “This will challenge your endurance and tolerance,” McDowell said.
Ball squeezes: Grab a tennis ball, a stress ball, or even a wad of putty. For 30 seconds, continually squeeze and release, then repeat on the other side. You’ll likely find that your non-dominant hand tires faster, but by regularly working it, you’ll soon even out the imbalances. These movements work your intrinsic muscles and challenge your ability to reproduce movement over time.
While focusing specifically on your grip strength is a good starting point, it’s important to remember that it’s total body conditioning you should be after. And just as your blood pressure or cholesterol measurements represent a lifetime of habits, so too does your grip strength. The takeaway, said Leong: “Get into a good exercise habit and continue it for your entire lifespan.”
