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Did you know that grip strength is capable of predicting the risk of getting sick? Don’t waste any more time and start with the training to have strong fingers.
Grip strength is not only a necessity for sports like rock climbing. Nor is it a concept that has become fashionable because more and more people sign up for climbing walls and hang on weekends on the stones of the mountains to chain mountaineering routes.
Actually, grip strength is a concept that sports medicine and aging medicine considered useful for assessing a person’s health status. This transcends physical exercise, although it is necessary to train it to keep it in optimal conditions.
We’re going to go over why it’s so important and suggest some ways to boost it. Don’t miss it because, as some studies claim, it could be a key to reducing mortality.
What is grip strength?
It is called grip strength to ability of the muscles of the hands to hold and squeeze something. This also implies the power to hang the body from the hands on a bar, for example, or in climbing shots.
But it also has a full impact on everyday life. With this force we lift a box so that it is stored on a cupboard. Or it simply allows us to take a cup of coffee from the counter to the mouth.
Although it is linked with the hands, the truth is that there are more muscles involved to make a grip or to hold anything. That is, the entire train formed by the shoulder, the arm, the elbow and the forearm, as well as the wrist, must be ready to execute the action.
Why measure grip strength?
Grip strength can be measured with an instrument called dynamometer. The procedure consists of holding this measuring device as if shaking someone’s hand or as if holding a glass. It is key that the elbow maintains a 90 degree angle at all times.
Measurements are then made by squeezing as hard as possible for 5 seconds. 3 attempts are recorded for each hand and a mathematical average is established.
The result is expressed in kilograms and there are standard tables that can be consulted to establish at what point the measured person is. In general terms, men between 30-35 years old are the ones who usually register the greatest grip strengthwhile women over 65 years of age have the lowest results.
With these values we are indirectly evaluating the health of the skeletal muscle. This is the tissue that is responsible for the voluntary movements of the body. In other words, it responds to the instructions we send from the brain to walk, jump, sit down, change position, swim, kick a ball, hit something, etc.
But skeletal muscle also has a metabolic function. Glucose enters it through the action of insulin.removing it from the blood and lowering blood glucose.
The latter explains why a loss of muscle tissue with aging is a risk factor for metabolic diseases. A lower health of the skeletal muscle, but management of blood glucose and greater probability of suffering from diabetes, for example.
Benefits of training her
A study of the year 2018 established how much increased risk of certain pathologies was associated with a loss in grip strength. If we order the results of this publication from highest to lowest, we will find that the most frequent diseases among patients with low grip strength are the following:
- Respiratory diseases, especially COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).
- cardiovascular pathologies.
- Colon and rectal cancer.
- Breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men.
This reality is more evident with aging. After 60 years there evidence that about 20% of the previous grip strength is lost.
Although the phenomenon could be explained by the decrease in skeletal muscle tissue, the lack of training must also be considered. Most people do not exercise their grip strength nor do they do routines that increase their muscle mass.
Clearly, we are not talking about becoming bodybuilders. It is about preventing sarcopenia and everything negative that is associated with it.
Strength work in a gym or at home does not play an aesthetic role to exhaust yourself in it. On the contrary, today is a medical indication for an adequate quality of life in old age.
Reaching old age with sarcopenia will result in frail and more dependent. Why train grip strength? Because we pretend that aging does not take away our freedom. In that plan, we now present you with some simple exercises to get you started.
Exercises to train grip strength
There are exercises to do at home and others for the gym. You can also make use of the healthy squares that are multiplying more and more in the cities and have bars to make hanging movements.
one. grippers
With this word in English a series of gadgets that are intended to stimulate movement and grip strength hand There are everything from anti-stress balls to small elastic bands that hook onto your fingers.
More than one in particular, it is convenient to try until you find the one that gives us more comfort. The advantage is that you use them at any time of the day, including working in front of the computer.
2. Pull-ups
Pull-ups are an advanced exercise in the gym. It is logical that the coach does not indicate them to you in the first month.
But with time you can cultivate the technique. Or it is also possible that you start with the simplest variants and branch out in the future.
Pull-ups train grip strength in a harmonic way and involving large muscle groups. Not only do you need strong hands to get your whole body weight past the height of the bar, but arms and back must be in top condition.
3. Iron with your fingers
Continuing with exercises of a second level, after overcoming the first stage of strengthening, we have the plank with the tips of the fingers. You do not need equipment to do itso going to a gym is optional for her.
It is the typical position of the conventional iron, but making all the force fall on the tips of the fingers of the hands, instead of supporting the elbow and forearm. Sure you don’t last the same, but if you practice often, you will equalize the time in the classic way.
It’s never too late to improve grip strength
If you’re already over 60, it’s not too late to improve your grip strength. You can start today, slowly, with some gripper. Then you will increase the power.
Take the reference of this measurement as an indicator of health. If you perfect it and your numbers increase, you will be closer to an increased quality of life, with a projection of healthy aging.
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