Grip strength

Grip strength is the force applied by the hand to pull
on or suspend from objects and is a specic part of hand
strength. Optimum-sized objects permit the hand to wrap
around a cylindrical shape with a diameter from one to
three inches. Stair rails are an example of where shape
and diameter are critical for proper grip in case of a fall.
Other grip strengths that have been studied are the ham-
mer and other hand tools. In applications of grip strength,
the wrist must be in a neutral position to avoid developing
cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs).
Grip strength is a general term also used by physical
strength of an animal, and athletes, referring to the mus-
cular power and force that they can generate with their
hands. In athletics, it is critical for rock climbers and in
competitions such as the Worlds Strongest Man. Grip
strength training is also a major feature in martial arts,
and can be useful in various professions where people
must work with their hands.
1.1 Normative data
There has been extensive medical and ergonomic research
looking at grip strength. This has led to the generation of
normative data. The average for grip strength of men is
higher than that of women.[1] The grip strength of 90% of
women is lower than that of 95% of men.[2] Averages also
exist for dierent types of grip in dierent positions.[3]
Grip strength increases or decreases depending on the
arm position at which the grip strength is being mea-
sured. A persons grip strength usually results in having
the strongest grip strength when their arm is extended at
90 before their body, as opposed to the other extreme
arm positions, rested at ones side or held straight up
above ones head. Grip strength is not optimal if ones
arm is extended backwards beyond the resting position at
the bodys sides. We can conclude that grip strength is
aected via the dierent arm muscles and their ability to
contract.

1.2 In medicine

Grip strength is often used in medicine as a specic type

1 Types of grip of hand strength. The purpose of this testing is diverse,
including to diagnose diseases, to evaluate and compare
treatments, to document progression of muscle strength,
The human hand can be used to grip objects in several and to provide feedback during the rehabilitation process
dierent positions. These dierent positions require dif- as a measure indicating the level of hand function. For
ferent types of grip strength which are typically quantied example, it is used to indicate changes in hand strength
based on the way the hand is being used. after hand surgery or after a rehabilitation program. By
The crush grip is what is most commonly thought of as asking subjects to maintain a maximum contraction for
grip. It involves a handshake-type grip, where the ob- longer periods, it can be used as a measure of fatigue. It
ject being gripped rests rmly against the palm and all is also able to predict a decline in function in old age.[4]
ngers. A strong crush grip is useful in bone-crushing Since the above-mentioned grips involve the action of a
handshakes or for breaking objects with pressure. large number of dierent joints and muscle groups, grip
strength is not always very sensitive to measure individual
In a pinch grip, the ngers are on one side of an object, muscle groups in medicine. For this purpose, dynamome-
and the thumb is on the other. Typically, an object lifted ters have been developed that provide more specic in-
in a pinch grip does not touch the palm. This is generally formation on individual muscles in the hand such as the
considered a weaker grip position. The pinch grip is used Rotterdam Intrinsic Hand Myometer (RIHM).[5][6]
when grabbing something like a weight plate or lifting a
sheet of plywood by the top edge. Care must be taken to
avoid cramping the muscles in the hand. 1.3 In sports
A support grip typically involves holding something,
such as the handle of a bucket, for a long time. This type Hand grip is an important, though often overlooked, com-
of strength is epitomized by the "Farmers walk", where ponent of strength in sports. However, the grip strength
the bucket is lled with sand or water, and carried over is most often a secondary or auxiliary function of the
a long distance. A great deal of muscular endurance is sport. Sports in which grip strength are included within
necessary to have a good carrying grip. the secondary focus include the following: movement-

1
2 2 TRAINING METHODS
based climbing, gymnastics, pole dancing, horse racing,
powerlifting or professional arm-wrestling; ball-based
baseball, gridiron football, rugby, canoe polo, badminton
or tennis; and combat sports such as brazilian jiu-jitsu,
boxing, fencing, judo or wrestling.
1.4 As a separate discipline
From their beginnings as odd performances at fairs and
circuses, grip feats have recently gained acceptance as a
sport in their own right, with competitions being held with
increasing regularity. Events include one-arm deadlift,
nail bending, the closing of torsion spring hand grippers,
v-bar (vertical bar) lifting, and standardized pinch ap-
paratuses. Other common events may include Rolling
Thunder lifts, thickbar deadlifts, and Blob lifting.
The major contests are:
The King Kong Grip Challenge
North American Gripsport Championship
Worlds Strongest Hands
A Gripmas Carol
Champion of Champions
European Grip Championships
Mighty Mitts
Britains Strongest Hands
British Grip Championships
Mnsterland Grip Challenge
Global Grip Challenge
Loddekopinge Grip Challenge
Australian Grip Championships
German Grip Championships
Backyard Bastard Bash
Metroex Mayhem at Metroex
The National Capital Grip Championship
The South Jersey Grip Contest
The Southern Squeeze
Top 3 results back to 1955
1.5 Feats of Strength
Although grip strength lends itself to impromptu perfor-
mances that might feature a unique implement or cater
to a particular individual or a small group, performances
on standardized, widely available tests carry more weight.
One such feat involving world class grip strength is o-
cially closing a No. 3 Captains of Crush Gripper, rst ac-
complished by Richard Sorin in 1991.[7] Card tearing is a
traditional feat of grip and lower arm strength that has a
rich history,[8] and top performances include John Brook-
eld tearing three decks of cards at once [9] and tearing 50
decks of cards in less than a minute.[10] Brookeld has ex-
plained the technique for tearing cards in both his MILO
article on the topic,[11] and in his book The Grip Masters
Manual[12]
2 Training methods
Wrist straps allow lifting heavier weights without having the grip
strength that would be required otherwise.
Grip strength training requires a dierent type of train-
ing regimen than other muscular training. The reasons
are primarily based on the interplay of the tendons and
muscles and the lack of down time or rest that most
peoples hands get.
It is generally considered that all aspects of the hand must
be exercised to produce a healthy and strong hand. Only
working on closing grip will cause an imbalance between
closing and opening (antagonist) muscles, and can lead to
problems such as tendinitis and carpal tunnel syndrome.
2.3 For stabilization
2.1 For closing grip
Thick bar and Thick Grip[13] work on a two-inch
or thicker barsuch as deadlifts, pullups, and the
farmers walktrains the support grip.
Grippers train the crushing grip.
Plate pinches grabbing plates smooth side out and
pinching them.
Sledgehammer lever levering a sledgehammer
using the wrists to train ngers and wrists.
Plate curls/wrist curls grabbing a plate and doing
wrist curls or regular curls with them with the ngers
on the bottom and thumb on top, trains the wrists
and ngers and thumb for pinch grip.
Blockweights cut o ends of hex dumbbells that
are grasped in a pinch grip fashion from dierent
sides of the blockweight with one end grasped by
ngers and other by thumb; trained with either sin-
gles, timed holds, or tosses from hand to hand.
2.2 For opening grip
Extensors; these are the muscles that oppose the
exors of the hands and should be trained to achieve
a good balance between opposing muscle groups;
extensor muscles are key in grip because they must
contract aggressively to support nger exion. Shov-
ing your hand in something like rice and extending
it, or placing something such as rocks in a coee can,
putting your hand in there, and extending it to pick
up the coee can, are ways of training your hand
extensors.
Some grip companies, such as IronMind Enterprises
Inc., sell high-resistance rubber bands which work
the extensor grip. Another option, is a weight based
machine like The Gripper oered by Fitness Spe-
cialties U.S.A.. This type of plate loaded machine
will not only strengthen your grip but also your fore-
arm strength.
As nger exor/extensors serve a function as wrist
exor/extensors, doing wrist extension exercises
(sometimes called reverse wrist curls) would also
stimulate the nger extensor bers.
Doing st pushups on the backside of the rst nger-
bone would increasingly put pressure on the extensor
muscles as weight was shifted from knuckle-end to
the further joint. When in a tight rst, the at of the
ngernails can dig into the palm and push the skin
down to create a bridge to stabilize the rst struc-
ture and prevent hyperexion of the knuckle joints
(which can be observed by doing pushups with the
entire backside of the ngers at on the ground, n-
gers pointing towards the opposite hand).
3
2.3 For stabilization
Fingertip pushups would utilize both opening and
closing grip muscles to keep the nger from sliding,
as well as more focused bone density in the hand,
though they are very strenuous and dangerous un-
less approached progressively.
Hand stands free from a wall with ngers pointing
behind would use gripping stretching to stabilize the
hand to prevent the body from falling towards the
front, and extensor muscles to prevent the body from
falling towards the back.
Metal-rod exercises strengthen the grip indirectly
but very eectively through strength training using
a metal rod or pole.
3 Notable grip strength athletes
Joe Greenstein / Mighty Atom (Oldtime Strongman)
Dennis Rogers (Oldtime Strongman / Stan Lee Su-
perhumans / former arm wrestler champion)
Magnus Samuelsson (strongman/arm wrestler)
Mark Felix (strongman)
Mike Burke (strongman)
Phil Pster (strongman)
Louis Apollon Uni
Thomas Inch (classic strongman)
Laine Snook
Brian Shaw (strongman)
Hermann Grner
Kody Burns (Gripsport Champion and multiple
world record holder)
4 Notes
[1] Mathiowetz V, Kashman N, Volland G, Weber K, Dowe
M, Rogers S (February 1985). Grip and pinch strength:
normative data for adults. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 66
(2): 6974. PMID 3970660.
[2] Leyk, D; Gorges, W; Ridder, D; Wunderlich, M; Rther,
T; Sievert, A; Essfeld, D (2007). Hand-grip strength of
young men, women and highly trained female athletes.
European journal of applied physiology. 99 (4): 415
21. doi:10.1007/s00421-006-0351-1. PMID 17186303.
90% of females produced less force than 95% of males
4 6 SEE ALSO

[3] Eects of interface factors on the handgrip and pinchgrip

force exertion capabilities, muscular contraction speed
and endurance Winson W.S. LO, Alan H.S. CHAN,
Michael K.H. LEUNG

[4] Rantanen T, Guralnik JM, Foley D, et al. (Febru-

ary 1999). Midlife hand grip strength as a predic-
tor of old age disability. JAMA. 281 (6): 55860.
doi:10.1001/jama.281.6.558. PMID 10022113.

[5] RIHM

[6] Geere J, Chester R, Kale S, Jerosch-Herold C (2007).

Power grip, pinch grip, manual muscle testing or thenar
atrophy which should be assessed as a motor outcome
after carpal tunnel decompression? A systematic review.
BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 8: 114. doi:10.1186/1471-
2474-8-114. PMC 2213649 . PMID 18028538.

[7] http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Main/
captainsofcrush3.html

[8] Willoughby, David P. The Super Athletes. A.S. Barnes

and Company: 1970

[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQBxSLCOBHk

[10] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oeFLUAPpns

[11] Brookeld, John. Card Tearing. MILO: A Journal For

Serious Strength Athletes, Volume 1, Number 4 (January
1994), pp. 25-26. IronMind Enterprises, Inc.: Nevada
City, California

[12] Brookeld, John. The Grip Masters Manual. IronMind

Enterprises, Inc.: Nevada City, California: 2002

[13] http://www.ironbullstrength.com

5 References
John Brookeld (2008). Mastery of Hand Strength,
Revised Edition. Ironmind Enterprises. ISBN 978-
0-926888-81-4.

John Brookeld (2002). The Grip Masters Manual.

Ironmind Enterprises. ISBN 0-926888-11-0.

6 See also
List of basic exercise topics
 5

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