While weight training, most of us focus on our larger muscle groups as working them burns more calories and boosts your metabolism to the roof. However, it is important that you work your smaller muscle groups too – especially the ones in your upper body, such as the muscles in your hands that give you the power to hold an object firmly.
Lack of grip strength will cause trouble turning doorknobs and opening jars and prevent you from performing your best in certain sports that require your hands, such as racket sports, wrestling and judo.
Why you need to strengthen your grip
Hand grip is important for various functional reasons. Various studies indicate that your grip strength reflects your overall health.
Physical therapists can measure your grip strength using a special device called a hand-held dynamometer, which can be purchased for home-use too. Simply press both bars of the device together and allow the meter to measure the compressive force you apply. Force is usually measured in pounds through a hydraulic or spring mechanism.
In general, men have a stronger grip than women. However, note that it declines with age in both sexes, usually after the age of 30 as this is when your overall muscle mass begins to go down.
Grip strength is also a good indicator to identify women who may be at risk of osteoporosis. In addition, grip strength may predict one’s overall mortality. As grip strength indirectly reflects your functional status and muscle mass, a decline in grip strength may rule out whether you have an increased risk of disability in the future.
Your grip strength may also be linked to your nutritional intake. A lower calorie intake results in loss of muscle mass, which can reduce your grip strength too. According to research, a decline in grip strength may be associated with loss of protein and muscle mass.
What’s the ideal grip strength?
For women, a reading of 21.5 to 35.3 for ages between 30 and 34 is considered normal and a reading above 35.3 is strong. Grip strength varies with age. If you’re 50 to 54 years of age, a grip strength of 31.9 is strong and 18.1 to 31.9 is normal.
Your dominant hand will have higher grip strength, which is typically about 10 percent higher than the other hand. While measure your grip strength, measure the strength in both hands and take out the average value.
How to enhance grip strength?
While there are many squeeze devices to help you strengthen your grip, simply performing upper body strength exercises that use the hands can help you gain grip strength. Workouts involving barbells, dumbbells and resistance tubes are great at working your hand muscles.
How ROPEFLEX can help
ROPEFLEX is designed to generate arm strength like no other workout equipment. Rope training is a risk-free workout that works your hands and your entire upper body. ROPEFLEX training is a functional training method, which means it mimics your daily activities and helps you perform better in your daily life. A high level of grip and pulling action is required while using the equipment and they’re easy to use while being super challenging.