Grip strength is not just determined by how easily you can open a tight jar or manage a firm handshake. It is about how firmly you hold on to things, and the maximum force produced by the muscles in your forearms. With age, there is wear and tear in our bodies. While we stress upon building up our abs and biceps, we often forget about strengthening our hand grip. Grip strength is all about how strong your hands, forearms as well as wrists, are, and it talks a lot about your overall health and strength as well. Therefore, it is essential to increase grip strength.

What is grip strength?

Grip strength measures how much strength your hands hold or can exert while gripping an object. “It includes several components such as the forearm muscles, hand muscles, and fingers. Everything that requires handwork needs grip strength - from making dough to lifting those heavy grocery bags,” explains fitness expert Spoorthi S.

According to a study published in Clinical Interventions in Aging, grip strength is an indispensable biomarker for older adults. It indicates a lot about your concurrent overall strength, upper limb function, bone mineral density, fractures, falls, malnutrition, cognitive impairment, depression, sleep problems, multimorbidity, and quality of life, the study adds. In fact, a grip strength test can also check your risk of diabetes.

Why is grip strength essential for our bodies?

Imagine opening a stubborn jar or carrying groceries from the market to your home - all of this requires good grip strength. For fitness buffs, grip strength are helpful for heavy deadlifts or to change weights during your repetitions. “Grip strength is an essential form of workout for all ages as it helps enhance functional mobility, muscle strength and endurance, bone health, and rehabilitation,” says Spoorthi. The Journal of Health Population and Nutrition, suggests that grip strength is an accurate way to measure age-related decline in muscle mass, strength, and function.

How to improve grip strength?

To get the iron grip, there are various fun and engaging exercises that you can get started with:

1. Grip training or crush

Crush grip refers to the grip that is between your fingers as well as the palm of your hand. The easiest grip strength exercise is crushing or grip training. One can use a hand gripper or even a ball lying around for grip training. You can also use hand grippers as well as rolling handles. Check our other hand exercises for better grip too.

2. Farmer’s walks

This involves carrying weight around from one end to another. You just must take a heavy load or a kettlebell in your hand and walk for a set distance with a good posture. This helps you with your grip, forearms, and overall body stability.

3. Support or dead hangs

For this exercise regime, all you need to do is find a place to hang. This exercise, along with grip endurance, focuses on decompressing the spine.

4. Wrist curls execution

Curling your forearms and wrists in different directions helps you target the flexor muscles, which are very crucial for grip strength. Multiple gym goers include wrist curls in their warmup to relax the muscles. Check our other wrist strengthening exercises for better grip.

5. Plate-pinches

Take weight plates and keep them between your thumb and fingers. One can do the same with books or things lying around in the home as a replacement. The exercise improves pinch grip strength and motor skills.

Curling your forearms and wrists in different directions helps strengthen your grip. Image courtesy: Freepik

What to remember while doing exercises to improve grip strength?

Grip strength exercises look easy to do but it’s also necessary to keep some things in mind before you do these exercises:

• Start with something small and then train your muscles a bit more and more with time.
• While doing strength exercises, keep in mind your form to target the right muscles. One change in form might lead to an injury or muscle pain.
•  Grip training should not include just one exercise over and over. Mix different types of grip exercises to target various muscles and not overexert.
•  Grip strength exercises might feel too much after a certain point because you don't see results soon, but you must be patient and believe in the process.

While performing grip exercises, it is important to go slow and listen to your body. Image courtesy: Freepik

Summary

Grip strength is very important to understand how healthy you are. With age, there is a constant decline in your grip strength, which can affect your overall well-being as well. Therefore, it is important to keep building your grip strength by doing simple exercises. However, make sure to go slow, and be careful of your form while performing these exercises.

 Read Also: Nutmeg for skin: How to use this spice for youthful, radiant and healthy skin