What Your Grip Says About Your Health: It’s More Than Just Hand Strength

Carol Robbins Author

Aug 13, 2025 |

Why grip strength is a surprising predictor of vitality, mobility, and aging well—especially for women over 50

Grip Strength: A Simple Test That Tells a Big Story

Grip strength is a well-established indicator of current and future health. It reflects a person’s overall strength, arm function, and even bone mineral density. Research also links grip strength to quality of life and the likelihood of experiencing poor health outcomes.

What is it about grip strength that makes it such a useful marker of a person’s current and future health?

What Is Grip Strength, Exactly?

Grip strength is a measure of how much pressure your hand can apply and how long it can sustain that pressure. We can measure that objectively using a simple hand held device called a dynamometer, a test that is easy to administer, making it a quick and convenient way to obtain useful information and create a preventative plan.

Although not always accurate in terms of overall strength, there is an association between grip strength and muscle strength elsewhere in the same person - so that grip strength can indicate a person’s overall strength (or lack of strength!).

Grip strength is, of course, an indication of how (and how much) we use our hands, wrists, forearms and upper arms/shoulders and indeed, the upper body. Those who lift, carry, squeeze, grasp in a variety of arm positions are generally going to do better in a grip strength test.

Daily Life Depends on Grip Strength—More Than You Think

In the Dash Test that assesses disorders of the arm, shoulder and hand, the first several questions to be rated (from “no difficulty” to “unable”) are :

• Open a tight or new jar
• Write
• Turn a key
• Prepare a meal
• Push open a heavy door
• Place an object on a shelf above your head
• Do heavy household chores (e.g., wash walls, wash floors)
• Garden or do yard work
• Make a bed
• Carry a shopping bag or briefcase
• Carry a heavy object over 10 lbs.
• Change a lightbulb overhead
• Wash or blow dry your hair
• Wash your back
• Put on a pullover sweater
• Use a knife to cut food

Those daily tasks might seem simple—and often they are—until something changes. From my experience working with women in the 50–70+ range, these movements are easy right up until an injury or mobility limitation makes them more challenging. If one arm is injured, it can be surprisingly difficult to manage daily activities with just the other. As a result, both arms may end up missing out on the load and movement variety these small but essential tasks provide.

Are We Outsourcing Our Strength?

Many of these once-common tasks are also becoming less frequent in daily life. Keyless entry, automatic trunks, grocery delivery, and hired help for cleaning or yard work are all conveniences that reduce the need for hands-on effort. These tools and services can be incredibly helpful, but they also reduce opportunities for movement that used to be baked into the day.

I know someone who maintains a consistent gym routine while also outsourcing most physical tasks at home—gardening, cleaning, cooking, and renovations. While structured exercise is important and effective, it’s just one piece of the puzzle. The variety and frequency of physical tasks we do throughout the day—lifting, turning, scrubbing, carrying—build a more adaptable and resilient system than training the same muscles in the same ways just a few times per week.

Grip Strength Reflects More Than Just the Hands

Cardiovascular activity is often associated with lower-body movement—running, cycling, stair climbing—activities that clearly get the heart rate up. But the upper body plays an essential role too. The arms, through their connection to the ribcage and upper spine, influence breathing mechanics and heart function. Interestingly, grip strength is often linked to overall movement habits—it tends to be stronger in people who use their whole body regularly and in varied ways.

Strengthening the arms almost always involves the rest of the body. Unless someone uses a wheelchair, it’s difficult to isolate arm movement from the lower body in real-life tasks. Think about carrying heavy groceries, chopping wood, climbing stairs, or pulling yourself up into a bus—these all engage multiple muscle groups. That’s why grip strength is also associated with mobility—it can be a marker for how easily someone moves through their environment, including walking or navigating stairs.

The Muscle-Bone Connection

We also know that when muscles apply force to bones, bones respond by maintaining strength. As muscle activity decreases, so does the mechanical stimulus that keeps bones robust. Grip strength isn’t just an indicator of hand or forearm function—it also correlates with bone density in areas like the spine and hips. Strong arms reflect a body that’s been moving, loading, and adapting as a whole system.

What About Injury and Recovery?

Grip strength isn't just a marker of hand or arm strength—it reflects overall physical resilience and is useful in predicting recovery outcomes in patients with hip fractures and knee replacements, sometimes even more effectively than other strength measures.

Improving Grip Strength: It’s Not Just Squeezing a Ball

Getting a better result on your Grip Strength test doesn’t just involve squeezing hand exerciser balls or using devices called “Gripmaster” or “Captains of Crush” - you do need to use your fingers, hands, wrists, forearms and shoulders in a variety of ways but you also need to use your whole body in a variety of ways! 

A Whole-Body Approach for Women 50–70+

Walking is super and I recommend it to everyone, but it’s not an upper body strengthener as much as say, hanging is! In my class membership I teach dedicated classes for hand and forearm strength along with a whole body approach, specifically for women 50-70+. Get in touch if you’d like to try it!

Exercise for Intolerant Wrists

Click here to watch a short video on an exercise that helps build the tolerance needed to sustain a quadruped (hands and knees) position when your wrists are the limiting factor. And here is a video that illustrates several grip strength options.

Resources
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6778477/
Six minute walk test: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5451924/
Dash questionnaire: https://healthcare.msu.edu/_assets/documents/lymphedema/DASH-questionnaire.pdf