What your grip strength says about your health — and exercises that will improve it

Want to know how healthy you are? There’s one health metric experts can look to for hints about everything from your cardiovascular risks to your brain health: grip strength, or how firmly you can hold on to something with your hand.

“There’s nothing about grip strength, per se, that makes it special,” except that it’s easy to measure, Mark Peterson, a University of Michigan professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation, tells Yahoo Life. Research also shows it’s an excellent predictor of how you’re doing overall.

So what does your grip strength say about you, and how can you improve it? Here’s what to know.

What is grip strength, and why does it matter?

Grip strength refers to how much force you can generate when you squeeze something in your hand, and experts look at it as a good way to gauge someone’s overall strength or weakness. If you’re finding it harder to twist open a jar of pasta sauce, for example, that’s a signal you may be losing some grip strength.

Grip strength is measured using a device called a dynamometer, which provides readings of how many kilograms of force someone generates when they compress its handle in their hand. Normal grip strength varies with factors including BMI and sex, and researchers are still debating exactly what indicates weak grip strength. But one study suggests that men’s grip strength is considered weak if they produce less than 26 kilograms (or 56 pounds) of force; for women, it’s less than 16 kilograms, or 35 pounds, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

What grip strength indicates about overall strength also turns out to be an excellent predictor of other health status factors, research has found. People with weaker grip strength are more likely to develop heart disease, high blood pressure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and to die of any cause. Losing grip strength over time has also been linked to a greater risk of cognitive decline. Grip strength “has proven to be the strongest predictor of disease and mortality, [better] than virtually anything else,” says Peterson.

That’s because a loss of grip strength “is such a good marker of frailty,” Dr. Ardeshir Hashmi, section chief of the Center for Geriatric Medicine at Cleveland Clinic, tells Yahoo Life. When someone becomes frail due to a loss of muscle mass, they generally are aging more quickly and will fare worse against any health problems, he explains. And frailty isn’t a problem just for the elderly. “As early as the mid-40s, these changes can start happening, especially when we’re very sedentary,” says Hashmi.

The good news is that adopting exercise habits and good nutrition can restore strength to your grip, and everywhere else.

What’s the best way to improve grip strength?

It might be tempting to run out and buy the sort of hand-strengthener tool some athletes use to improve their grips. But Peterson says not to bother. “That’s just not going to help your heart, kidneys or brain,” he explains. Instead, Peterson advocates for resistance training, because strengthening your body overall has widespread benefits and will help prevent you from becoming frail. Hashmi agrees that strength training is important, but says that exercise to improve your cardiovascular fitness — such as cycling or walking — matters too, especially because it ensures good circulation.

Exercise combats frailty by building up a good reserve of muscle which, in turn, will make your body more resilient against aging and help it bounce back more quickly from injuries or illness. Hashmi adds that you also need to be getting the right nutrients — especially protein — to fuel muscle development.

Getting stronger has also been linked to better brain health. “We found a link between low grip strength and cognitive deterioration and anxiety and depression, but I think it’s mostly that … people who are physically active are healthier from the top to the bottom, and that includes mental health and brain health,” says Peterson. “Exercise is one of the most potent treatments for prevention and help with mental health disorders like depression and anxiety,” he adds.

Exercises to try

The most important thing is to choose exercises you like and will do daily, even if only for 10 minutes, says Hashmi. Peterson recommends doing exercises that require two joints, such as squats or lunges. Exercises that “use the hip and knee are the most important because so much muscle exists in the lower extremities that you can get a lot of benefit from doing those,” he explains.

It’s worth talking to your doctor about what kinds of workouts will work best for you, but exercises the two experts do recommend include:

• Swimming and water aerobics

• Lifting weights, especially deadlifts or dumbbell lunges. You don’t need fancy equipment to do either. Try them at home while holding light dumbbells, milk jugs or cans.

Don’t focus so much on:

• Bicep and chest workouts such as curls. These won’t do much for overall muscle tone and grip strength, Peterson says.

• Hand-strengthening exercises. It’s fine to do them to strengthen your grip, but full-body workouts will have more important benefits for your health, experts say.

One upside of resistance training is that “strength happens really fast,” says Peterson. “Neurological changes happen virtually in the first week of exercise.”

And, yes, your grip strength will likely also improve as a result of this exercise; experts say that matters as an indicator of more widespread internal changes that are benefiting your overall health. Hashmi likens it to athletes training during the preseason. “If you’re not putting [work] in now, something will catch you unawares,” he says.