You probably have heard that exercising is important for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. What you don’t hear too often, though, is that improving your grip strength is necessary for you to work out optimally. This is because you need your hands to do virtually everything at work, school, and home, as well as exercise.
Grip strength refers to the performance capability of your hands. It is usually associated with strength training, which is a type of exercise that helps improve your muscle density and functioning.
In this article, you will discover how having a better grip strength can positively impact your overall health and well-being.
How does grip strength indicate health? According to research, your grip strength is an indication of how healthy you are and the strength of your muscles. It can also determine the likelihood of you developing cardiovascular illnesses such as heart disease or stroke. Plus, in older people, grip strength can be used to determine one’s likelihood of dying from cancer.
What does weak grip strength indicate? A weak grip strength signifies that a person’s muscle mass is reducing. This could be because the muscles are wasting away due to aging, a sedentary lifestyle, injuries, or illness. Conditions such as arthritis, multiple sclerosis, tendonitis, stroke, heart issues, and injuries due to damage to the nerves can make you have weak grip strength.
What does grip strength affect? Your grip strength affects the density of your hand muscles. It can also limit your hand mobility by reducing the flexibility of your muscles, tendons, and ligaments in that area. One study shows that hand grip can affect your risk of mortality. And others have shown that the strength of your grip significantly impacts your risk of developing heart issues and surviving cancer.
Why it is important to have a strong grip?
When it comes to working out, building grip strength is usually the most underestimated part of the performance. So much so that poor grip strength can cause you to hit a plateau in your strength training or weight loss journey. This occurs because there is only so much pressure your weak hands can endure before fatigue.
Having a high level of grip strength is important for almost everything you do while exercising. People who do a lot of strength training, especially at the gym, instantly feel the downside of having poor grip strength. Experts say that doing exercises like deadlifts, pull-ups, bench presses, or farmer’s carry is more difficult when you have weak hands.
However, good grip strength is not just for gym enthusiasts; studies also show that many daily tasks and sports put a lot of stress on the muscles in the forearms and hands. If you don't have enough grip strength, you increase the likelihood of injuring your wrists, elbows, or shoulders. So, improving your grip strength is a key part of preventing injuries and getting stronger overall. Plus, there are no muscles in your fingers, only tendons that connect the muscles in your hands and forearms. This means that working on your grip strength simultaneously strengthens your hand muscles and ligaments.
The number one way to increase your level of grip strength is by doing hand, wrists, and finger exercises. And some of the most popular types of exercises to boost your grip strength are:
Fist roll
This is a workout that targets your wrists. To begin, you should stretch your hands in front of you. Then fold your fingers in a tight fist. Slowly move your hands in a rotation motion. Moving them clockwise and counterclockwise. Do this for about thirty to fourth seconds. Rest and repeat ten to fifteen times. The fist roll may look simple, but it’s easy to get it wrong. So, make sure you include your thumb as you make the fist. You should squeeze your fingers tightly but not to the point where it hurts. Lastly, make sure your rotations are slow. You don’t want to go too fast and strain your muscles.
Simple ball grip
For this exercise, you need a stress ball hand which is a type of grip strengtheners. To start, hold the ball in one hand, squeeze it as much as you can for thirty seconds, then release. Repeat ten to fifteen times on each hand. Make sure the stress ball hand you’re using is strong enough to withstand the grip pressure. If not, you should get a new one. Also, remember to include your thumb in this workout.
Use a hand grip
A hand grip is another type of grip strengtheners that you can use to improve your grip. To begin, you grab the hand grip and squeeze it continuously for about a minute. Then switch to the other hand and repeat. You can do about fifteen reps three to four times a week.
Farmer’s carry
This exercise is not for beginners or people with muscle issues or injuries. But if you can do it regularly, it is an effective way to improve your hand grip. To begin, you should pick up a set of weights and walk gently from one end of the room to another. You can do it for about fifteen to twenty minutes. The weight could be dumbbells, kettlebells, or any other heavy items you have at home. Just make sure that the weights on both hands are equal. You should also avoid very heavy weights, especially at the beginning. Before you move, remember to relax your shoulders, keep your chest up, and straighten your back.
Fist push-ups
This exercise works for both beginners and professional fitness fanatics. To begin, you should lay down straight on the floor with your stomach facing the ground. Then, put your hands in a tight fist. Next, move your upper body up and down like a normal push-up. You can repeat ten to twelve times to make a set. Newbies can do one set per day, but if you are a pro, you can do five to six sets without issues. Make sure your fist is not too tight, and use a gym or yoga mat to support your hands. If you feel like your shoulders are about to rip, it means your hand muscles are too weak for this workout. So, you should stop the workout immediately and try again another time when you feel stronger.
Conclusion
Your grip strength can make or break the effectiveness of your workout routine. Without proper grip strength, you will struggle to improve your overall body strength. So, you want to make sure you’re exercising your hands, wrists, and fingers to ensure your grip strength is at its best. You can do fist roll, farmer’s carry, or fist push-ups to improve your grip strength. Squeezing a stress ball and crushing a hand grip regularly are two other effective ways to strengthen your hand muscles. Having better grip strength will enable you to improve the intensity of your workouts which will significantly improve the quality of your life.
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