Get Some Grip! by Stephanie Arel

In my practice working in rehabilitative exercise, addressing minor injuries as well as traumatic ones – from brain injuries to falls, I see a lot of women over 60 who have a history of not training or challenging their upper body. The lack of upper body strength in women is, in some part, a result of culture. The historic role for women molds them to avoid muscles – to look thin, small, or frail in the upper body. A message emerges: “Let the man do it.” These roles are not benign, a fact reflected by changes in cultural views of sex and gender roles/expectations. While hewing to the feminine idea of the past might be easier, there is a price to pay later in life.

Anecdotally, men concern themselves with larger pecs, big biceps, and successful arm wrestling. Incidentally, when they can no longer do what they did as young men, some men give up doing much of anything. In my experience, women usually don’t surrender to age, but they traditionally resist both the look of a strong upper body and the labor necessary to achieve such strength. I have one client who feels afraid every time she has a weight over 10 pounds in her hands. Furthermore, women often defer to men: observe the next time you travel who lifts luggage in an airplane or brings baggage to the car. Life gets easier when someone else can grab the bags…but this ultimately makes later life harder – strength in the upper body is critical to the ability to break a fall, recover from injuries, and longevity.  

Now to clarify: muscle mass (how much muscle you have) and muscle strength (force or generated amount of contraction) relate to one another but are not mutually exclusive. Strength exists without mass in part due to neurological signaling and mechanics. Both decline with age, and strength declines faster. One measure that has been used (from an abundance of literature) to show overall muscle strength is grip strength. Grab your coffee cup – or anything that you can hold or squeeze – and pay attention to that whole side of your body. Even touch your working forearm, chest, or back. You will recognize muscle contraction throughout your arm and torso.

The upper body chain of contractions felt with a simple lift communicates that grip strength happens with more than your hands and helps to make sense of the fact that grip strength correlates with more rapid aging and greater frailty. Frailty threatens thriving. The threat is a serious one when viewed alongside longer life expectations, especially for women. Long life expectancies and thriving can be promoted by grip strength a factor that comes into play when, not if, we lose our balance and fall. The hands have the power to help – the falling, the getting up, and the recovery from the fall.

In my practice, I have 80-year-old women hanging from an apparatus and counting to ten. The goal I have for them is 30 seconds. I drive this goal because of what grip strength does – neurologically, mechanically, and psychologically. A great sense of achievement emerges with the act of hold the body up and witnessing the hands get stronger.

Help grip strength with lifting weights or these little tricks.   

1. Therapy Putty – I’ve seen this produce good results, and playing with playdough tends to kindle a sense of pleasure.

• Walk with heavy objects in each hand – if you don’t have access to kettlebells (best) or heavy dumbbells – use your groceries. I like people to think simultaneously about how they walk. Stand up straight – that means ears over shoulders, shoulders over hips, knees under hips and in line with the middle toes. People tend to slightly throw their hips back, projecting their body forward. Instead, the hips belong under the body with the lower abdominals engaged to prevent any kind of leaning. A good cue to promote this posture is to think of walking leading with the tailbone. Your steps will be smaller but the benefits greater.

• Hold high planks, or the bear crawl position. Try moving through it!

For some more tips on the importance of grip strength read a fall article from the New York Times, Why Your Grip Strength Matters and How to Improve It. Resources from the Cleveland Clinic which I usually trust, and which offers some interesting links between grip strength and the immune system.

The newest book out on longevity considers some studies out of England that show that grip strength is inversely related to dementia (see pages 201-203). While the book as a whole (but not the studies in it), and the forthcoming podcasts, seem focused on men, grip strength doesn’t discriminate according to gender.

Having strength in the grip is really critical for women. And this takes time, investment, and work!