Hand-grip strength of young men, women and highly trained female athletes

Abstract

Hand-grip strength has been identified as one limiting factor for manual lifting and carrying loads. To obtain epidemiologically relevant hand-grip strength data for pre-employment screening, we determined maximal isometric hand-grip strength in 1,654 healthy men and 533 healthy women aged 20-25 years. Moreover, to assess the potential margins for improvement in hand-grip strength of women by training, we studied 60 highly trained elite female athletes from sports known to require high hand-grip forces (judo, handball). Maximal isometric hand-grip force was recorded over 15 s using a handheld hand-grip ergometer. Biometric parameters included lean body mass (LBM) and hand dimensions. Mean maximal hand-grip strength showed the expected clear difference between men (541 N) and women (329 N). Less expected was the gender related distribution of hand-grip strength: 90% of females produced less force than 95% of males. Though female athletes were significantly stronger (444 N) than their untrained female counterparts, this value corresponded to only the 25th percentile of the male subjects. Hand-grip strength was linearly correlated with LBM. Furthermore, both relative hand-grip strength parameters (F (max)/body weight and F (max)/LBM) did not show any correlation to hand dimensions. The present findings show that the differences in hand-grip strength of men and women are larger than previously reported. An appreciable difference still remains when using lean body mass as reference. The results of female national elite athletes even indicate that the strength level attainable by extremely high training will rarely surpass the 50th percentile of untrained or not specifically trained men.

Comparison of three hand dynamometers in relation to the accuracy and precision of the measurements

“…Due to the fact that upper limb function has a crucial role in the normal activities of daily life 2,3 , grip strength tests are important and support the diagnosis of diseases that are associated with the loss of muscle strength [4][5][6][7] , assists health professionals to interpret diagnostic results and to establish appropriate treatment goals. 8 In addition to the assessment of disability 9 , response to treatment 10 and evaluation of the ability of a patient to return to work 11 , these tests can also be used for assessments in various sports modalities [12][13][14] and in tests for admission to different types of jobs 15 . Furthermore, grip strength measures are not only seen as an intrinsic measure of the hand strength or even limited to the assessment of the upper limbs.…”

Defined hangrip force / differences and error variability in healthy adults

“…Žene su ostvarivale levom rukom veću silu od muškaraca iako je opštepoznato da su muškarci dominantniji u aktivnostima koje zahtevaju snagu. Kada je u pitanju stisak šake, 90% treniranih žena ima silu stiska šake 95% od netrenitanih muškaraca (Leyk et al, 2007). Polne razlike u pogledu manuelnih sposobnosti se ogledaju u antropometrijskim parametrima ruke, mišićima koji učestvu-ju u stisku šake, neuralnoj kontroli mišića, u samoj strukturi mišića, kao i propriocepciji.…”

La fuerza isométrica del agarre en judo

“…Bonitch-Góngora et al (2013) Élite ( En la comparación entre géneros, los datos indican que los judokas masculinos sénior (Claessens et al, 1984;Franchini et al, 2005b) desarrollan más pico de fuerza isométrica que las judokas femeninas sénior (Leyk et al, 2007;Little, 1991), lo que está de acuerdo con otros estudios sobre la influencia del género en la capacidad de desarrollar fuerza en la mano (Aoki & Demura 2008;Dopsaj et al, 2007). Según algunos autores, esto puede deberse a la mayor masa muscular de los hombres (Imrhan, 2003;Nevill & Holder, 2000;Peebles & Norris 2003;Peolsson, Hedlund, & Oberg, 2001;Ruiz-Ruiz, Mesa, Gutiérrez, & Castillo, 2002), sobre todo en la parte superior del cuerpo (Miller, Macdougall, Tarnopolsky, & Sale, 1993).…”

“…Su evaluación también se considera muy importante en el rendimiento de determinadas modalidades deportivas (Fry et al, 2006;Leyk et al, 2007;Visnapuu & Jürimäe, 2007). El judo es un deporte de combate con agarre cuyo objetivo es proyectar al adversario sobre la espalda y/o controlarlo en el suelo.…”

“…Son numerosos los factores que influyen en el resultado del pico de fuerza isométrica máxima en la prensión manual. Así, por ejemplo, la fuerza del agarre en la mano dominante alcanza su pico máximo entre los 18 y 31 años en hombres y entre los 31 y 59 años en mujeres, y desciende significativamente después de los 60 años de edad (Budziareck, Duarte, & Barbosa-Silva, 2008), los hombres poseen mayores picos de fuerza y de potencia en el agarre que las mujeres (Aoki, & Demura 2008;Dopsaj et al, 2007;Leyk et al, 2007), la masa corporal correlaciona positivamente con la fuerza del agarre (Coelho e Silva, Figueiredo, Carvalho, & Malina, 2008), y los sujetos con mayor perímetro del antebrazo poseen mayores valores de fuerza en el agarre (Nicolay & Walker, 2005). En esta línea, se ha encontrado una relación positiva entre la masa corporal y el pico de fuerza en la prensión manual en judokas (Thomas, Cox, LeGal, Verde, & Smith, 1989), diferencias entre judokas de distintos grupos de edad (Little, 1991), y diferencias entre hombres y mujeres judokas en ambas manos (Franchini et al, 1997), aunque en esta investigación, cuando los datos se presentaban relativos a la masa corporal no se encontraron diferencias.…”