October 1, 2025 • 26 mins
Episode Highlights With Katie
- Why grip strength is one of the top predictors of longevity
- What low grip strength says about your nervous system and overall health
- Simple ways to test grip strength at home
- How grip strength connects to full-body strength and fall risk
- The difference between passive and active grip strength
- How farmer’s carries and dead hangs improve your whole system
- Why we lose grip strength with age—and how to reverse it
- Tools and tips for training grip in everyday life
- The role of protein, collagen, and recovery in maintaining strong hands
- A no-gym approach to stronger grip using real-life movements
- Grip strength tester
- Pull up bar
- Grip strength trainers
- Kion creatine or creatine from Bulk Supplements. Organifi Creatine Gummies
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welk On for My Body's podcast. This episode is brought
to you by Native Path, and I'd love to talk
about something that might surprise you. When you think creatine,
you might think muscle Jimbros. But here's what the research
actually shows. Creating is most incredible for your brain because
your brain uses about twenty percent of your body's energy,
and creating helps fuel those newer pathways. Studies show that
(00:25):
women who supplement with creatine experience better working memory, faster
processing speeds, and reduce mental fatigue. So if you're juggling work, family,
and everything in between, creating might be what you're looking for.
It also supports the body in a whole lot of
different ways, but I wanted to focus on the brain
aspect for now. When it comes to creating, though quality matters.
Creating modelhydrate is the most researched form, and I use
(00:46):
Native Path creatin. Most research says to start with three
to five grams a day that you don't need a
loading paste to spite what some sources say, I personally
have experimented with up to like ten grams per day
for the mental benefits, but as always, talk to your
own doctor or healthcare provider before starting anything, especially if
you have any health concerns. But for many women, creating
can be one of the safest, most research supplements available,
(01:08):
and for too long we've thought of it as for
just men. So if you want to try it, you
can save up to fifty six percent off as a
listener of this podcast, plus get free shipping at Wellnessmama
dot com Forward slash go forward slash Native Creatine, So
that's Wellnessmama dot com. Forward slash go forward slash n
at ive e c r E A t I n
(01:30):
E or the link is in the show notes. This
podcast is brought to you by Element and this is
a company you might have heard me talk about before,
and I really love their products because proper hydration leads
to better sleep, it sharpens focus, it improves energy, and
so much more. Mud Hydration is not about just drinking water,
because being optimally hydrated, a state called u hydration, is
(01:53):
about optimizing your body's fluid ratios and this fluid balance
depends on many factors, including the intake and excretion of electrolytes,
which many people don't get the right amounts of electrolytes
are charged minerals that conduct electricity to power your nervous system.
I talk a lot about nervous system on this podcast.
They also regulate hydration status by balancing fluids inside and
(02:13):
outside of ourselves. Element was created with the science backed
electrolyte ratio of one hundred milligrams of sodium, two hundred
milligrams of potassium, and sixty milligrams of magnesium with no sugar.
Since electrolytes are a key component of hydration, here's what happens.
When we get our electrolytes dialed in. We have more
steady energy, improved cognitive function, suffer fewer headaches and muscle cramps.
(02:35):
We can perform better for longer and especially the support
fasting or a low carb diet because when we stop
eating carbs, like during a fast, the absence of insulin
allows the kidneys to release sodium to Replacing that loss
sodium with electrolytes can help you feel good on the fast.
Since Element is zero sugar, it also doesn't break up fast.
Electrolytes are also important for maintaining blood pressure, regulating digestion,
(02:56):
and proper fluid balance, keeping skin hydrated, which is a
big that I feel like often gets missed. And so
much more. I feel like proper electrolytes is a missing
piece for a lot of people, and I love Elements
new canned drinks which are sparkling water with all the
same ratios of minerals I just talked about, and they
are delicious. You can check it out and learn more
(03:17):
at drink element dot com, slash Wellness Mama. That's d
R I m k l m nt dot com slash
wellness Mama and at that link you will receive a
free sample pack with any order. Hello and welcome to
the Wellness Mama podcast. I'm Katie from Wellnessmama dot com
and this episode is I will try to keep it
(03:38):
short as a solo episode will tackle the topic of
grip strength and how this is an overlooked longevity metric
and tool, as well as how to increase it, how
to test it, and everything else you need to know
about it. I find this personally fascinating and I love
that I got several follow up questions when I mentioned
(03:59):
this in passing, because I do feel like this is
a really cool, non scale related, non weight or size
of clothes related metric that we can focus on that
is actually very strongly correlated to longevity. In fact, grip
strength is considered is now considered one of the strongest
predictors of overall longevity, which is pretty dramatic and understandable
(04:20):
when we think about, for instance, doctor Gabrielle Lyon explaining
in multiple episodes of this podcast, how lean muscle mass
leads to longevity, and conceivably, the more lean muscle mass
we have and maintain, the stronger our grip strength. There
is also a nervous system component here as well, which
we'll talk about, but it's more than just the muscles
(04:42):
in our hand. Grip strength is a window into our
overall musclature, into our nervous system health, our overall muscle tone,
and potentially, seemingly based on this correlative data, our aging rate.
Most of us don't think about this at all, or
at the very least until it's already declining. However, this
is something very easy to test at home with or
(05:03):
without a grip strength tester, and is also something we
can increase at home without needing a gym membership because
simple things, as I will explain, like hanging from a
bar doing something called farmers carries with any kind of weight,
I'll explain some at home options or some other simple
at home things can really make a difference when it
comes to grip strength. And here's why it matters. Studies
(05:28):
show that low grip strength, especially as we age, is
linked to increase risk of all cos mortality. So, in
other words, risk of dying from all causes, higher incidents
of heart disease and stroke, which are two of the
big killers of a lot of people, as we know,
lower cognitive function, higher risk of falls and fractures. So
(05:51):
the correlative data, but it is very strong, and it's
a proxy floor full body strength and nervous system function.
It also seemingly has a very strong correlation with biological
age markers. I've seen some data on this. I've also
seen a lot of ANEC data on this in that
athletes that I've worked with who have very strong grip strength,
(06:12):
even some upwards of were up to like two hundred
pounds of pressure, which is tremendously strong grip strength, had
also very young biological age, even in their teen some
of them as twenty eight or thirty year old athletes.
For me, personally, the highest grip strength I've gotten I
believe was one point forty I routinely can get usually
(06:33):
in the one twenties now, and I will see if
I can find that picture and posted in the show notes.
And my biological age, as I talked about in a
recent episode recently was twenty one point seven. So I
do think there's some correlation here. I don't think it's
only correlative that it relates to aging and longevity. I
think there actually probably is a pretty strong connection. Now.
(06:57):
The good news is and grip strength is not something
we need to go to a facility or a doctor
or test in any kind of fancy way. There's multiple options.
One option is a grip strength tester, also known as
a dynamic major, which I will link to in the
show notes. These are There are some inexpensive options. I
have bought quite a few from Amazon. I will say
(07:17):
warning if you get one, specially to plastic ones that
are inexpensive, as your grip strength gets better, they can break.
We've broken quite a few, actually, especially if people are
able to get up closer to two hundred, or if
you could above two hundred, which I have personally done.
But if you do, you'll get an error message that
only goes up to about two hundred. However, for most
people that is going to be plenty and let us
(07:38):
keep progressing for a long time. This is the most
accurate measures who are max grip force in pounds or kilograms.
This is what's widely used in the research studies if
you readed any of them. There are actually quite a
few research studies in PubMed about grip strength and its
correlation to longevity. However, if you don't have a grip
strength tester and you don't want to get one, there
(08:01):
are other ones that you can do at home that
don't require any equipment at all, including hanging from a
bar seeing how long you can hang. This is also
separately of grip strength a predictor of longevity, and this
is what you can do. You can hang, see how
long you can hang, and then see if you can
have that number go up over time. As a separate
(08:21):
maybe I'll do an entire episode on this at some point.
Hanging in and of itself is a natural human movement
and it's really good for us in a lot of ways.
Seemingly it helps grip strength and therefore longevity. However, it's
also good for spinal posture for shoulders. In fact, I've
had a couple of guests who do either mobility or
physical therapy work say that many shoulder issues can be
greatly helped by simply hanging for three minutes a day,
(08:45):
even if we have to break that up into a
bunch of small chunks to be able to get to
three minutes. For the perspective of grip strength, however, really
this can be as simple as just see how long
you can hang and see if you can get that
number to go up over time. Others test can you
easily twist the lid off of a jar? Losing our
ability to open jars over time can be a warning
(09:06):
sign of declining grip strength, as well as the farmers
carry test, which is simply how health far or how
long can you walk carrying relatively heavy weights, So weights
that between your two hands are somewhere between fifty and
seventy five percent of your body weight, how long can
you walk while holding those? The great thing is these
(09:28):
can also be done at home, either with something like
heavy kettlebells or dumbbells, or if you don't have weights
at home, you can use a couple of five gallon
buckets filled with rocks or water and see how long
you can walk with that with any of these at
home options. If you track it over time, you're just
simply wanting these metrics to improve, as so hanging longer,
(09:50):
walking further with more weight, et cetera. If your grip
strength isn't where you would like it, or if you
simply want to increase it that Since this ties so
strongly too longevity, this is something I play with quite often.
Are ways to increase grip strength if you want to
increase it without going to a gym. Here are some ideas,
I will say, also going to the gym in lifting weights,
(10:12):
especially weights involving a bar or doing pull ups very
good for increasing grip strength as well. But I'm going
to focus today on things we can do at home
daily habits that are easy that don't require fancy equipment.
Some things like this that we can do are things
like carrying our groceries instead of always using a cart.
So for big shopping trips, I do have to u
(10:33):
as a KRT because the amount of groceries required for
all my kids. However, if I can, I'll carry just
a basket. You know I'm getting a lot of heavy things.
It's just a chance to practice grip strength. Same thing
with like twisting off lids, hand squeezing citrus, hanging, doing
monkey bars, things like that, basically anything we can work
into our daily lives that relies on our grip strength.
(10:57):
Another one. I joke that the real reason I work
out that I can carry all of my groceries in
one trip, and I will often park quite far away
at the store and then try not to take the
cart out of the store. So once everything's in bags,
and I'll often use cloth bags so I can fit
more weight in them, but with short handles, then I
try to carry all of them to the car without
(11:18):
the basket, so that's essentially a long farmer's carrying can
be quite the workout. If you know a lot of bags.
There are these cool carabiner type like really strong care
beaners that look like handles, so they are perfect for
group strength testing and let you keep more bags on
those without having your circulation cut off in your wrist
or hands. As I mentioned, farmer carries are another easy
(11:42):
one we can do at home that is a part
of our daily life. Both of these things simply hanging,
like I mentioned before, where farmers carry, are basic human
movements we were meant to push, to pull, to walk,
to carry, and we simply don't do these things as
much as we were meant to anymore. So, like I said,
this is as simple as get too heavy something that
are very that are equal in weight, whether it's dumbbells, kettlebells,
(12:04):
heavy buckets of something, whatever it is, and try to
walk thirty to sixty seconds while carrying them with a
strong upright core and without shoulders up here, shoulders relaxed,
arms at your side daily maybe lapsed engaged, but strong
spinal posture, and then try to extend that over time.
You could do several rounds of that. The reason it's
(12:25):
called farmers carry is that we often did these things
all the time when we were more movement based in
our daily lifestyles and were just required in daily activities.
I know I do a lot of this on days
that I am working in my yard, whether I am
carrying like things around. This is just a normal human
activity that we've largely lost. It's also one of the
most effective full body and grip strength exercises, and you
(12:49):
could start light and build up. Don't injure yourself, of course,
but start light but challenging and build up from there
Another one I love that I feel like is almost
universally beneficial for humans is a dead hang. And I
mentioned this one briefly as a possible test of your
grip strength. It's also a tremendous way to improve your
(13:09):
grip strength, which is simply hanging from a pullet bar,
a tree branch, a doorway, bullet bar, whatever you have available.
This builds passive grip strength. It also is good, like
I said, for shoulder stability and spinal posture, and some
metrics here show that hitting certain targets of this also
correlate with longevity. So we kind of at any age
(13:31):
want to be able to hang for at least sixty seconds,
ideally ninety seconds, or even up to three minutes depending
on age. I will say I'm not up to three
minutes yet, however, my average hangtime daily is about ninety seconds.
I also notice a connection here with my recovery and
my readiness score on my or ring. So on days
(13:53):
when I have not slept well, where I don't feel
recovered from a workout the day before, I will not
be able to hang as long as I normally would.
So this to me is actually an indicator of when
I need a recovery day or to not push myself
as hard, and it lines up with data from my
ordering that indicates the same thing. If you are new
to hanging, it can be very normal to only be
(14:13):
able to hang for ten to thirty seconds, and that's fine,
that's great data and we can build from there. When
I first started, I was only hanging for maybe fifteen
seconds at most, and I have built up from there.
You can also try active hangs where you engage your
shoulders and you lift yourself by engaging your scapula or
move your body. Also, if you want to engage your
(14:33):
core to make it more fun while you're hanging there
for three minutes, you can raise just your knees or
if you're capable, your legs to create kind of an
L shape where your body's hanging, your legs are straight
out in front of you. If you want to get
fancy or just for fun. There are some grip tools
and training aids, and I have some of these at
my house as well. I'll linked to a couple of
(14:55):
them in the show notes. But there are group trainers,
which are usually spring loaded or resistance based, that you
squeeze if you don't have a grip strength tester. These
can also sometimes give you a good idea of what
your grip strength is because you can sometimes either adjust
the pressure of the poundage on them or they'll be
an incremental stronger ones and snoop, which are when you're
(15:16):
able to squeeze all the way closed, kind of gives
you an idea of where your grip strength is. You
can also use wider grips on things like dumbbells or
barbells to engage your four arm more, which also helps
with grip strength, or just use different methods of gripping
and lifting. Grabbing things with fingers can be helpful with
that's a more advanced move. Another one, this one is
(15:40):
deceptively hard, is using rice bucket or sand bucket. I
personally like the rice bucket. It's a little bit less messy.
It literally is just a two, three or even five
gallon bucket filled with rice. You want to use inexpensive rice.
You're not going to be eating this rice. And this
is literally moving your hand around in a bucket of rice,
and it is incredible how fatiguing this can be to
(16:03):
the hand and forearm. What I like about this is
most grip strength activities like hanging or training in a
closed hand position. This one you're also opening your hands,
spreading your fingers and moving all the way around in
the rice, which engages a lot more of the tendons
and muscles within the hands. So this could be really helpful,
but again you will be surprised at how fatiguing it
(16:25):
can be if you've never done this before. Similarly, there
are squeeze balls or grip squeezers that you can have
just simply in your house. While you're watching TV or relaxing,
you can be doing these activities especially kind of like
to me, this is a more beneficial version of a
fidget spinner because it's improving your grip strength while you're
at it. Some brief other things that can help. Like
(16:47):
I said, all the ones we've talked about so far
can be done at home, either for free or very inexpensive.
Now I want to briefly just touch on some of
the more well known ones, of course, that we can
do at a gym that I would believe guess most
people are pretty familiar with. But things like deadlifts, pull ups,
rose kettlebells, wings, anything that involves gripping is as you
(17:07):
would expect good for our grip strength. And if you
are working out of the gym again, you can get
a lot of this grip benefit by hanging, but as
you build it up, you can further increase it by
adding in some of these more compound lifts. Even interestingly,
body weight exercises are really beneficial here. So it seems
(17:29):
logical that pull ups would be helpful because you're gripping
the bar, but seemingly even push ups are helpful for
grip strength, and potentially this is because the hand is
being extended and engaged in gropping the ground. But I
think this is just another checkbox in favor of body
weight exercises and how beneficial they can be, and for
people who are already lifters and lift heavyweights in the gym,
(17:51):
one encouragement I've read when it comes to grip strength
is to not always use lifting straps, allow your grip
to be the limitter occasionally so that you can lenge
the upper ranges of your grip, even if that means
you're not maxing out your weight in that particular workout.
This episode is brought to you by Native Path, and
(18:11):
I'd love to talk about something that might surprise you
when you think creatine, you might think muscle jimbros. But
here's what the research actually shows. Creating is most incredible
for your brain because your brain uses about twenty percent
of your body's energy, and creating helps fuel those newer pathways.
Studies show that women who supplement with creatine experience better
working memory, faster processing speeds, and reduce mental fatigue. So
(18:33):
if you're juggling work, family, and everything in between, creating
might be what you're looking for. It also supports the
body in a whole lot of different ways, but I
wanted to focus on the brain aspect for now. When
it comes to creating, though, quality matters. Creating monohydrate is
the most researched form, and I use native path creatine.
Most research says to start with three to five grams
a day, that you don't need a loading paste to
(18:55):
supite what some sources say. I personally have experimented with
up to like ten grams per day for the mental benefits.
But as always, talk to your own doctor or healthcare
provider before starting anything, especially if you have any health concerns.
But for many women, creating can be one of the safest.
Most research supplements available, and for too long we've thought
of it as for just men. So if you want
(19:15):
to try it, you can save up to fifty six
percent off as a listener of this podcast, plus get
free shipping at Wellnessmama dot com. Forward slash go forward
slash Native Creatine. So that's wellness Maama dot com. Forward
slash go forward, slash n at I ve E c
r E A t I n E or the link
is in the show notes. This podcast is brought to
(19:37):
you by Element and this is a company you might
have heard me talk about before, and I really love
their products because proper hydration leads to better sleep, it
sharpens focus, it improves energy, and so much more. M
Hydration is not about just drinking water, because being optimally hydrated,
a state called u hydration, is about optimizing your body's
(19:57):
fluid ratios. And this fluid balance depends on many factors,
including the intake and excretion of electrolytes, which many people
don't get the right amounts of electrolytes are charged minerals
that conduct electricity to power your nervous system. I talk
a lot about nervous system on this podcast. They also
regulate hydration status by balancing fluids inside and outside of ourselves.
(20:18):
Element was created with the science backed electrolyte ratio of
one hundred milligrams of sodium, two hundred milligrams of potassium,
and sixty milligrams of magnesium with no sugar. Since electrolytes
are a key component of hydration, here's what happens. When
we get our electrolytes dialed in. We have more steady energy,
improved cognitive function, suffer fewer headaches and muscle crams. We
can perform better for longer and especially the support fasting
(20:41):
or low carb diet because when we stop eating carbs,
like during a fast, the absence of insulin allows the
kidneys to release sodium, So replacing that loss sodium with
electrolytes can help you feel good on the fast. Since
Element is zero sugar, it also doesn't break up fast.
Electrolytes are also important for maintaining blood pressure, regulating digestion,
upper fluid balance, keeping skin hydrated, which is a big
(21:03):
one that I feel like often gets missed, and so
much more. I feel like properer electrolytes is a missing
piece for a lot of people, and I love elements
new canned drinks which are sparkling water with all the
same ratios of minerals I just talked about, and they
are delicious. You can check it out and learn more
at drink element dot com slash Wellness Mama. That's d
(21:24):
r nk l mnt dot com slash Wellness Mama, and
at that link you will receive a free sample pack
with any order. On a side note about nutrition and recovery,
You're not going to be surprised to hear me talk
about this, however, Just like any kind of exercise or activity,
recovery is equally important as stimulus, and something that comes
(21:47):
into play here is adequate protein intake to support muscle
repair and strength. I won't go deep on this in
this episode because I've talked about it before, as have
a lot of guests, including Doctri. Gabriel Lion is I
go to when it comes to muscle mass and longevity
and all of the reasons this is important, so I
will link to her episodes in the show notes where
(22:07):
you can google them by searching for her name and
Wellness Mama. But adequate protein intake supports many aspects of
muscle building, including grip, strinth, muscle building. Creating, there's some
evidence may support muscle performance, including grip strength, and this
is another one I've talked about. I'll link to my
episode entirely on creating in the show notes. Interesting side note,
(22:30):
Doctor Ronda Patrick, who I really respect, recently had recording
about how she increased her creatine dosage from five grams
a day to ten grams today. Five grams is kind
of recommended in the muscle range, and she believes there
are additional brain benefits in the more ten range. But
I've personally seen benefits from taking Creating and feel like
(22:53):
in most cases this is a beneficial supplement. Of course,
ask your professionals if you have any condition. Ever, however,
I've felt I've had good effects from Creating, and I
feel like for most people it's very beneficial. In that
same vein, collagen and vitamin C are synergistic to this
in attendant ligament support way. It's not just about our muscles.
(23:15):
We're only as strong as also our tendons and our ligaments,
and that's where a lot of injuries happen. So I
personally take a lot of collagen and vitamin C along
with minerals which I feel like are not talked about
enough in the context of joint support, especially silica to
help avoid injury, and thankfully, in my last several years
of weightlifting, heavier and heavier weights have had no major injuries.
(23:38):
And as you would also expect, sleep and recovery matter
just as much as training and stimulus when it comes
to building and kind of muscle, including grip strength. In
almost a thousand episodes of this podcast, I am yet
to have one single guest not say that sleep was
important or say that sleep was not important, and many, many,
(23:58):
many talk about this being one of the biggest factors
in health. It ties into the nervous system aspect as well.
I think that's why when I have poor sleep or
I'm not recovered, my grip strength is lower, my recovery
is lower, so sleep is important. In the interest of
keeping this short, I'm going to now briefly go through
summary and can take aways as well as some very
(24:19):
quick action steps and grip strength is a reliable and
expensive and actionable biomarker of health that does not require
a doctor to test. It is never too late to
improve it. I have seen some incredibly inspiring videos of
women in their sixties seventies and beyond, learning to do
pull ups for the first time and then eventually being
(24:40):
able to do monkey bars and all kinds of incredible feats.
Results come from baby steps with consistency, not from massive
one day efforts. We can all train our grip like
our life depends on it, because it actually based on
the data. Might We can also combine strength training with
real life activities and targeted grip work if we want to,
(25:00):
so Action steps. Test your grip this week with either
a dead hang or a grip strength trainer linked to
the show notes if you want one. They are really
fun and it's fun to see my kids compete on
that as well. Added a couple of grip focused exercises
a couple times a week. Whether it's farmers, carry hanging,
maybe it's a bucket of rice, just experiment and have
them with it. Be intentional about using your hands more
(25:23):
or doing more body weight type exercises, and try to lift, carry, hang,
or squeeze something every single day. As always, I am
so grateful for you for sharing your time, for your
questions for the topics you guys suggest. I love to
get feedback from you, so please feel free to leave
a comment, to respond in the show notes, or to
(25:46):
leave an honest rating overview wherever you listen to podcasts
where you can DM me on Instagram. I read all
of those, and I would love to hear what you
would love me to talk about. Who you would love
for me to talk to next. Any questions that you
have are topics that you would find interest But for today,
thank you so much for sharing your time and your
energy and your attention with me. I don't take that lately.
(26:07):
I'm honored that you are here, and I hope that
you will join me again on the next episode of
the Bonus Mama podcast. If you're enjoying these interviews, would
you please take two minutes to leave a rating or
review on iTunes for me. Doing this helps more people
to find the podcast, which means even more moms and
families can benefit from the information. I really appreciate your
(26:28):
time and thanks as always for listening.
Welk On for My Body's podcast. This episode is brought
to you by Native Path, and I'd love to talk
about something that might surprise you. When you think creatine,
you might think muscle Jimbros. But here's what the research
actually shows. Creating is most incredible for your brain because
your brain uses about twenty percent of your body's energy,
and creating helps fuel those newer pathways. Studies show that
(00:25):
women who supplement with creatine experience better working memory, faster
processing speeds, and reduce mental fatigue. So if you're juggling work, family,
and everything in between, creating might be what you're looking for.
It also supports the body in a whole lot of
different ways, but I wanted to focus on the brain
aspect for now. When it comes to creating, though quality matters.
Creating modelhydrate is the most researched form, and I use
(00:46):
Native Path creatin. Most research says to start with three
to five grams a day that you don't need a
loading paste to spite what some sources say, I personally
have experimented with up to like ten grams per day
for the mental benefits, but as always, talk to your
own doctor or healthcare provider before starting anything, especially if
you have any health concerns. But for many women, creating
can be one of the safest, most research supplements available,
(01:08):
and for too long we've thought of it as for
just men. So if you want to try it, you
can save up to fifty six percent off as a
listener of this podcast, plus get free shipping at Wellnessmama
dot com Forward slash go forward slash Native Creatine, So
that's Wellnessmama dot com. Forward slash go forward slash n
at ive e c r E A t I n
(01:30):
E or the link is in the show notes. This
podcast is brought to you by Element and this is
a company you might have heard me talk about before,
and I really love their products because proper hydration leads
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at drink element dot com, slash Wellness Mama. That's d
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wellness Mama and at that link you will receive a
free sample pack with any order. Hello and welcome to
the Wellness Mama podcast. I'm Katie from Wellnessmama dot com
and this episode is I will try to keep it
(03:38):
short as a solo episode will tackle the topic of
grip strength and how this is an overlooked longevity metric
and tool, as well as how to increase it, how
to test it, and everything else you need to know
about it. I find this personally fascinating and I love
that I got several follow up questions when I mentioned
(03:59):
this in passing, because I do feel like this is
a really cool, non scale related, non weight or size
of clothes related metric that we can focus on that
is actually very strongly correlated to longevity. In fact, grip
strength is considered is now considered one of the strongest
predictors of overall longevity, which is pretty dramatic and understandable
(04:20):
when we think about, for instance, doctor Gabrielle Lyon explaining
in multiple episodes of this podcast, how lean muscle mass
leads to longevity, and conceivably, the more lean muscle mass
we have and maintain, the stronger our grip strength. There
is also a nervous system component here as well, which
we'll talk about, but it's more than just the muscles
(04:42):
in our hand. Grip strength is a window into our
overall musclature, into our nervous system health, our overall muscle tone,
and potentially, seemingly based on this correlative data, our aging rate.
Most of us don't think about this at all, or
at the very least until it's already declining. However, this
is something very easy to test at home with or
(05:03):
without a grip strength tester, and is also something we
can increase at home without needing a gym membership because
simple things, as I will explain, like hanging from a
bar doing something called farmers carries with any kind of weight,
I'll explain some at home options or some other simple
at home things can really make a difference when it
comes to grip strength. And here's why it matters. Studies
(05:28):
show that low grip strength, especially as we age, is
linked to increase risk of all cos mortality. So, in
other words, risk of dying from all causes, higher incidents
of heart disease and stroke, which are two of the
big killers of a lot of people, as we know,
lower cognitive function, higher risk of falls and fractures. So
(05:51):
the correlative data, but it is very strong, and it's
a proxy floor full body strength and nervous system function.
It also seemingly has a very strong correlation with biological
age markers. I've seen some data on this. I've also
seen a lot of ANEC data on this in that
athletes that I've worked with who have very strong grip strength,
(06:12):
even some upwards of were up to like two hundred
pounds of pressure, which is tremendously strong grip strength, had
also very young biological age, even in their teen some
of them as twenty eight or thirty year old athletes.
For me, personally, the highest grip strength I've gotten I
believe was one point forty I routinely can get usually
(06:33):
in the one twenties now, and I will see if
I can find that picture and posted in the show notes.
And my biological age, as I talked about in a
recent episode recently was twenty one point seven. So I
do think there's some correlation here. I don't think it's
only correlative that it relates to aging and longevity. I
think there actually probably is a pretty strong connection. Now.
(06:57):
The good news is and grip strength is not something
we need to go to a facility or a doctor
or test in any kind of fancy way. There's multiple options.
One option is a grip strength tester, also known as
a dynamic major, which I will link to in the
show notes. These are There are some inexpensive options. I
have bought quite a few from Amazon. I will say
(07:17):
warning if you get one, specially to plastic ones that
are inexpensive, as your grip strength gets better, they can break.
We've broken quite a few, actually, especially if people are
able to get up closer to two hundred, or if
you could above two hundred, which I have personally done.
But if you do, you'll get an error message that
only goes up to about two hundred. However, for most
people that is going to be plenty and let us
(07:38):
keep progressing for a long time. This is the most
accurate measures who are max grip force in pounds or kilograms.
This is what's widely used in the research studies if
you readed any of them. There are actually quite a
few research studies in PubMed about grip strength and its
correlation to longevity. However, if you don't have a grip
strength tester and you don't want to get one, there
(08:01):
are other ones that you can do at home that
don't require any equipment at all, including hanging from a
bar seeing how long you can hang. This is also
separately of grip strength a predictor of longevity, and this
is what you can do. You can hang, see how
long you can hang, and then see if you can
have that number go up over time. As a separate
(08:21):
maybe I'll do an entire episode on this at some point.
Hanging in and of itself is a natural human movement
and it's really good for us in a lot of ways.
Seemingly it helps grip strength and therefore longevity. However, it's
also good for spinal posture for shoulders. In fact, I've
had a couple of guests who do either mobility or
physical therapy work say that many shoulder issues can be
greatly helped by simply hanging for three minutes a day,
(08:45):
even if we have to break that up into a
bunch of small chunks to be able to get to
three minutes. For the perspective of grip strength, however, really
this can be as simple as just see how long
you can hang and see if you can get that
number to go up over time. Others test can you
easily twist the lid off of a jar? Losing our
ability to open jars over time can be a warning
(09:06):
sign of declining grip strength, as well as the farmers
carry test, which is simply how health far or how
long can you walk carrying relatively heavy weights, So weights
that between your two hands are somewhere between fifty and
seventy five percent of your body weight, how long can
you walk while holding those? The great thing is these
(09:28):
can also be done at home, either with something like
heavy kettlebells or dumbbells, or if you don't have weights
at home, you can use a couple of five gallon
buckets filled with rocks or water and see how long
you can walk with that with any of these at
home options. If you track it over time, you're just
simply wanting these metrics to improve, as so hanging longer,
(09:50):
walking further with more weight, et cetera. If your grip
strength isn't where you would like it, or if you
simply want to increase it that Since this ties so
strongly too longevity, this is something I play with quite often.
Are ways to increase grip strength if you want to
increase it without going to a gym. Here are some ideas,
I will say, also going to the gym in lifting weights,
(10:12):
especially weights involving a bar or doing pull ups very
good for increasing grip strength as well. But I'm going
to focus today on things we can do at home
daily habits that are easy that don't require fancy equipment.
Some things like this that we can do are things
like carrying our groceries instead of always using a cart.
So for big shopping trips, I do have to u
(10:33):
as a KRT because the amount of groceries required for
all my kids. However, if I can, I'll carry just
a basket. You know I'm getting a lot of heavy things.
It's just a chance to practice grip strength. Same thing
with like twisting off lids, hand squeezing citrus, hanging, doing
monkey bars, things like that, basically anything we can work
into our daily lives that relies on our grip strength.
(10:57):
Another one. I joke that the real reason I work
out that I can carry all of my groceries in
one trip, and I will often park quite far away
at the store and then try not to take the
cart out of the store. So once everything's in bags,
and I'll often use cloth bags so I can fit
more weight in them, but with short handles, then I
try to carry all of them to the car without
(11:18):
the basket, so that's essentially a long farmer's carrying can
be quite the workout. If you know a lot of bags.
There are these cool carabiner type like really strong care
beaners that look like handles, so they are perfect for
group strength testing and let you keep more bags on
those without having your circulation cut off in your wrist
or hands. As I mentioned, farmer carries are another easy
(11:42):
one we can do at home that is a part
of our daily life. Both of these things simply hanging,
like I mentioned before, where farmers carry, are basic human
movements we were meant to push, to pull, to walk,
to carry, and we simply don't do these things as
much as we were meant to anymore. So, like I said,
this is as simple as get too heavy something that
are very that are equal in weight, whether it's dumbbells, kettlebells,
(12:04):
heavy buckets of something, whatever it is, and try to
walk thirty to sixty seconds while carrying them with a
strong upright core and without shoulders up here, shoulders relaxed,
arms at your side daily maybe lapsed engaged, but strong
spinal posture, and then try to extend that over time.
You could do several rounds of that. The reason it's
(12:25):
called farmers carry is that we often did these things
all the time when we were more movement based in
our daily lifestyles and were just required in daily activities.
I know I do a lot of this on days
that I am working in my yard, whether I am
carrying like things around. This is just a normal human
activity that we've largely lost. It's also one of the
most effective full body and grip strength exercises, and you
(12:49):
could start light and build up. Don't injure yourself, of course,
but start light but challenging and build up from there
Another one I love that I feel like is almost
universally beneficial for humans is a dead hang. And I
mentioned this one briefly as a possible test of your
grip strength. It's also a tremendous way to improve your
(13:09):
grip strength, which is simply hanging from a pullet bar,
a tree branch, a doorway, bullet bar, whatever you have available.
This builds passive grip strength. It also is good, like
I said, for shoulder stability and spinal posture, and some
metrics here show that hitting certain targets of this also
correlate with longevity. So we kind of at any age
(13:31):
want to be able to hang for at least sixty seconds,
ideally ninety seconds, or even up to three minutes depending
on age. I will say I'm not up to three
minutes yet, however, my average hangtime daily is about ninety seconds.
I also notice a connection here with my recovery and
my readiness score on my or ring. So on days
(13:53):
when I have not slept well, where I don't feel
recovered from a workout the day before, I will not
be able to hang as long as I normally would.
So this to me is actually an indicator of when
I need a recovery day or to not push myself
as hard, and it lines up with data from my
ordering that indicates the same thing. If you are new
to hanging, it can be very normal to only be
(14:13):
able to hang for ten to thirty seconds, and that's fine,
that's great data and we can build from there. When
I first started, I was only hanging for maybe fifteen
seconds at most, and I have built up from there.
You can also try active hangs where you engage your
shoulders and you lift yourself by engaging your scapula or
move your body. Also, if you want to engage your
(14:33):
core to make it more fun while you're hanging there
for three minutes, you can raise just your knees or
if you're capable, your legs to create kind of an
L shape where your body's hanging, your legs are straight
out in front of you. If you want to get
fancy or just for fun. There are some grip tools
and training aids, and I have some of these at
my house as well. I'll linked to a couple of
(14:55):
them in the show notes. But there are group trainers,
which are usually spring loaded or resistance based, that you
squeeze if you don't have a grip strength tester. These
can also sometimes give you a good idea of what
your grip strength is because you can sometimes either adjust
the pressure of the poundage on them or they'll be
an incremental stronger ones and snoop, which are when you're
(15:16):
able to squeeze all the way closed, kind of gives
you an idea of where your grip strength is. You
can also use wider grips on things like dumbbells or
barbells to engage your four arm more, which also helps
with grip strength, or just use different methods of gripping
and lifting. Grabbing things with fingers can be helpful with
that's a more advanced move. Another one, this one is
(15:40):
deceptively hard, is using rice bucket or sand bucket. I
personally like the rice bucket. It's a little bit less messy.
It literally is just a two, three or even five
gallon bucket filled with rice. You want to use inexpensive rice.
You're not going to be eating this rice. And this
is literally moving your hand around in a bucket of rice,
and it is incredible how fatiguing this can be to
(16:03):
the hand and forearm. What I like about this is
most grip strength activities like hanging or training in a
closed hand position. This one you're also opening your hands,
spreading your fingers and moving all the way around in
the rice, which engages a lot more of the tendons
and muscles within the hands. So this could be really helpful,
but again you will be surprised at how fatiguing it
(16:25):
can be if you've never done this before. Similarly, there
are squeeze balls or grip squeezers that you can have
just simply in your house. While you're watching TV or relaxing,
you can be doing these activities especially kind of like
to me, this is a more beneficial version of a
fidget spinner because it's improving your grip strength while you're
at it. Some brief other things that can help. Like
(16:47):
I said, all the ones we've talked about so far
can be done at home, either for free or very inexpensive.
Now I want to briefly just touch on some of
the more well known ones, of course, that we can
do at a gym that I would believe guess most
people are pretty familiar with. But things like deadlifts, pull ups,
rose kettlebells, wings, anything that involves gripping is as you
(17:07):
would expect good for our grip strength. And if you
are working out of the gym again, you can get
a lot of this grip benefit by hanging, but as
you build it up, you can further increase it by
adding in some of these more compound lifts. Even interestingly,
body weight exercises are really beneficial here. So it seems
(17:29):
logical that pull ups would be helpful because you're gripping
the bar, but seemingly even push ups are helpful for
grip strength, and potentially this is because the hand is
being extended and engaged in gropping the ground. But I
think this is just another checkbox in favor of body
weight exercises and how beneficial they can be, and for
people who are already lifters and lift heavyweights in the gym,
(17:51):
one encouragement I've read when it comes to grip strength
is to not always use lifting straps, allow your grip
to be the limitter occasionally so that you can lenge
the upper ranges of your grip, even if that means
you're not maxing out your weight in that particular workout.
This episode is brought to you by Native Path, and
(18:11):
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when you think creatine, you might think muscle jimbros. But
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Studies show that women who supplement with creatine experience better
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Most research says to start with three to five grams
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(18:55):
supite what some sources say. I personally have experimented with
up to like ten grams per day for the mental benefits.
But as always, talk to your own doctor or healthcare
provider before starting anything, especially if you have any health concerns.
But for many women, creating can be one of the safest.
Most research supplements available, and for too long we've thought
of it as for just men. So if you want
(19:15):
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r E A t I n E or the link
is in the show notes. This podcast is brought to
(19:37):
you by Element and this is a company you might
have heard me talk about before, and I really love
their products because proper hydration leads to better sleep, it
sharpens focus, it improves energy, and so much more. M
Hydration is not about just drinking water, because being optimally hydrated,
a state called u hydration, is about optimizing your body's
(19:57):
fluid ratios. And this fluid balance depends on many factors,
including the intake and excretion of electrolytes, which many people
don't get the right amounts of electrolytes are charged minerals
that conduct electricity to power your nervous system. I talk
a lot about nervous system on this podcast. They also
regulate hydration status by balancing fluids inside and outside of ourselves.
(20:18):
Element was created with the science backed electrolyte ratio of
one hundred milligrams of sodium, two hundred milligrams of potassium,
and sixty milligrams of magnesium with no sugar. Since electrolytes
are a key component of hydration, here's what happens. When
we get our electrolytes dialed in. We have more steady energy,
improved cognitive function, suffer fewer headaches and muscle crams. We
can perform better for longer and especially the support fasting
(20:41):
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like during a fast, the absence of insulin allows the
kidneys to release sodium, So replacing that loss sodium with
electrolytes can help you feel good on the fast. Since
Element is zero sugar, it also doesn't break up fast.
Electrolytes are also important for maintaining blood pressure, regulating digestion,
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(21:24):
r nk l mnt dot com slash Wellness Mama, and
at that link you will receive a free sample pack
with any order. On a side note about nutrition and recovery,
You're not going to be surprised to hear me talk
about this, however, Just like any kind of exercise or activity,
recovery is equally important as stimulus, and something that comes
(21:47):
into play here is adequate protein intake to support muscle
repair and strength. I won't go deep on this in
this episode because I've talked about it before, as have
a lot of guests, including Doctri. Gabriel Lion is I
go to when it comes to muscle mass and longevity
and all of the reasons this is important, so I
will link to her episodes in the show notes where
(22:07):
you can google them by searching for her name and
Wellness Mama. But adequate protein intake supports many aspects of
muscle building, including grip, strinth, muscle building. Creating, there's some
evidence may support muscle performance, including grip strength, and this
is another one I've talked about. I'll link to my
episode entirely on creating in the show notes. Interesting side note,
(22:30):
Doctor Ronda Patrick, who I really respect, recently had recording
about how she increased her creatine dosage from five grams
a day to ten grams today. Five grams is kind
of recommended in the muscle range, and she believes there
are additional brain benefits in the more ten range. But
I've personally seen benefits from taking Creating and feel like
(22:53):
in most cases this is a beneficial supplement. Of course,
ask your professionals if you have any condition. Ever, however,
I've felt I've had good effects from Creating, and I
feel like for most people it's very beneficial. In that
same vein, collagen and vitamin C are synergistic to this
in attendant ligament support way. It's not just about our muscles.
(23:15):
We're only as strong as also our tendons and our ligaments,
and that's where a lot of injuries happen. So I
personally take a lot of collagen and vitamin C along
with minerals which I feel like are not talked about
enough in the context of joint support, especially silica to
help avoid injury, and thankfully, in my last several years
of weightlifting, heavier and heavier weights have had no major injuries.
(23:38):
And as you would also expect, sleep and recovery matter
just as much as training and stimulus when it comes
to building and kind of muscle, including grip strength. In
almost a thousand episodes of this podcast, I am yet
to have one single guest not say that sleep was
important or say that sleep was not important, and many, many,
(23:58):
many talk about this being one of the biggest factors
in health. It ties into the nervous system aspect as well.
I think that's why when I have poor sleep or
I'm not recovered, my grip strength is lower, my recovery
is lower, so sleep is important. In the interest of
keeping this short, I'm going to now briefly go through
summary and can take aways as well as some very
(24:19):
quick action steps and grip strength is a reliable and
expensive and actionable biomarker of health that does not require
a doctor to test. It is never too late to
improve it. I have seen some incredibly inspiring videos of
women in their sixties seventies and beyond, learning to do
pull ups for the first time and then eventually being
(24:40):
able to do monkey bars and all kinds of incredible feats.
Results come from baby steps with consistency, not from massive
one day efforts. We can all train our grip like
our life depends on it, because it actually based on
the data. Might We can also combine strength training with
real life activities and targeted grip work if we want to,
(25:00):
so Action steps. Test your grip this week with either
a dead hang or a grip strength trainer linked to
the show notes if you want one. They are really
fun and it's fun to see my kids compete on
that as well. Added a couple of grip focused exercises
a couple times a week. Whether it's farmers, carry hanging,
maybe it's a bucket of rice, just experiment and have
them with it. Be intentional about using your hands more
(25:23):
or doing more body weight type exercises, and try to lift, carry, hang,
or squeeze something every single day. As always, I am
so grateful for you for sharing your time, for your
questions for the topics you guys suggest. I love to
get feedback from you, so please feel free to leave
a comment, to respond in the show notes, or to
(25:46):
leave an honest rating overview wherever you listen to podcasts
where you can DM me on Instagram. I read all
of those, and I would love to hear what you
would love me to talk about. Who you would love
for me to talk to next. Any questions that you
have are topics that you would find interest But for today,
thank you so much for sharing your time and your
energy and your attention with me. I don't take that lately.
(26:07):
I'm honored that you are here, and I hope that
you will join me again on the next episode of
the Bonus Mama podcast. If you're enjoying these interviews, would
you please take two minutes to leave a rating or
review on iTunes for me. Doing this helps more people
to find the podcast, which means even more moms and
families can benefit from the information. I really appreciate your
(26:28):
time and thanks as always for listening.
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