Could the strength of your handshake be a better indicator of how long you’re going to live than your blood pressure?
With the growing popularity of measuring biological age, it’s often the sciencey-sounding tests that get the headlines. But a humble grip-strength measuring device (a dynamometer) gives the blood tests and epigenetic clocks a run for their money.
The principle is simple: you squeeze as hard as you can (much harder than I’d actually recommend for a handshake) and the device gives you a reading in kilograms. If you perform well for your age, that bodes well for your future healthspan and lifespan generally.
The effectiveness of grip strength is one reason why strength training is having a moment. Traditionally seen as the preserve of iron-pumping gym bros, it’s increasingly being emphasised for everyone from diabetes sufferers and patients undergoing cancer treatment, to people just trying to optimise their healthy longevity.
Adding weight to the case for strength training are massive ‘cohort studies’, where scientists follow large groups of people for decades, watching what they do, what they eat and more, and then correlating that with what ails and eventually kills them.
