Understand your hand grip strength in the context of scientific surveys studying the strength of large numbers of both men and women throughout the human lifespan.
Units
Select Gender or Average of Both Genders
Hand grip strength is measured with a device called a hand grip dynamometer. Most dynamometers are fairly accurate and produce similar measurements.
To use the calculator, perform the grip strength measurement:
These instructions are similar to the instruction in the main research study used by the calculator. It can be helpful to retry measuring your max after a 1 min break, especially if you are not used to regularly using the grip dynamometer. Based on other studies we see that performing the measurement with the elbow extended (not at right angle) is likely to produce a somewhat higher maximum grip strength (~2% more).1
The calculator is based on the SOEP survey and a 2016 study2 based on its data. Data is from five waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel (2006–2014). It involved a total of 11,790 persons living in Germany (providing 25,285 observations).
1. Kolimechkov, Stefan & Castro-Piñero, José & Petrov, Lubomir & Alexandrova, Albena. (2020). The effect of elbow position on the handgrip strength test in children: validity and reliability of TKK 5101 and DynX dynamometers. Pedagogy of Physical Culture and Sports. 24. 240-247. 10.15561/26649837.2020.0504.
2. Steiber N (2016) Strong or Weak Handgrip? Normative Reference Values for the German Population across the Life Course Stratified by Sex, Age, and Body Height. PLoS ONE 11(10): e0163917. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0163917
Do you have a grip strength (dynamo)meter?
This is the app for you.