Average grip strength by age: chart, home test and 8-week plan

Sit down, bend your elbow to a right angle and squeeze a hand dynamometer as hard as you can, three times with each hand. Keep the best of the six: that is your number, and the average grip strength by age below shows you where it sits. At the peak, between 30 and 39, the median is 49.7 kg for men, 29.7 kg for women, about 110 and 65 lb. And your plan to raise it: three movements (squeeze, hang, carry), two sessions of about ten minutes a week.

Key takeaways

1. Average grip strength by age assumes one routine: seated, elbow bent, three squeezes per hand, best of six. Copy it every time you test.

2. The median peaks between 30 and 39, at 49.7 kg for men and 29.7 kg for women. At 80 to 84 it is about a third lower than at 40 to 44.

3. Squeeze, hang, carry, twice a week, about ten minutes each. Give it about a month before you look for a measurable gain.

4. A gauge, not a proven lever. A weaker grip goes with a higher risk of death, but the studies did not test training it. Train your whole body too.

Test your grip at home in two minutes

Sit upright on a chair, upper arm against your side, elbow at a right angle, wrist straight. Squeeze the dynamometer with everything you have for about 3 seconds, breathing out. Three tries per hand, switching hands, with about a minute before the same hand goes again. Write down your best of the six.

The chart's numbers assume this way of testing. On average, another device or body position shifts the value by up to 10 percent, so keep your chair and device the same.

A hand dynamometer is a handle with a gauge that shows your squeeze in kilograms or pounds. You can use a low-cost spring model: in 1,064 adults aged 50 to 90 in China, one such model read about half a kilogram lower than the clinical device.

Your dominant hand is usually your stronger one. In 310 people at one US college, right-handers were clearly stronger on the right, while left-handers were about even.

So the 10 percent rule for the dominant hand fits right-handers only. If one hand has newly gone weak, though, see a doctor.

No dynamometer? Time a hang from a bar or a hold of two heavy bags. That is your baseline to beat, not a place in the chart: we found no population norms for hang time by age.

Find your number: average grip strength by age

Find your row: sex first, then age group. The median peaks between 30 and 39, at 49.7 kg for men and 29.7 kg for women, about 110 and 65 lb. If you land below the bar, you count as low; above it, as high. That places you among people of the same sex and age, not a health verdict.

Each bar shows you the middle six of ten people, from the 20th percentile (20 of 100 stay below it) to the 80th; the tick is the median. The self-test puts you in one of the authors' five bands. Your yardstick is a world average: 2,405,863 adults in 69 countries and regions, charted here from 20 to 89.

Take a woman of 52 whose best is 24 kg, about 53 lb. For women aged 50 to 54, somewhat low runs from 22.4 to just under 26.4 kg, and the median is 28.2 kg. She starts about 4 kg below the middle.

Is 70 lb a good grip? That is about 31.8 kg. For a woman, yes: above the median in every age group. For a man, it is low in every group up to 60 to 64. Is 135 lb bad? No. That is about 61.2 kg, high for men and women in every age group.

The drop is slow, then faster: by the study's estimate, about 2.8 kg per decade for men and 1.4 kg for women from 40 to 64, then about 5.6 and 3.5 kg from 65.

At 80 to 84, the median is about a third lower than at 40 to 44. Each group holds different people, so the curve is not your forecast.

If your gym uses another chart, expect other numbers.

British medians peak at 51 kg for men, 31 for women. German medians, from 200,389 adults, peak at 51.7 and 32.5 kg. If you are tall, you may score higher: in another German survey, at 40 to 44, each 5 cm added about 1 to 1.5 kg. The US chart often reprinted online rests on 1,232 people in total.

Improve your grip strength with three movements

Train your grip by gripping. Use three movements: squeeze, hang and carry, each also doable without equipment. Why direct work? If all you do is general training, your grip probably rises just a little: in 24 trials with 3,018 adults aged 60 or older, the effect was small, though measurable. Small trials with healthy adults suggest that training your hands directly may lift grip by a small to moderate amount, more in the older participants.

1. Squeeze. Grab a hand gripper, a firm ball or a rolled-up towel. Squeeze all-out for about 3 seconds, then let go. Easier: fewer sets. No equipment: wring out a wet towel.
2. Hang. From a bar, your arms straight, full grip. Easier: rest your feet lightly on the floor or a chair. No equipment: a sturdy bar at a playground.
3. Carry. Walk with something heavy in each hand, your shoulders level: dumbbells, water jugs, two full grocery bags. Easier: lighter bags.

Your squeeze dose comes from a small trial. Eleven people did five sets of five all-out squeezes, three sessions a week, and their trained hand was measurably stronger after the 9th session. Take it as your target dose, not a promise of gains.

Short on time? Do just your squeezes, even on the sofa. It is the smallest version with evidence behind it.

Two short sessions a week: the 8-week plan

Train your grip twice a week, with a day off in between. A session takes about ten minutes, after your normal workout or on its own. Step up once you reach the top of the range in every set, and retest after weeks 4 and 8. Give it about a month before you expect a measurable gain: our estimate from the trial's pace.

Why twice? You gain more strength in general with at least 2 sessions a week and heavier loads, an overview of 137 systematic reviews in healthy adults found.

When you retest, don't cheer small changes. A review of patient studies suggests 5.0 to 6.5 kg as a meaningful change; below that, you may be reading noise.

Week three has one rule: when it starts to feel good, do not add sessions. You do not need a gripper every day: the trial got its gain with three sessions a week, and this plan uses two.

If the inside of your elbow, a finger joint or your wrist starts to ache in everyday life, skip the squeezes for a week and keep carrying if it doesn't hurt. Then come back with one set fewer. Pain that stays needs a doctor's look.

Your grip work comes on top of the WHO advice: strength work for every major muscle group on at least 2 days a week. The full-body side of it is laid out in our guide to strength training after 40.

If you would rather not track the weeks yourself, your huuman Coach plans every session into your week.

What your grip says about your health, and what it doesn't

Read your grip as a gauge, not a goal. One study followed 139,691 adults aged 35 to 70 in 17 countries for a median of 4 years: every 5 kg less grip went with a 16 percent higher risk of death. In 502,293 UK adults aged 40 to 69, over about 7 years, the risk was 20 percent higher for women, 16 for men. Neither tested training: treat your number as a readout, and train your whole body, as the WHO advises.

Our longevity biomarker reference lists grip as one of its five markers.

Don't let your hands speak for your legs. In 150 older adults, strong hands went fairly well with strong bodies. In 5 study groups with 960 people, though, grip matched leg strength only weakly to moderately, and the authors warn against reading it as your overall strength.

Squeeze-and-hold training, called isometric handgrip training, likely lowers blood pressure.

In 31 trials in adults with normal or high blood pressure, systolic pressure fell by about 5 mmHg against controls, the lower, diastolic number by about 3 mmHg. An add-on to treatment, not a replacement.

Is a weak grip an early sign of dementia? Among 190,406 UK adults, tracked for a median of 11.7 years, weaker grip went with more dementia diagnoses. That is a pattern across a population, not an early test for you.

When a weak grip needs a doctor

Show your number to a doctor if it is below 27 kg for a man or 16 kg for a woman. That is the European screening cut-off for a weak grip, and unlike the chart, it does not move with age. If your hand or arm suddenly goes weak or numb, call 911 now (112 in Europe), above all with a drooping face, slurred speech, confusion or chest pain.

Hand osteoarthritis alone is no reason to skip hand exercise: in pooled trials, it eased pain and stiffness and helped hand function in the short term, mostly on low-certainty evidence. Side effects were few and none severe in an earlier review.

This week: test on Monday and write your number down. Do your first session on Tuesday or Wednesday, the second two days later. Retest in four weeks.

More health topics to explore

• Frame: strength and muscle guides
• Longevity biomarker reference
• Strength training after 40
• How long it takes to lose muscle

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About this article · Written by the huuman Team. Our content is based on peer-reviewed research and clinical guidelines. We follow editorial standards grounded in scientific evidence.

This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Health and training decisions should be discussed with qualified professionals.