Which Factors Affect Grip Strength? - Chromatography Lends a Hand

Opening a new jar is a problem we've all faced. When you can't get it open, you pass it to the next person and hope they have more luck. But what's behind their success? Of course, it's their hand grip strength.

The strength of someone's grip is a marker of their upper body strength, but doesn’t necessarily correlate with other markers. So, someone who is conventionally 'strong' might fail to open a jar, only for another less muscular person to open it.

In this post, we look at the latest research into hand grip strength and the role chromatography played.

Hand grip strength in cricket

To most people, hand grip strength has limited use. In racquet and bat sports like tennis, baseball and badminton, however, it’s an important attribute. The same is true for cricket, which is why researchers from the University of Sri Jayawardhanapura in Sri Lanka decided to take a closer look at hand grip strength.

They wanted to know what was behind it. To find out, they examined the relationship between hand grip strength and twelve selected parameters:

• Age
• Height
• Weight
• Arms subcutaneous fat percentage
• Skeletal muscle mass percentage
• Upper arm length
• Fore arm length
• Hand width
• Hand length
• Hand span
• Hand circumferences
• Free testosterone hormone level

Measuring and testing

To assess the link between hand grip strength and these parameters, researchers took measurements from 35 male cricket players who practice and play regularly and were injury-free at the time of testing. They also tested the hand grip strength of their dominant hand and took blood samples to determine their free testosterone levels.

Scientists used high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to analyse each participant’s free testosterone levels from the samples, which is explored in further detail in the article ‘The Evolution of Ultra High-Performance Liquid Chromatography: Expanding the Future of Separation Technologies’.

What they found

The research revealed significant relationships between hand grip strength and several of the parameters. A lot of these were interlinked, like the positive correlation between hand grip strength, height, free testosterone level, forearm length, hand length, hand span, arms subcutaneous fat and arms skeletal muscle mass percentage. Essentially, they tend to increase together.

With that in mind, cricket coaches and team selectors can use these parameters as talent predictors to identify potential players. More specifically, however, there are some parameters among those which can be monitored and improved – namely, free testosterone level, skeletal muscle mass and arms subcutaneous fat.

These specific parameters can be periodically assessed and worked on to maintain optimal hand grip strength and performance levels. As for the rest of us, it might just be best to get someone else to open the jar for you…