Get a Grip: Exercise Improves Hand Strength
In addition to its other benefits, strength training improves stiff, achy hands
 Strength training makes you look better at the beach and helps you rake more leaves in the fall, but there are unexpected benefits to using weight machines to buff up. Grip strength which eased the stiff, achy joints of hand osteoarthritis (OA) also improved in 55 subjects who were part of a 24-month study.
The study subjects were 40 years of age and older and had OA in at least one hand joint. Their hand strength, pain and function improved after two years of exercises three times a week on a multi-station weight station. The greatest grip strength gains were made by subjects who ranged from 71 to 85 years old. Even though the exercise program was designed to benefit the body as a whole, the findings of increased grip strength could benefit the number of seniors who seek medical attention for hand OA.
“Even in those subjects that didn’t show much of a gain, strength training allowed them to maintain what they had, which is very important as we age,” said Matt Rogers, MS, one of the study’s authors and the exercise director at the Arthritis Research Institute of America (ARIA), which completed the study. “Gripping the strength training equipment was a factor in showing an increase in hand grip strength.”
Rogers, a doctoral candidate, co-wrote the paper with Frances Vaughn Wilder, Ph.D, ARIA’s executive director. It was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Hand Therapy. Arthritis is a group of different diseases whose symptoms can range from and conditions, its symptoms can range from stiff joints to complete immobility and pain. The most common type of arthritis is osteoarthritis, the "wear and tear" type that affects more than 27 million Americans after the age of 50 as their joints begin to age.
Since 1988, the Arthritis Research Institute of America (ARIA) has been studying thousands of participants to learn more about osteoarthritis. The 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit research organization is based in Clearwater, FL, but its findings have been published worldwide. ARIA’s x-ray database is globally acknowledged as one of the most complete sources of information about the progression of osteoarthritis. For information, call (727) 461-4054.
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