Why is grip important for strength?
Why grip is important for strength?
Before discussing the importance of grip in demonstration and enhancement of strength it is necessary to understand what grip is all about. By grip we generally mean a force that we apply with the help of our hands and fingers for lifting, pulling, moving, holding or suspending objects. Grip strength can be demonstrated with involvement of action of different joints and group of muscles. For athletes, grip is muscular might and strength that can be produced with the use of hands.
A rock climber can tell you what role grip plays in climbing rocks and thus showing physical strength. Grip is important in demonstration of stamina in martial arts as well.
Almost all of us perform routine and special activities with involvement of grip to some extent. In fact, grip is considered as the most essential and vital part of physical strength particularly in works pertaining to lifting or pulling heavy objects, loosening or opening cover of a container or vessel. Driving a car also entails the use of firm hand grip on steer and lever. If you do not have firm and strong grip on steer while driving car you may lose control over it and eventually meet with an accident.
Playing tennis, badminton and other specific sports activities such as golf and baseball, involves a considerable use of grip. No matter how powerful you may be you cannot think of opening a car door without using your strong and firm hand grip.
What are the types of grip?
Hand is considered as a mysterious tool which can be utilized in gripping objects through a variety of ways. When it comes to using hand grip we consider it for three different purposes-crushing, pinching and supporting. Hence grip can be divided into three categories-crush grip, pinch grip and support grip.
Crush grip refers to pressing an object with the help of palm and fingers. We apply crush grip in shaking hands, crushing bones and forcefully fragmenting an object.
By pinch grip we mean placing our fingers on a side or corner of an object while keeping thumb on the other side without use of palm. We grab weight plate or lift topmost edge of a plywood sheet with application of pinch grip.
Support grip is used to hold a handle of a container or vessel such as bucket etc. for a longer period. We can see farmers or laborers having a great degree of muscular strength that they demonstrate while carrying sand-filled or water-filled buckets in their long walk.
Since all such activities are mostly required in our daily routine or work schedule we can successfully perform them by exerting our physical strength and stamina which can be possible through a strong grip. By using strong grip we can continue to perform all such activities for a long time and thus ensuring optimum utilization of our physical strength.
Role of grip in demonstration of strength in sports
Tennis, badminton, cricket and judo players, weight-lifters and wrestlers cannot overlook the importance of grip in showing their physical strength. In climbing, horse racing, judo and other sports activities like weight-lifting, Fencing, baseball and soccer grip is considered as secondary or auxiliary component of strength.
A weight-lifter can confidently pick up a weight only when his grip is strong. The strong, firm and hard wrists and hands can further help stabilize the heavy weight. Since lifting of heavy weight puts too much pressure or stress on wrists it is essential to have a strong and solid grip to sustain and hold this heavy object. Grip also helps a bodybuilder to develop his forearm muscles and strength.
Unlike other muscular training exercises, strength training needs application of grip to greater degree. Development of grip exhibits a unique challenge besides demonstrating a feat of great strength.
Role of grip in medicine
Grip strength mostly used as specified hand strength in the field of medicine. Testing and application of grip strength is conducted for diagnosis of conditions and effectively evaluating and comparing treatment alternatives. Grip strength also makes it easy to keep record of the progression of muscular strength during rehabilitation for establishment of the level of hand function.
Grip strength can be used for indicating changes in strength of hand after hand surgery. Grip strength can be used for assessment of level of fatigue in a person after surgery. In physiotherapy too fatigue level is assessed with creation of exercise. The subject is asked for maintaining a prolonged maximum contraction so as to measure the fatigue. Considering the involvement of multiple joints and muscles, grip strength is considered to be sensitive to measurement of individual muscle groups in the field of medicine.