If opening jars and hanging onto your grocery bags has started to feel harder lately, you’re not alone. Losing grip strength is a normal part of aging, but it’s important to maintain it as much as possible—a strong grip has been linked to everything from better cognitive function and heart health to a longer overall lifespan. Here are the signs your grip strength may be declining, and what you can do about it.
According to Robyn Culbertson, PT, DPT, spokesperson for the American Physical Therapy Association and board-certified clinical specialist in geriatric physical therapy, these are a few of the common signs that your grip strength may have weakened due to age:
You’re struggling to open jars or bottles you used to manage easily.It’s harder to carry groceries or a laundry basket.Your handshake feels noticeably weaker.You have difficulty holding onto objects for long periods of time.
“When you start to notice consistently—not one single day or a small period of time—that those tasks are no longer as easy day to day, that’s an easy sign to kind of say, ‘Oh wow, there’s a significant difference in grip strength,’” added Alexander Rothstein, EdD, NSCA-CSCS, ACSM-EP-C, assistant professor of exercise science at New York Institute of Technology’s School of Health Professions.
Decreased grip strength is a normal part of aging, but if it’s accompanied by numbness and tingling in your hands or arms, it may indicate something more than aging, such as a neurological issue or a serious injury, Culbertson warned.
“If you have some kind of neck injury or if you’ve hit your head, sometimes you might have some issues with your hands related to that,” she told Health. “If you’ve had any kind of fall as an older adult, it’s a good idea to get a CT scan to look at the head and neck to make sure there are no injuries there.”
While it varies from person to person, grip strength typically starts to diminish in your late 40s and early 50s, Culbertson said. “This is when you start losing muscle mass,” she said, adding that women may see this decline sooner, since they typically have less muscle mass than men to begin with.
Your grip strength may also start to decline because of arthritis, a condition that causes joint pain and stiffness, and becomes more likely as you age. “You might notice that if you’ve got some arthritic changes in your hands, you might have some hand weakness as well,” Culbertson said.
What’s more, as you age, you might just not be as active as you were in your younger years, Rothstein told Health. Maybe you’ve retired from a physically demanding job, or your body can no longer exercise every day—whatever the reason, your grip may weaken simply because you’re not strengthening it as much anymore.
Rothstein and Culbertson agreed that the best way to strengthen your grip—and maintain these improvements long-term—is through regular resistance training.
They recommend doing strength workouts two to three days a week, which aligns with the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. Exercises like deadlifts, dead hangs, and pull-ups specifically target your grip strength, Culbertson said. But Rothstein emphasized that any exercise where you’re holding a dumbbell, kettlebell, or barbell will naturally improve your grip strength over time.
Before starting a new exercise program, Culbertson advised seeing a doctor or a physical therapist to make sure there’s nothing neurological causing your loss of grip strength.