Hand vs grip strength

[Guest 86-1005097353]

I love those stories of the old-time strongmen. That is an era that disappeared maybe never to return. Today there are few men making a living doing strength shows.

How is anyone going to certify old feats as being valid lifts? It cannot be done after the fact. I wonder if asking witnesses years after the event is the proper thing to do? What it comes down to is that there will always be a history of strength that includes official and unofficial feats. Most of those old-timers are in the unofficial category. Today we cannot know the conditions, etc., to ratify the lifts done by those strongmen.

Look at the trouble we are having recognizing the feats using grippers. If those who have closed grippers in the past cannot duplicate those feats then they have no way of establishing what was achieved in the past. We can accept their "unofficial" feats and that might be good enough for most of us.

I was thinking about those contests designed to test the various events demonstating grip strength. It became obvious to me that some of these events have more to do with total body power than grip strength per se. That must be true in deadlifting events. Consider someone with a torn biceps muscle. That person will not be able to deadlift but might have a good grip. Therefore that event is not a pure grip test.

It might be that enthusiasts love the idea of lifting astronomical poundages. However, be aware that it is risky lifting extremely heavy weights and injuries are possible.

I have thought about hand vs grip strength and think they are not identical. For example, ripping a telephone book in half is not merely a grip feat. Yes, the grip is involved but so are most of the muscles of the upper body.

Nail bending demonstrates hand, arm and upperbody strength and not grip per se. Yes, one needs a strong grip to hold those nails but other muscles do the bending.

Even on the pinch grip one uses other muscles. On my machine it takes a big upper body effort to raise the heavy weights. I suppose a true test of grip would be to grip a plate and then take the supports away and see if you can hold it. That way you don't have to lift it. Once you lift any object other muscles are recruited.

The reverse curl is an example of arm strength and not grip per se. Yes, one needs a good grip to keep the bar from slipping out. However, I have seen good performances by mediocre grip men.

I suppose grip contests are fun. They are some of the only contests that people from the street can enter and do okay in. In most specialized events the untrained are unlikely to excel in. Today we are finding that even the pinching events are seeing specialists pop up.