OT hand grip differences

Genetics.

Even at ages of 11-15 there are marked differences in strength in otherwise homogeneous groups of individuals. I did a survey with a dynamometer in a group of physicians and the differences were quite pronounced. The strongest guy was quite old and his only exercise as far as I could tell was sailing. I did a couple of comparison readings with some manual workers (younger). Their readings were AFAIR slightly higher but no that much.

Nature and age. My grip was much stronger when I was young. Now, sometimes when I squeeze something too tight, the pain is so bad that I yell, and stop and hold my wrist like I had broken it, getting quite a bit of concern from onlookers.

And no matter what your hand strength, what's up with that wet rag handshake thing? Makes you feel like you just squeezed a fresh horse turd.

Steve

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A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.

It could be gentle deference. Just because you can painfully crush another man's hand in greeting doesn't mean you should. I regard that as a dirty trick. I am not at all averse to dirty tricks when appropriate but there are times when more civil restraint is tactically advantageous.

Some boors can't resist this form of macho crap, including some in pinstripes. I had a CEO pull that on me. Bad form to break his hand since I was his subordinate, so I managed to escape without injury to either of us. He didn't do that again with me.

He respected my contributions, I respected his leadership, it was a brainfart on his part I found easy to forgive. Jungle law is operative on mahogany row and Wall Street.

I've always had a sneaking suspicion that those with really weak handshakes didn't want to shake your hand in the first place.

As far as my shake, I try to feed back about the same amount of force given.*

Wes

Like Don, I've had a couple of management types pull that shit on me. Big mistake, I farm with hand tools for a living.

Karl

didn't want to

Most of the difference has to do with physical factors. Only a small part of it is exercise/training.

If you tested a lot of people with strong grips they would probably tell you they don't "feel" the grip as being strong. That is due to the way their nerves conduct sensory input. You would likely also find they feel hot/cold less than a "normal" gripped person.

Next has to do with the way the tendons connect up to the individual bones in the phalanges. The longer the tendons and the farther they connect away from the joint they operate gives more mechanical advantage. Just like moving the pivot under a lever changes the ratio the tendons location acts the same.

Then you have joint construction itself. Some people have the pivot points set farther off of center than other people. This also increases the mechanical leverage.

The remainder is what the hands have been used for over the years. More muscle doesn't always mean more strength. How the muscles work and how they connect makes a lot of difference.

As for me I do the same as Wes, if someone wants to play crush the hand they will get a surprise.

I am VERY tolerant of ladies hands though. Especially ones with long, sharp fingernails, I value my eyes!!!

I know what you mean about the farmer's grip. I live in a small farm town and one of the hands at the local watering hole although slim, is extremely strong and likes to do the hand crush thing. The first time he did it, it caught me unaware and I flinched, after that what I did is tense up. Not so much that I was squeezing his hand, but rather that I provided resistance to being squeezed and that seemed to prevent the pain.

handshakes didn't want to

I had carpal tunnel surgery in both hands and after the hands had healed my ability to grip between my thumb and the pinky was near zero.

This doesn't seem to have much effect in day to day use such as using screwdrivers on tight screws or opening jars, but the experience suggests to me that you might be spot on in your theory.

My guess would be that these people are doing something that strengthens their grip, whether or not it looks like training to the rest of us. Some people do train specifically for hand strength, tearing packs of cards, that kind of thing.

That is because the carpal tunnel affect the median nerve, most of the grip is controlled by the ulnar nerve.

As I understand things, the surgery does not sever any nerves, rather the surgeon severs the tendon that runs along the base of the palm and when that heals back it is a bit longer so less pressure is placed on the nerves that run through the tunnel. The result is that the inflammation quells and the nerves then return to normal function.

I assume the loss of pinky to thumb grip is a function of the change in the mechanical change in the tendon, rather than any difference in the nerves.

But hand anatomy is not my forte so I very well could be way off base.

Iggy, in addition to doing other things, I am a serious piano player. I've been told that fine control of fingers, along with other hand movements, basically boils down to strength. The theory is that if you have lots of strength, then you can do fine incremental control. As an example, I can give you 'the finger' using my ring finger. Either hand. The rest of my fingers are not being held down by my thumb. I believer this independent movement (fourth and fifth finger tendons are kind of tied together) can be attained through practice and strength. BTW, my understanding is that there are no muscles in the hand. It all comes through tendons attached to muscles in the upper end of the arm.

Ivan Vegvary

I have the same type of hand control. From piano and guitar playing.

There are no major muscles in the hand. Only a few in the palm that allow thumb control. The rest are in your forearm. This is why it is actually easy to reattach a hand and have a good chance of it working while losing the arm is a big problem.

I think that the muscles in the hand are the ones to grip things with a thumb.

I have realized that my hands are weaker than I would like (not through handshaking contests). I am now practicing with a 100 lbs gripper by Iron Mind, and with two 4 lb sledges. The sledgehammers are very versatile for hand strength training.

On Thu, 29 Apr 2010 07:59:55 -0700, the infamous "Roger Shoaf" scrawled the following:

I had a guy try the vise grip on my hand once, and evidently, my knuckle needed popping. It hurt like holy hell! Ever since then, if I think I'll be meeting someone and shaking hands, I pop my knuckles on my two middle fingers before I meet or shake hands with them. That pain has never happened again.

I'd avoid Karl's grip, too. His hands are probably very strong from milking all those apples for juice.

-- Losing faith in humanity, one person at a time.

I think this is like being double jointed. When you mentioned this I of course had to try it and my right hand can and my left hand can't.

Try this. With the heel your palm flat on the table fold you middle finger under your hand. Can you independantly lift the ring finger as you can your index finger and pinky?

I can do it. I can also pull my thumb all the way to touch my arm.

Careful, double-jointed or hypermobilty is syndrome.

I have a set of "Chinese Therapy Balls". Two chromed steel spheres 0.5 kg each (a bit over 2 inches in diameter. The exercise is to roll them around the palm of one hand, using only your fingers. Extra points if you can roll them (both clockwize and CCW) without them touching each other. It promotes both stength and control.

Its something to do while watching TV.