Grip Strength Test: How Strong Is Your Grip?
Find out exactly how your handgrip strength compares, by age and sex, against large population studies, with how far you are from the typical value for your age and the clinical weakness threshold.
What is a good grip strength by age?
Above the median for your age and sex means stronger than most; this page calls the 75th percentile and up clearly good. In the German norms (Steiber 2016, SOEP) the median peaks at ages 40 to 44, at about 54 kg for men and 34.5 kg for women. Below 27 kg (men) or 16 kg (women) is clinically low (EWGSOP2).
Grip Strength Calculator: your percentile by age, sex and height
Between 17 and 90 years.
Enter your best (maximum) squeeze, measured with a hand dynamometer. Switch to lbs if your device reads in pounds. Not sure how? See "How to measure" below.
Optional. Grades you against people your height and age from the German tables instead of your age group alone.
Men: grip strength percentiles by age (kg)
| Age | 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17–19 | 36 | 42 | 48.5 | 55 | 61 |
| 20–24 | 40 | 45 | 50.5 | 56 | 61 |
| 25–29 | 42 | 47 | 52 | 58 | 63 |
| 30–34 | 43 | 48 | 53 | 59 | 64 |
| 35–39 | 41 | 47 | 52.5 | 60 | 66 |
| 40–44 | 42 | 48 | 54 | 60 | 66 |
| 45–49 | 42 | 47 | 53 | 59 | 64 |
| 50–54 | 40 | 45 | 50.5 | 56 | 61 |
| 55–59 | 38 | 43 | 49 | 55 | 60 |
| 60–64 | 36 | 41 | 46.5 | 52 | 57 |
| 65–69 | 35 | 39 | 44 | 49 | 53 |
| 70–74 | 32 | 37 | 42 | 47 | 51 |
| 75–79 | 28 | 32 | 38 | 43 | 48 |
| 80–90 | 24 | 28 | 33 | 38 | 43 |
Source: Steiber 2016 (SOEP). All values in kilograms (kg). "Median" is the 50th percentile, half of people are above it, half below. For the German dataset the 10th, 25th, 75th and 90th percentiles are modelled from the published mean and standard deviation (assuming a normal distribution); the median is the published value.
Women: grip strength percentiles by age (kg)
| Age | 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17–19 | 24 | 27 | 31.4 | 36 | 39 |
| 20–24 | 26 | 29 | 32 | 36 | 39 |
| 25–29 | 26 | 30 | 33.5 | 37 | 41 |
| 30–34 | 26 | 29 | 33 | 37 | 41 |
| 35–39 | 26 | 30 | 34 | 38 | 42 |
| 40–44 | 26 | 30 | 34.5 | 39 | 43 |
| 45–49 | 26 | 29 | 33 | 38 | 41 |
| 50–54 | 25 | 28 | 32 | 36 | 40 |
| 55–59 | 23 | 26 | 30 | 34 | 37 |
| 60–64 | 22 | 25 | 29 | 33 | 36 |
| 65–69 | 21 | 24 | 28 | 31 | 34 |
| 70–74 | 20 | 23 | 26 | 29 | 32 |
| 75–79 | 18 | 21 | 24 | 27 | 30 |
| 80–90 | 16 | 19 | 21 | 24 | 27 |
Source: Steiber 2016 (SOEP). All values in kilograms (kg). "Median" is the 50th percentile, half of people are above it, half below. For the German dataset the 10th, 25th, 75th and 90th percentiles are modelled from the published mean and standard deviation (assuming a normal distribution); the median is the published value.
Grip strength norms at a glance
Grip strength peaks at ages 40 to 44 in the German norms this page grades against (Steiber 2016, SOEP): a median of about 54 kg for men and 34.5 kg for women. At 50 it is about 50.5 kg and 32 kg, at 70 about 42 kg and 26 kg, falling by roughly 0.33 (women) to 0.53 kg (men) a year after 50. Below 27 kg for men or 16 kg for women is the European threshold for clinically low strength (EWGSOP2). Each 5 kg less grip is linked to about 16% higher all-cause mortality (PURE).
- Median grip strength peaks at about 54 kg for men and 34.5 kg for women, at ages 40 to 44 (Steiber 2016, German SOEP data).
- By age: at 30 the median is 53 kg (men) / 33 kg (women); at 50 it is 50.5 kg / 32 kg; at 70 it is 42 kg / 26 kg; at 80 to 90 it is 33 kg / 21 kg.
- After 50 the median falls by roughly 0.33 (women) to 0.53 kg (men) a year.
- Height counts as well: within one age group, the shortest and tallest bands of the German height tables sit about 9 kg apart for men in mid-life and up to about 12 kg apart at the oldest ages (Steiber 2016, Tables 1 and 2).
- Clinically low ("probable sarcopenia"): below 27 kg for men and 16 kg for women (EWGSOP2). Asia (AWGS 2025): 28 / 18 kg from age 65; the 2025 update adds higher lines for ages 50 to 64. US (FNIH): 26 / 16 kg.
- Each 5 kg lower grip strength is linked to about 16% higher all-cause mortality (PURE study, 139,691 adults).
Why grip strength predicts how you age
Grip strength is a cheap, fast proxy for whole-body strength, and one of the most consistent predictors of healthy aging we have. It is part of the Fried frailty definition and the entry test for sarcopenia (EWGSOP2).
- In the PURE study of 139,691 adults, each 5 kg drop in grip strength was linked to a 16% higher risk of all-cause death and a 17% higher risk of cardiovascular death, and grip out-predicted systolic blood pressure (Leong 2015).
- In UK Biobank (502,293 adults), lower grip tracked higher all-cause, cardiovascular, respiratory and cancer mortality, with hazard ratios of roughly 1.10 to 1.31 per 5 kg less grip (Celis-Morales 2018).
- Grip is a recognised marker of frailty and the screening test for "probable sarcopenia": below 27 kg for men or 16 kg for women flags low muscle strength (EWGSOP2 2019).
- Low grip strength is also linked to dementia: in UK Biobank (466,788 adults), the weakest fifth by grip had about 72% higher risk of developing dementia over roughly 9 years than the strongest fifth (Esteban-Cornejo 2022).
- Grip is widely studied as an observational health biomarker (Bohannon 2019), and has been discussed as a candidate biomarker of ageing since a 2015 Lancet comment (Sayer 2015). In the German normative data it rises into the 30s and 40s and then declines by roughly 0.33 (women) to 0.53 kg (men) a year (Steiber 2016). The link with mortality is observational, not proof that raising your grip lowers your risk.
How to measure grip strength correctly
A percentile only means something if your reading was taken the way the readings in the table were taken. Hand strength, handgrip strength and grip strength all describe the same measurement. The German norms on this page come from the SOEP: measured standing, with a Smedley spring dynamometer, 25,285 measurements from 11,790 people (Steiber 2016). The clinical variant, the Southampton protocol with a hydraulic Jamar dynamometer, is done seated instead (Roberts 2011). The steps below describe the SOEP protocol, because that is where the table comes from.
- Stand upright. Where standing is not possible, the field protocol treats sitting with the arm supported as the documented exception.
- Set the handle of the dynamometer so that it sits centred across all four fingers, then lock it in place.
- Keep the upper arm against your torso and the forearm at a right angle. The arm stays down during the squeeze, it is not raised.
- Squeeze as hard as you can for a few seconds, then let go. Practice guides put that at 3 to 5 seconds.
- Alternate right and left, two attempts per hand, so four readings in total. Reset the pointer to zero before each attempt.
- Note your single highest reading out of all four attempts. That maximum is what the norm values are built on, and it is the number to enter above.
A common trip-up: some instructions have you average three attempts per hand, others take the best single one. The German norms (Steiber 2016) and the EWGSOP2 cut-offs both refer to the maximum, not the mean. An average sits systematically lower and produces a percentile against this table that is too weak. The device matters just as much. Measured on the same people, a Jamar read about 3.5 to 4 kg higher than a Smedley, roughly 15 percent (Benton 2022), and the German table was recorded on a Smedley, so a Jamar reading lands flattered here. Use the same device and the same protocol every time, otherwise you are no longer comparing your own trend cleanly.
Measuring grip strength without a device: what substitute tests show
Without a dynamometer there is no number in kilograms, and therefore no percentile. What there is are hold tests that training practice describes as rough stand-ins for grip endurance. They measure something other than a hand dynamometer does, so their result cannot be carried over into the table above.
Dead Hang
What is measured is the time spent hanging freely from a pull-up bar. Fitness writing treats under 30 seconds as room to improve and over 60 seconds as a good showing. Those are rules of thumb from training practice, not validated thresholds, and no published validation against a dynamometer exists. The test also leans heavily on body weight: at the same hand strength, a lighter person hangs longer.
Plate Pinch Hold
A weight plate is held between thumb and fingers and the hold time is recorded. The test loads the pinch strength of the fingers, which only partly overlaps with the crushing grip a dynamometer measures. Published pinch norms exist in their own right, but no conversion into grip kilograms does.
Farmer's Carry
A fixed weight is carried over a set distance or time. What that mainly describes is grip endurance together with trunk and back strength, not the maximum instantaneous force the norm table is built on.
A real percentile needs a hand dynamometer. Simple home models cost roughly 20 to 40 euros and scatter by several kilograms. Hydraulic Jamar devices are the clinical standard, while the German norms rest on a Smedley spring dynamometer.
What the research describes about training grip strength
Worth saying up front: in meta-analyses, general training moves grip strength only a little. Pooled across 24 studies with about 3,000 older adults, the effect was a standardised mean difference of 0.28, which the authors themselves call small (Labott 2019). Larger gains of several kilograms are reported mainly where the starting value was low.
Whole-body strength training
Grip strength reflects general muscle strength, but only partly. In a network meta-analysis, every form of resistance training outperformed doing nothing for strength and size (Currier 2023). That finding is about strength and muscle in general, not about grip specifically.
How large the gains were in studies
In older adults with sarcopenia, an earlier network meta-analysis cited by Li 2025 found about 2.7 kg more grip strength for resistance training than for control groups (95% CI 1.8 to 3.6 kg). A dose-optimised model estimate in the same population landed at 7 to 8.6 kg, at about three sessions a week over 19 weeks (Li 2025). That is a best-case model value in a group starting from a low baseline, not a typical result.
What the studies actually had people do
The programmes included in these reviews feature heavy pulling movements, loaded carries, hangs from a bar, hand grippers and wrist curls, usually two to three sessions a week over 8 to 26 weeks with rising load (Li 2025, ACSM 2009). That describes what was studied. It is not a training plan for you.
Protein and muscle
Reviews of training studies describe roughly 1.6 g of protein per kg of body weight per day as the point beyond which extra intake brought no further strength gain in resistance-training trials (Morton 2018). Needs vary by person, and what these studies link to strength gains is the combination of training and protein, not protein alone.
When a change is real
The measurement itself is noisy. For readings above 20 kg, a standard error of measurement of about 1.8 kg and a smallest detectable change of about 5 kg have been reported in patients recovering from arm and hand injuries (Bai 2019). A gain of one or two kilograms over the last measurement therefore sits inside the measurement spread rather than above it.
How long the studies ran
The training studies evaluated here mostly ran 8 to 26 weeks. Shorter windows report measurable changes less often.
An honest note on what this can and can't tell you
A single squeeze is one snapshot of one proxy for whole-body strength, and the percentile depends entirely on entering your true maximum on a properly calibrated device. The German reference table (Steiber 2016) publishes means, standard deviations and medians but not deciles, so its 10th, 25th, 75th and 90th percentiles here are modelled from a normal distribution, validated against the published British percentiles (Dodds 2014) to within about 1 kg, but still an estimate. The mortality links are associations from observational cohorts, not proof of cause. If you have arthritis, a recent injury or joint pain, a doctor or physiotherapist can say what a grip test means in your case, and pushing through sharp pain is never part of a measurement. Height matters as well: within a single age band the shortest and tallest groups in the German height tables sit about 9 kg apart for men in mid-life (about 6.5 kg for women) and up to about 12 kg for men at the oldest ages, which is what the optional height comparison accounts for. The 27 kg and 16 kg weakness cut-offs come from British data, and a 2023 analysis of over 200,000 adults in the German National Cohort puts the German equivalents about 2 kg higher, so a value just above the line is borderline rather than comfortably safe.
Compare other values
- Is 30 kg grip strength good?
- Is 40 kg grip strength good?
- Is 50 kg grip strength good?
- Is 60 kg grip strength good?
- Is 70 kg grip strength good?
- Is 80 kg grip strength good?
- Is 80 lbs grip strength good?
- Is 100 lbs grip strength good?
- Is 120 lbs grip strength good?
- Is 140 lbs grip strength good?
- Is 160 lbs grip strength good?
- Is 180 lbs grip strength good?
Frequently asked questions
What is a good grip strength for my age?
What is the average grip strength for men and women?
What grip strength is considered weak?
How is grip strength measured?
Does grip strength predict longevity?
Can I improve my grip strength?
Which hand should I measure, and which value do I enter?
Is 50 kg grip strength good?
Is 40 kg grip strength good?
Is 100 lbs grip strength good?
Why do grip strength tables online differ?
Is 70 kg grip strength good?
What grip strength is normal at what age?
How can I test my hand strength?
What is the grip strength world record?
Keep reading
- Exercise for longevityWhich training types and weekly volumes the evidence actually supports.
- Men's health after 40Heart, hormones and muscle in the second half of life.
- Estimate your VO2 max without a lab testThe fitness age calculator uses age, resting heart rate and activity instead of a treadmill.
- Calculate your biological age8 lifestyle factors, your estimated pace of aging in about 2 minutes.
- Zone 2 and VO2 max trainingWhat the studies really show about the low-intensity base everyone talks about.
- SarcopeniaAge-related muscle loss, and why grip strength is the entry test for it.
- DynapeniaStrength loss without a matching loss of muscle mass, the second term behind low readings.
Sources
Every figure and threshold on this page traces to a peer-reviewed primary source, linked below. The training section describes what those studies typically did, not a single cited protocol.
- Steiber N (2016). Strong or Weak Handgrip? Normative Reference Values for the German Population across the Life Course Stratified by Sex, Age, and Body Height.
PLoS ONE 11(10):e0163917 · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0163917
The German reference table (SOEP): average grip by age and sex, the German peak values and age-related decline, plus the height-stratified tables behind the optional same-height comparison.
- Dodds RM, Syddall HE, Cooper R, Benzeval M, Deary IJ, Dennison EM, Der G, Gale CR, Inskip HM, Jagger C, Kirkwood TB, Lawlor DA, Robinson SM, Starr JM, Steptoe A, Tilling K, Kuh D, Cooper C, Sayer AA (2014). Grip Strength across the Life Course: Normative Data from Twelve British Studies.
PLoS ONE 9(12):e113637 · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0113637
Validation cross-check for the modelled percentiles and the empirical basis of the EWGSOP2 weakness cut-offs.
- Cruz-Jentoft AJ, Bahat G, Bauer J, Boirie Y, Bruyère O, Cederholm T, Cooper C, Landi F, Rolland Y, Sayer AA, et al. (EWGSOP2) (2019). Sarcopenia: revised European consensus on definition and diagnosis (EWGSOP2).
Age and Ageing 48(1):16–31 · doi:10.1093/ageing/afy169
The European weak-grip thresholds (27 kg men, 16 kg women).
- Chen LK, Hsiao FY, Akishita M, Assantachai P, Lee WJ, Lim WS, et al. (AWGS) (2025). A focus shift from sarcopenia to muscle health in the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia 2025 Consensus Update.
Nature Aging 5:2164–2175 · doi:10.1038/s43587-025-01004-y
The Asian weak-grip thresholds from age 65 (28 kg men, 18 kg women); the 2025 update adds higher lines for ages 50 to 64.
- Huemer MT, Kluttig A, Fischer B, Ahrens W, Castell S, Ebert N, et al. (2023). Grip strength values and cut-off points based on over 200,000 adults of the German National Cohort - a comparison to the EWGSOP2 cut-off points.
Age and Ageing 52(1):afac324 · doi:10.1093/ageing/afac324
German National Cohort (NAKO) cut-off points: over 200,000 adults suggest weak-grip lines about 2 kg above the British-derived EWGSOP2 values.
- Alley DE, Shardell MD, Peters KW, McLean RR, Dam TT, Kenny AM, et al. (FNIH Sarcopenia Project) (2014). Grip Strength Cutpoints for the Identification of Clinically Relevant Weakness.
The Journals of Gerontology: Series A 69(5):559–566 · doi:10.1093/gerona/glu011
The US FNIH weakness thresholds (26 kg men, 16 kg women).
- Leong DP, Teo KK, Rangarajan S, Lopez-Jaramillo P, Avezum A, Orlandini A, et al. (PURE) (2015). Prognostic value of grip strength: findings from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study.
The Lancet 386(9990):266–273 · doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(14)62000-6
Grip predicts mortality: about 16% higher risk of death per 5 kg less.
- Celis-Morales CA, Welsh P, Lyall DM, Steell L, Petermann F, Anderson J, et al. (2018). Associations of grip strength with cardiovascular, respiratory, and cancer outcomes and all cause mortality: prospective cohort study of half a million UK Biobank participants.
BMJ 361:k1651 · doi:10.1136/bmj.k1651
Grip and heart, cancer and respiratory mortality in 500,000 adults.
- Wu Y, Wang W, Liu T, Zhang D (2017). Association of Grip Strength With Risk of All-Cause Mortality, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Cancer in Community-Dwelling Populations: A Meta-analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies.
Journal of the American Medical Directors Association 18(6):551.e17–551.e35 · doi:10.1016/j.jamda.2017.03.011
Meta-analysis of prospective cohorts: the weakest grip group carried about 41% higher all-cause mortality and about 63% higher cardiovascular risk than the strongest.
- Sayer AA, Kirkwood TBL (2015). Grip strength and mortality: a biomarker of ageing?.
The Lancet 386(9990):226–227 · doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(14)62349-7
The Lancet comment that framed grip strength as a candidate biomarker of ageing.
- Wang YC, Bohannon RW, Li X, Sindhu B, Kapellusch J (2018). Hand-Grip Strength: Normative Reference Values and Equations for Individuals 18 to 85 Years of Age Residing in the United States.
Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy 48(9):685–693 · doi:10.2519/jospt.2018.7851
US Jamar reference values, used here as a cross-check.
- Roberts HC, Denison HJ, Martin HJ, Patel HP, Syddall H, Cooper C, Sayer AA (2011). A review of the measurement of grip strength in clinical and epidemiological studies: towards a standardised approach.
Age and Ageing 40(4):423–429 · doi:10.1093/ageing/afr051
The clinical seated way to measure grip (the Southampton protocol), the contrast to the standing SOEP protocol behind this table.
- Benton MJ, Spicher JM, Silva-Smith AL (2022). Validity and reliability of handgrip dynamometry in older adults: A comparison of two widely used dynamometers.
PLOS ONE 17(6):e0270132 · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0270132
Jamar against Smedley in the same older adults: the Jamar read about 3.5 to 4 kg higher, so the two devices are not interchangeable.
- Currier BS, McLeod JC, Banfield L, Beyene J, Welton NJ, D'Souza AC, et al. (2023). Resistance training prescription for muscle strength and hypertrophy in healthy adults: a systematic review and Bayesian network meta-analysis.
British Journal of Sports Medicine 57(18):1211–1220 · doi:10.1136/bjsports-2023-106807
What resistance training does for strength and muscle size in general.
- Labott BK, Bucht H, Morat M, Morat T, Donath L (2019). Effects of Exercise Training on Handgrip Strength in Older Adults: A Meta-Analytical Review.
Gerontology 65(6):686–698 · doi:10.1159/000501203
Meta-analysis of exercise training and grip strength in older adults: 24 trials, about 3,000 people, a small pooled effect (SMD 0.28).
- Morton RW, Murphy KT, McKellar SR, Schoenfeld BJ, Henselmans M, Helms E, et al. (2018). A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults.
British Journal of Sports Medicine 52(6):376–384 · doi:10.1136/bjsports-2017-097608
How much protein supports the muscle behind your grip.
- Li HR, Huang S, Yv Z, Jiang N, Li P, Zhai Y, Peng F (2025). Optimal dose of resistance training to improve handgrip strength in older adults with sarcopenia: a systematic review and Bayesian model-based network meta-analysis.
Frontiers in Physiology 16:1564988 · doi:10.3389/fphys.2025.1564988
Training frequency for grip work in older adults with sarcopenia, the review's population: its dose optimum lands at about three sessions a week over 19 weeks.
- Ratamess NA, Alvar BA, Evetoch TK, Housh TJ, Kibler WB, Kraemer WJ, Triplett NT (ACSM) (2009). Progression Models in Resistance Training for Healthy Adults (ACSM Position Stand).
Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 41(3):687–708 · doi:10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181915670
Progressive overload and the timeframes training studies work with.
- Bai Z, Shu T, Niu W (2019). Test-retest reliability and measurement errors of grip strength test in patients with traumatic injuries in the upper extremity: a cross-sectional study.
BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 20:256 · doi:10.1186/s12891-019-2623-z
Test-retest reliability and measurement error of grip testing in patients recovering from arm and hand injuries: above 20 kg, the smallest change that can be told apart from noise is about 5 kg.
- Bohannon RW (2019). Grip Strength: An Indispensable Biomarker For Older Adults.
Clinical Interventions in Aging 14:1681–1691 · doi:10.2147/CIA.S194543
Grip strength as a low-cost observational health biomarker.
- Mathiowetz V, Kashman N, Volland G, Weber K, Dowe M, Rogers S (1985). Grip and pinch strength: normative data for adults.
Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 66(2):69–74
The classic seated Jamar protocol and adult norms.
- Tomkinson GR, Lang JJ, Rubín L, McGrath R, Gower B, Boyle T, et al. (2025). International norms for adult handgrip strength: A systematic review of data on 2.4 million adults aged 20 to 100+ years from 69 countries and regions.
Journal of Sport and Health Science 14:101014 · doi:10.1016/j.jshs.2024.101014
International grip norms pooled from 2.4 million adults in 69 countries and regions: the peak at ages 30 to 39 is 49.7 kg for men and 29.7 kg for women.
- Esteban-Cornejo I, Ho FK, Petermann-Rocha F, Lyall DM, Martinez-Gomez D, Cabanas-Sánchez V, et al. (2022). Handgrip strength and all-cause dementia incidence and mortality: findings from the UK Biobank prospective cohort study.
Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle 13(3):1514–1525 · doi:10.1002/jcsm.12857
Grip and dementia in UK Biobank (466,788 adults): the weakest fifth had about 72% higher risk of developing dementia than the strongest fifth.
Strength is a longevity skill
Want to go deeper? Our protein calculator breaks down how much protein the research supports, and the community is open to anyone interested in healthspan.
Created by Maurice Lichtenberg, Founder, Longevity Cities · Updated
