Millennials, the thoroughbreds of texting, may lag behind previous generations when it comes to old-fashioned hand strength. In a study of Americans ages 20-34, occupational therapists found that men younger than 30 have significantly weaker hand grips than their counterparts in 1985 did. The same was true of women ages 20-24, according to the study published online by the Journal of Hand Therapy a few months back. The findings suggest that it's time to update what constitutes normal hand strength. The norms are used to assess the severity of injuries and how well people are recovering. Women ages 20-24 showed smaller, but significant losses in their right hand grip. With right-handed grips today of 60 pounds, they've lost roughly 10 pounds of force. http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/06/13/481590997/millennials-may-be-losing-their-grip
Umm, question is if we should adjust the "normal" value, or encourage the people to exercise a bit more to match the traditional value. From recent experience I can tell that weeding is a quite good excercise for hand grip power. The weeds do not suffer from civilisational degradion Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! And for those without garden, just open the hands, stretch the fingers straight, and close them to fists. Repeat 100 times ... sounds easy first, and takes only a few minutes. Try it Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Because of arthritis, I can't make a fist with my right hand. My index finder won't come closer than an inch from my palm and my middle finger won't come closer than a quarter-inch. But I can still pick up those millennial pipsqueaks with one hand. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
This is just fine with me. I got very disgusted with the bone-shattering handshakes that many men gave 30-40 years ago.