Athletes in sporting events with upper-body gripping movements have greater handgrip strength than those in sporting events that prioritize the lower body.

Abstract

Evidence suggests that acquiring a high level of handgrip strength early in life and maintaining that strength throughout life may be important for health. In addition, it is thought that sports activities performed during the developmental period are effective in improving handgrip strength, but it is unknown what types of sports are more effective. As a first step, we conducted a cross-sectional study to compare handgrip strength across different sports (upper-body gripping sports vs. lower body) in early adulthood. We used the Juntendo Fitness Plus Study data from 1973 to 2018 and selected two types of sporting events with matching physiques (soccer, baseball, and kendo) but different degrees of gripping. Data on 7344 male first-year sports university students included 1127 soccer, 297 Kendo, and 698 baseball players. Those in the lower body-only (soccer) sports had -3.78 (95% CI: -4.27, -3.29) kg lower handgrip strength than those in the lower + upper (kendo and baseball). Comparing each individual sport found that each sport was different from each other with Kendo > Baseball > Soccer (between each sport, p < .001). In addition, the difference between sports has become greater across time. In early adulthood, handgrip strength is greatest in those participating in sports with upper-body movements compared to those participating in sports that mainly involved lower-body movements. The three sports we selected are natural activities that do not directly train handgrip strength. Therefore, sport may be one potential method to improve low handgrip strength in children/adolescents during the developmental period.