Why You Have Weak Grip Strength – and How to Fix It

Hands are the most essential body part because they are used to accomplish 80% of our day to day job. Thus hand weakness, numbness, soreness is frustrating. Hand weakness develops due to compressed nerves and damage to tendons. The common condition of hands is known as Carpal tunnel syndrome which is responsible for weak grip. Other reasons for hand weakness include rheumatoid arthritis which causes inflammation in the wrist joint, apart from that sports injury makes hand grip weak.

Here we will mention the common cause of weak grip strength, in brief, also give solutions to fix it.

Common symptoms of hand weakness

Hand weakness comes with the following symptoms including poor grasping ability, numbness, wrist pain, low range of motion, hand fatigue, inability to hold heavy items.

What are the common causes of hand weakness?

Environmental causes

Repetitive trauma:

Overuse of hands can damage your hand nerves, and affect the range of movement. Trauma and injuries also affect hand functionality. Carpal tunnel syndrome is the consequence of hand, wrist overuse.

Nerve damage: Nerve damage is the consequence of palsy’s disorder and develops immense hand weakness.

Direct injury: Direct injury can hurt your bones, muscles, and ligaments which causes long term hand weakness.

Inflammatory cause

Inflammation weakens your wrist, hands, and finger joints.

Autoimmune disorder:

Rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis causes inflammation which gradually makes your hand weak, thus your grip strength becomes poor. Patients experience hand, finger joint and soft tissue inflammation.

Cardiovascular condition:

Heart disease leads to inflammation of the incomplete body including hands, wrist, and fingers.

Systemic disease causes

Carpal tunnel syndrome

Carpal tunnel syndrome is the complication of numbness and tingling in the forearm developed due to compression of the median nerve as it transmits through the carpal tunnel. CTS develops due to overuse of the hand and wrist, especially carrying heavy loads or excessive typing.

Ulnar nerve entrapment of elbow

It is also known as cubital tunnel syndrome. The ulnar nerve starts at the spinal cord in the neck and runs down the arm into the hand. This extremely long nerve can become compacted, or ensnared, by different designs at specific focuses en route. Entanglement regularly occurs in the cubital passage, which is the restricted entry within the elbow.

De quervain tenosynovitis

It is a painful condition that affects the tendons of your thumb, and wrist. If you suffer from De Quervain tenosynovitis, you feel pain from the wrist, decrease your holding capacity, and you cannot make a fist easily.

Repetitive strain injury of the hand

This condition of hands and wrist develops due to consistent repetitive use.

Golfer’s elbow or medial epicondylitis

It is quite similar to the condition Epicondylitis-tennis elbow

Wrist bone fracture

A fracture is a clinical term for a wrecked bone. Whenever an individual falls on their outstretched hand, the scaphoid is the bone that is probably going to break.

Kienbock disease

Kienbock Disease is a condition where the blood going to one of the little bones in the wrist is upset, making the bone kick the bucket and the wrist turn out to be solid and excruciating. The reason isn’t known however might be connected with injury to the wrist

Becker muscular dystrophy

Becker Muscular Dystrophy (BMD) is a hereditary condition that prompts moderate muscle squandering because of a change in the quality that makes a muscle-supporting protein called dystrophin.

How to fix your grip strength

Exercise 1: Free Play

It is an exercise intended to warm up your fingers. Set each finger on individual knuckles and an ergonomic bar in the palm with the catch over the web space between the pointer and thumb. Keeping fingers imperceptibly contorted, flex 1-4 digits in contrasting blends toward the unit’s point of convergence like playing an instrument.

Exercise 2: Hook Grip 

How to do it: Keep your fingers on each knuckle and hold on an ergonomic palm bar in the palm with the snare over the workspace between the pointed finger and thumb. Try to keep all of your fingers twisted and flex them facing the focal point.

Exercise 3: Thumb pinch

How to do it: Make a loop with an ergonomic palm bar in between the index finger. Next, slightly bend them with the thumb tip, flex the thumb on your first knuckle. To boost your resilience power, you need to move your thumb tip on the first two knuckles at a single instance.

Exercise: 4 power pinch

How to do it: Hold the hand’s ergonomic base between the pinky fingers and the ring, make a foundation of the pinky finger. Then contract the palm along with them to press the knuckle nearest to the fingers.

Exercise: 5 touches the tips

How to do it: Hold on each of your fingertips on the knuckle, thumb tips should touch at the center of the ergonomic palm, Then gradually bend all of your fingertips at the flex position. Next, move all fingers towards the center of the unit at the same time.

However, if you experience severe discomfort while doing it, then stop immediately.

While doing all of these exercises, you need grip strength equipment. Use hand grip equipment to improve your holding capacity at a limited time.

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