Train Your Grip First

My fitness routine has changed a lot over the years. I’m not alone, I’m sure yours has as well.

What we do when we’re 18 is different than what we do when we’re 35 or 40. Fitness approaches change throughout life as our bodies, goals, and circumstances evolve.

At 18, I chased the bodybuilder ideal. which meant machines, isolation curls, high reps, pumping each muscle like it existed in a vacuum. Hypertrophy was king. In my 20s, I practiced Sports (Tennis, BJJ, Muay Thai).

By my 30s, I focused on barbells. I learned real strength, compound lifts, the Valsalva maneuver, full-body tension with every exertion and proper form.

Then I finally arrived at my longevity era: zone 2 cardio, HIIT, mobility drills, strength sessions. Very important to avoid injuries. Like everyone chasing sustainable health, I obsessed over my core, abs, heart, trunk. It was logical. Strengthen the center, and the edges will follow. Most fitness enthusiasts eventually adopt this longevity approach as they age, with personal variations.

Recently, I changed my fitness routine yet again based on a concept that challenges everything I thought I knew. In my opinion, traditional fitness wisdom isn't wrong, just incomplete. Here is an important concept that fills the gap:

Decline Happens Outside In, Not Inside Out

You can hear Huberman touching on this concept in one of his earlier podcasts about grip strength with Pavel Tsatsouline.

The explanation is that Motor neurons controlling fingers and toes sit farthest from the spinal cord and these distant nerve fibers degenerate first (possibly due to oxidative stress), which means having a weak grip and shrinking calves aren't just symptoms, they're early warning systems. As Dr. Andrew Eisen's ALS research shows, this "distal first" pattern appears across neurodegenerative conditions. Even in healthy aging, studies find calf muscles atrophy three times faster than quadriceps after age 50.

It’s a fascinating theory. Diseases and depression are sky high today. while many people are sedentary and work white collar jobs or driving cars that basically drive themselves, they aren’t using grip strength much in the modern world. And even if they do lift weights, it’s mostly core focused lifting. Men aren’t even shaking hands as hard as they used to.

On Decline

It seems true enough when you look at the old people in your life, what do you notice about how they decay?

It starts with a weak voice (remember Biden), a weak grip, their calves get smaller and they have a hard time balancing on their feet, falls happen. Same thing happens in nature. Trees lose twigs in storms before trunks.

• Diabetics lose feeling in their feet years before organ damage

• Dementia claims recent memories (where you parked) before core ones (your child's name)

• Elderly skin infections start at fingers and toes, not the torso

• As we age, the ability to maintain body temperature deteriorates in an outside, in pattern, hands and feet get cold more easily before core temperature regulation becomes compromised.

A baby comes into this world with a closed fist, an old man leaves the world with an open palm - Proverb

Grip-Strength and Longevity

Many people find it surprising that the best predictor we have for longevity and health is grip strength. It’s so simple and so basic. No need for fancy diagnostics.

The landmark 2015 Lancet study by Leong and colleagues found that grip strength predicts all-cause mortality more accurately than blood pressure. In study after study, across diverse populations, grip strength emerges as a remarkable biomarker of aging. But not only that, it can also predict diseases like Dementia and Parkinson’s. As the disease gets worse the disease gets, the weaker the grip.

We used to assume grip strength was just a proxy for overall fitness. The truth is stranger: training your hands might reverse systemic decline.

I investigated what happens when you just focus on strengthening the grip with sick patients. The results are interesting. Isometric handgrip training reduced blood pressure comparably to aerobic exercise and medication, according to a 2018 study in the Journal of Hypertension. Even more surprisingly, researchers in a 2019 Journal of Alzheimer's Disease study linked improved grip strength with better cognitive outcomes in older adults, particularly in executive function and memory tasks.

The benefits extend throughout the body. Diabetes Care published research showing grip-focused resistance training improved insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism in older adults with type 2 diabetes. Scientists writing in Chest demonstrated grip strength training improved pulmonary function in COPD patients.

Researchers in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research found hand and forearm resistance training improved bone mineral density not only at the wrist but at non-trained skeletal sites, suggesting systemic effects on bone metabolism

There’s also anecdotal evidence. Peter Attia noticed his shoulder problems went away when he started to focus on grip strength. Patients with Parkinson’s disease noticed significant improvement in all parts of their life when they started rock climbing (a sport that trains your grip strength a lot!)

Rock climbing is interesting. There are numerous stories in the climbing community about elderly climbers who maintain remarkable overall health. It’s probably because there is an emphasis on grip strength.

In This Newsletter

1) How to Train Your Peripheral: Let’s explore some exercises for your fingers, hands, forearms, toes, feet, calves, voice and eyes

2) Decline Happens From The Outside. This philosophical concept extends to other domains. Relationships, nature, nations, businesses, etc.

How to Train Your Peripheral 

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