Average Grip Strength By Age And Gender: Chart + Calculator

Men peak at 25 to 29 with about 49.7 kg (109.6 lb) in their stronger hand, and women at 40 to 44 with about 29.9 kg (65.9 lb).

Those two numbers are the headline of average grip strength by age, and the curve is flatter than you might expect.

Men hold close to that peak until the mid-40s and women until the mid-50s, then the slide starts, and it steepens after 60.

By the early 80s men have lost about 43% of their peak and women about a third.

Below: the full chart in kg and lb, a tool that places your score, and why your tester may disagree.

Key Takeaways

• Grip peaks near 50 kg (110 lb) for men and 30 kg (66 lb) for women, holds close to that into middle age, and drops hardest after 60.
• Compare only with your sex and age: the top tenth of young women sit below the bottom quarter of young men.
• Under 27 kg for men or 16 kg for women is the medical screening line for older adults.
• Cheap testers, standing tests and both-hands charts read differently. A 2 kg swing is noise.
• In 17 countries, every 5 kg less grip meant about 16% higher death risk.
• Training adds kilos, not a doubling. Carries, hangs and strapless pulling work best.

Grip Strength Chart By Age And Gender

Most grip charts online quietly mix datasets and units. Every number below comes from one source: a study of 1,232 US adults aged 18 to 85 tested for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Toolbox.

Each person sat with the elbow bent at a right angle and squeezed a calibrated Jamar hand squeeze tester, one practice squeeze and then one all-out squeeze per hand.

The middle-half column is where half of people your age and sex land, so a score there is normal, and the last column is the squeeze that puts you in the top tenth.

Average Grip Strength For Men By Age (Dominant Hand)

Age	Average (kg)	Average (lb)	Middle Half, 25th To 75th (kg)	Top 10% From (kg)
18 to 24	47.0	103.6	41.4 to 51.2	57.9
25 to 29	49.7	109.6	43.3 to 59.4	66.2
30 to 34	46.5	102.5	36.4 to 56.4	63.1
35 to 39	47.1	103.8	39.7 to 54.3	60.8
40 to 44	46.7	103.0	39.9 to 54.4	63.1
45 to 49	42.8	94.4	35.8 to 48.2	59.2
50 to 54	44.0	97.0	39.0 to 52.3	56.7
55 to 59	40.7	89.7	32.4 to 47.8	56.3
60 to 64	38.4	84.7	30.4 to 44.9	52.5
65 to 69	36.8	81.1	31.5 to 45.8	50.1
70 to 74	34.7	76.5	29.3 to 41.2	45.6
75 to 79	32.7	72.1	25.9 to 36.6	43.5
80 to 85	28.1	61.9	21.5 to 34.6	38.2

Average Grip Strength For Women By Age (Dominant Hand)

Age	Average (kg)	Average (lb)	Middle Half, 25th To 75th (kg)	Top 10% From (kg)
18 to 24	28.1	61.9	22.4 to 33.8	38.0
25 to 29	29.6	65.3	25.4 to 33.6	39.7
30 to 34	28.9	63.7	23.9 to 33.0	37.1
35 to 39	29.2	64.4	24.5 to 33.0	38.0
40 to 44	29.9	65.9	26.5 to 33.8	37.4
45 to 49	28.8	63.5	25.2 to 34.4	37.6
50 to 54	28.2	62.2	24.6 to 32.7	35.2
55 to 59	25.1	55.3	20.7 to 30.2	32.2
60 to 64	23.6	52.0	19.2 to 28.1	31.8
65 to 69	22.1	48.7	19.3 to 25.0	31.2
70 to 74	21.5	47.4	19.5 to 23.9	27.5
75 to 79	19.6	43.2	15.7 to 22.4	27.8
80 to 85	19.9	43.9	16.6 to 21.8	27.0

Source: the NIH Toolbox norms linked above, dominant hand, seated, one all-out squeeze.

Read the trend, not a single row. Each band held only 22 to 47 men and 17 to 109 women, so averages wobble by a kilo or two between neighbors.

Your weaker hand usually reads about 1 to 3 kg lower. Type your stronger-hand number into the tool below, then check the next section for what counts as good.

Compare Your Grip Strength To Your Age Group

Type in your number and get your answer in a second. Enter your age, sex and best stronger-hand squeeze in kg or lb, and the tool places you in a percentile band from the US table above.

Weak is below the 10th percentile, Below Average the 10th to 25th, Average the 25th to 75th, Above Average the 75th to 90th, and Strong above the 90th.

The result assumes a seated, one-squeeze test on a Jamar-type tester, so a standing test or cheap tester can shift you a band.

What Is A Good Grip Strength For Your Age?

"Good" depends on who you compare yourself with, and a single unisex target gets it wrong for almost everyone.

So what is a good grip strength? A percentile, not a number.

Percentile Bands: Weak, Average And Strong

The five bands in the tool above come straight from the chart's percentiles.

For men aged 40 to 44, the 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentiles are 39.9, 45.9, 54.4 and 63.1 kg, so a man of 42 squeezing 55 kg beats three quarters of men his age. A woman of 42 needs 33.8 kg to do the same, and 37.4 kg for the top tenth.

Social media targets like "35 kg for men" sit just above the 10th percentile for men aged 25 to 34: a floor, not a goal.

The Weak Grip Cutoffs Doctors Use

Doctors screening for sarcopenia, the medical name for age-related muscle loss, draw a different line.

The European guidance on sarcopenia flags low strength below 27 kg (about 60 lb) for men and 16 kg (about 35 lb) for women. The Asian guidance uses 28 kg and 18 kg.

Those lines sit far below the young-adult peak. For scale, 16 kg is about the 10th percentile for US women aged 70 to 74.

Falling under one means a proper check with your doctor, not a diagnosis. And average is not healthy by default: the US sample included people with health conditions, so the chart's middle is a typical adult, not an ideal one.

Why Your Score May Not Match The Grip Strength Norms

Some websites say the average man squeezes nearly 100 kg. They are not lying, they added both hands together, one of four ways a reading drifts from the grip strength norms above.

The Tester Matters

Budget digital testers sit closer to the clinical standard than you might fear.

A comparison of the CAMRY tester against a Jamar in 1,064 adults aged 50 to 90 found the budget model read only 0.5 kg lower for men and 0.6 kg lower for women on average.

The study's own conversion also shows the gap flips with strength: budget readings run a little low for weak hands and a few kilograms high for strong ones.

Averages hide individual gaps. One person's readings on a digital tester and a Jamar can differ by a few kilograms either way, and some spring and hydraulic testers should not be swapped for a Jamar at all.

A reading far above the chart, say 80 to 100 kg, is almost always a calibration, unit or both-hands issue. The highest 90th percentile in the US data is 66.2 kg for men and 39.7 kg for women.

The Test Method Matters

The chart used one practice squeeze and one all-out squeeze, seated, elbow at a right angle.

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) grip protocol instead tests standing, takes three tries per hand and adds the best of each hand together.

That is why its peaks come out near 98 kg for men and 62 kg for women, roughly 49 and 31 per hand.

A 2 Kg Change Is Probably Noise

On the same tester, a change has to reach about 3.5 kg before it counts as real rather than day-to-day wobble. Use the same tester, position and time of day, and only trust swings above 3 to 4 kg.

Your Two Hands Are Not Always 10% Apart

The old rule says the stronger hand is about 10% stronger. That holds for most right-handers, but left-handers' hands often come out equal, and a stronger non-dominant hand is common among them.

In the US chart data, only about 54% of adults were within 10% side to side. If you are left-handed, compare your stronger hand with the chart.

Average Grip Strength For Men Vs Women: How Little They Overlap

The strongest tenth of young women squeeze less than the bottom quarter of young men, so one unisex target is wrong for nearly everyone.

In the US chart, women aged 25 to 29 need 39.7 kg to reach their 90th percentile, while men the same age sit at 43.3 kg for their 25th.

That is why the average grip strength for men and the average grip strength for women get separate tables, and why a woman at the top of her chart lands near the bottom of the men's.

The gap is mostly size. Men have bigger hands, thicker forearms and more muscle overall, and height alone adds about 3 to 4 kg per 10 cm in the US equations.

Our guide to average forearm size for men and women shows how big that difference is.

Age treats the sexes differently too. Women's averages stay flatter and hit their highest band later, at 40 to 44 in the US chart against 25 to 29 for men.

Use the chart for your own sex and ignore the other one. A unisex fitness or job standard screens out most women no matter how hard they train, and a man comparing himself with a woman's score learns nothing.

Why Grip Strength Predicts Your Health

A few seconds on a hand squeeze tester predicted death from heart disease better than a blood pressure reading in a study that followed 139,691 adults in 17 countries. This is what it actually found.

Earlier Death And Heart Disease

Every 5 kg less grip went with about 16% higher risk of dying from any cause over a median 4 years of follow-up, and about 17% higher risk of dying from heart and blood-vessel disease.

For those two outcomes, grip beat systolic blood pressure, the top number in a reading, as a predictor.

The link was weaker for heart attack and stroke, at about 7% and 9% per 5 kg, and grip showed no link at all with diabetes, falls or fractures.

Keep the scale in mind: only about 2% died during follow-up, so 16% is a relative rise on a small base.

Dementia Risk

Grip also tracks with brain health. In a 2022 analysis of 466,788 UK adults, the weakest fifth had about 72% higher dementia risk than the strongest fifth after accounting for lifestyle and health, and each 5 kg less grip went with about 14% higher risk.

Disability Later In Life

Strength in your 40s and 50s also shapes how you move decades later. Middle-aged men with the weakest grip were far more likely to walk very slowly and need help with self-care 25 years on than the strongest, so midlife strength is a safety margin you carry forward.

A Marker, Not A Magic Lever

Grip mostly reflects how strong and active you are overall, and the 17 country team said it is still untested whether raising strength lowers death risk. Nobody has shown that squeezing a gripper adds years.

A hand injury, arthritis or a pinched nerve such as carpal tunnel can also drag the number down without saying anything about your heart. Train the whole body, and use grip as the cheap scoreboard.

How To Do A Grip Strength Test The Right Way

If you want your number to mean anything against the chart, copy the way the chart was measured. This is the grip strength test behind the US numbers:

• Sit upright in a chair with your upper arm against your side.
• Bend your elbow to a right angle, thumb pointing up, wrist straight.
• Set the handle so the middle of your fingers wraps it (second position on a Jamar).
• Do one practice squeeze at moderate effort for 3 to 4 seconds.
• Rest 30 seconds.
• Squeeze as hard as you can for 3 to 4 seconds and record the peak.
• Repeat with the other hand and use your stronger hand for the chart.

Many clinics take two or three tries per hand and keep the best, which reads a little higher.

Skip the test with a fresh hand or wrist injury or after recent surgery, and ask your doctor first if you have uncontrolled blood pressure.

For a proper test, see a physical therapist or a sports medicine clinic. A cheap tester is good for one thing: tracking your trend on the same device, not proving your percentile.

Dead hangs and pull ups are great training tests but have no age chart that matches a squeeze test.

For that standard, see how many pull ups you should be able to do.

When Grip Strength Peaks And Starts To Drop

Ask two big studies when grip peaks and you get two answers. The US chart found 18 to 24 year olds matched every group up to 59 but were clearly stronger than people 60 and over.

Its highest averages land at 25 to 29 for men and 40 to 44 for women. Men's averages dip from 45 to 49 and women's from 55 to 59, and by 80 to 85 men average 28.1 kg, about 43% below peak, and women 19.9 kg, 33% below.

Britain tells a smoother story. The British life-course grip study of 49,964 people puts the peak at 32 for both sexes, 51.9 kg for men and 31.4 kg for women, then a slow slide from the 40s, and it produced the 27 kg and 16 kg cutoffs.

Why the gap?

Each US band holds only a few dozen people, so single rows bounce. The US test used one squeeze while the British studies kept the best of several, and both are snapshots of different people rather than one group followed over time.

Why grip drops is simpler: muscle slowly shrinks with age, and most people use their hands less hard as the years pass. The big drop comes after 60, so build your buffer before then.

How To Improve Your Grip Strength At Any Age

Grip responds to training, but honest gains come in kilos rather than doublings, so pick moves that build the rest of you too. Run it 2 to 3 times a week; the sets and reps are coaching guidance, not trial doses.

Six Moves That Build A Stronger Grip

• Dead Hang: Hang from a pull up bar with straight arms, 3 sets of 20 to 45 seconds, adding time before weight.
• Farmer Carry: Walk 30 to 40 meters with heavy dumbbells or kettlebells at your sides, 3 to 4 times, with the last steps hard.
• Plate Pinch: Pinch two smooth plates together between fingers and thumb for 3 holds of 15 to 30 seconds per hand.
• Towel Or Thick Bar Hold: Drape a towel over a bar or a dumbbell handle for 3 holds of 15 to 30 seconds, or do towel rows for 3 sets of 8 to 10.
• Hand Gripper: 3 to 5 sets of 5 to 8 hard closes per hand with a gripper you can barely shut, then 2 sets of 15 to 20 finger opens against a rubber band to keep the hand balanced.
• Heavy Rows And Deadlifts Without Straps: 3 to 4 sets of 5 to 8, letting your hands be the limit on the last set.

Add forearm exercises like hammer curls and reverse curls, since the forearm muscles that close your hand do the squeezing.

If your wrists are the weak link, see how to build thicker wrists.

How Much Will Your Grip Actually Improve?

Expect kilos, not a new category. In trials with adults over 60, general strength training added about a kilo or two on average, and hand-specific or mixed programs beat generic ones.

People who start weakest gain the most. Older adults with age-related muscle loss have added several kilograms on the best plans, and hand-focused work helps older adults far more than younger ones.

Programs that worked ran from about a month to half a year, so there is no reliable "results in X weeks" number. Retest the same way and only count a change above 3 to 4 kg.

FAQs

What Is A Good Grip Strength For My Age?

Above the median for your age and sex beats average, above the 75th percentile is above average, and the top tenth is strong. At 40 to 44 the median and 75th percentile are 45.9 and 54.4 kg for men, or 30.4 and 33.8 kg for women.

Is 135 Lb Grip Strength Good?

Yes. 135 lb is about 61 kg, above the men's 75th percentile at every age and the 90th from the mid 40s on. Only at 25 to 34 and 40 to 44 does it fall short of the top tenth, and for women it beats the 90th at every age.

What Should Grip Strength Be For A 70 Year Old Woman?

Around 21.5 kg (47 lb) is the average for a woman aged 70 to 74, with the middle half between 19.5 and 23.9 kg. Under 16 kg (about 35 lb) is where doctors look closer for age-related muscle loss, so a score above that is not a red flag.

Is Grip Strength An Indicator Of Dementia?

It is a warning sign, not a test. In a very large UK study, the weakest fifth of people had about 72% higher dementia risk than the strongest fifth, even after accounting for lifestyle and health. That shows a link, not proof that weak hands cause dementia.

At What Age Does Grip Strength Peak?

Between the late 20s and early 40s, depending on the dataset: US data puts men's peak at 25 to 29 and women's at 40 to 44, while British data says about 32 for both sexes. Men slip from the mid-40s, women from the mid-50s, and the drop steepens after 60.

Bottom Line

The average man peaks around 50 kg with his stronger hand and the average woman around 30 kg, and both stay close to that into middle age before the real drop after 60.

Everything else about average grip strength by age comes down to reading your own number honestly.

Compare only with your own age and sex, on a seated test with one all-out squeeze. A standing test, a both-hands chart or a cheap tester can shift you a band.

Landing in the middle half is normal. Falling below the 10th percentile, or under 27 kg for men and 16 kg for women later in life, is a reason for a proper check, not for panic.

Do not chase a 2 kg change. Retest the same way every few months and only count a swing bigger than 3 to 4 kg.

Grip is a cheap scoreboard for overall strength. Carries, hangs and heavy pulling move it, and the work matters more than the number.

Run your score through the tool above, then pick two moves from the list for your next session.

References

• Wang YC and colleagues, Hand-Grip Strength: Normative Reference Values and Equations for Individuals 18 to 85 Years of Age Residing in the United States, Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy, 2018
• Cruz-Jentoft AJ and colleagues, Sarcopenia: revised European consensus on definition and diagnosis (EWGSOP2), Age and Ageing, 2019
• Huang L and colleagues, Reliability and validity of two hand dynamometers when used by community-dwelling adults aged over 50 years, BMC Geriatrics, 2022
• National Center for Health Statistics, NHANES 2013 to 2014 Muscle Strength, Grip Test (MGX_H) data documentation
• Leong DP and colleagues, Prognostic value of grip strength: findings from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study, The Lancet, 2015
• Esteban-Cornejo I and colleagues, Handgrip strength and all-cause dementia incidence and mortality: findings from the UK Biobank prospective cohort study, Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle, 2022
• Dodds RM and colleagues, Grip strength across the life course: normative data from twelve British studies, PLOS ONE, 2014