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Grip Strength Percentile Calculator

Enter your sex, age and your best dynamometer reading in kilograms, and the calculator places it as a percentile against the Mathiowetz adult norms for your five-year age band. It also tells you how your reading compares with the grip strength cut-offs used to screen for low muscle strength.

  • Calculator
  • About 3 min
  • Mathiowetz 1985 adult norms, right hand
  • Runs in your browser, nothing is sent
  • Medical review: Medical review pending
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What this calculator works out

Grip strength is the cheapest whole-body strength marker that tracks with health outcomes in large studies. A number on its own means little; the same 30 kg is a strong reading for a woman of 70 and a weak one for a man of 35, so the calculator puts your reading in the context of people of your age and sex.

  1. 1

    Percentile for your age and sex

    Where your reading falls against the mean and standard deviation for your sex and five-year age band in the Mathiowetz 1985 right-hand norms. The 50th percentile is the band average; the 25th means three in four people in that band gripped harder.

  2. 2

    The band mean and the gap

    The calculator prints the band average in kilograms and the z-score, the number of standard deviations you sit from it, so you can see how far a reading is from typical rather than only which side of the line it is on.

  3. 3

    The low-strength cut-offs

    The 2019 European sarcopenia consensus (EWGSOP2) uses a grip below 27 kg in men and below 16 kg in women as the marker of probable low muscle strength. Those cut-offs are fixed numbers, not percentiles, and the result explains how your reading relates to them.

How this compares with a typical online quiz

FeatureTypical free quizRegenerated.com
Norms named with the paperRarelyMathiowetz et al. 1985, right hand, by sex and five-year band
Percentile method explainedNoYes: a normal approximation on the published mean and SD, stated as such
Sarcopenia cut-offs shownSometimes, without a sourceEWGSOP2 2019: below 27 kg men, below 16 kg women
Measurement protocol describedRarelyYes: seated, elbow at 90 degrees, second handle position, best of three
Pounds convertedSometimesYes: enter kg, the help line gives the conversion
Answers sent to a serverOftenNever; scored in your browser, counts-only events

How to take a reading the norms can be compared with

The Mathiowetz norms were collected with a Jamar hydraulic dynamometer set to the second handle position, with the person seated, shoulder at the side, elbow bent to 90 degrees and the forearm and wrist in a neutral position. Each person squeezed as hard as they could three times and the mean of the three was recorded. The Southampton protocol described by Roberts and colleagues in 2011 uses the same posture and is the one most research studies follow today; it takes the best of three rather than the mean.

If you measure at home, use a calibrated dynamometer in the same position, rest about a minute between squeezes, and test the hand you write with. Readings taken standing, with the elbow straight, or on a spring-loaded gauge that has not been calibrated can differ by several kilograms from the norms and will shift the percentile. Pain, a recent hand or wrist injury and arthritis in the fingers all lower grip without saying anything about the rest of your body.

Cheap digital dynamometers often read high. If your reading looks surprisingly good, ask the clinic or physical therapy practice that measured you which device they used and whether it is checked against a known weight.

Why grip strength matters for longevity

In the PURE study, which followed almost 140,000 adults in 17 countries for about four years, each 5 kg lower grip strength was associated with a 16 percent higher risk of death from any cause, a 17 percent higher risk of cardiovascular death, and higher risks of heart attack and stroke, after adjusting for age, sex, education, activity and other factors. Grip strength predicted death more strongly than systolic blood pressure did. That does not mean a stronger grip causes a longer life; it means grip is a convenient window onto overall muscle mass and function, which are what actually matter.

Low grip is also one of the two findings that define probable sarcopenia in the EWGSOP2 consensus, alongside a slow chair-stand test. Sarcopenia is the loss of muscle mass and strength with age, and it is treatable: progressive resistance training is the intervention with the strongest evidence, with adequate protein intake as the supporting measure. A low percentile on this page is a reason to measure properly and to start or adjust a strength program, not a verdict.

Methodology and sources

The calculator compares your reading with the adult norms published by Mathiowetz, Kashman, Volland, Weber, Dowe and Rogers in 1985. They tested 628 volunteers aged 20 to 94 in the Milwaukee area who were free of conditions affecting upper-limb strength, using a Jamar dynamometer in the second handle position, and reported the mean and standard deviation of grip in pounds for the right and left hand in twelve age bands from 20 to 24 up to 75 and over, separately for men and women. This page uses the right-hand table, converts pounds to kilograms at 2.2046 lb per kg, and reads your sex and age into the matching band. The norms are North American, more than forty years old, and were collected on a specific device and protocol; readings on other devices, in other populations and especially in people over 75, where the top band is wide, are less certain. The paper reports means, standard deviations and ranges, not percentiles, so the percentile here is a normal approximation on their numbers rather than a published centile table.

The arithmetic: the band mean and standard deviation are converted to kilograms, your reading is turned into a z-score, z = (your kg - band mean kg) / band SD kg, and the percentile is the area under the standard normal curve below that z, times 100. Worked example: a 35-year-old man gripping 54.3 kg (119.7 lb) is exactly at the mean for the men's 35 to 39 band (119.7 lb, SD 24.0 lb, so 54.3 kg and 10.9 kg), z is 0, and the percentile is 50. A 62-year-old woman gripping 20 kg is read against the women's 60 to 64 band (55.1 lb, SD 10.1 lb, so 25.0 kg and 4.6 kg): z is -1.09, which is the 14th percentile, and her reading is above the 16 kg cut-off for women.

The low-strength thresholds come from the 2019 revision of the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP2): grip strength below 27 kg in men and below 16 kg in women marks probable sarcopenia, to be confirmed by a measure of muscle quantity. Those cut-offs were set on UK data by Dodds and colleagues (2014), who pooled twelve British studies, and they are fixed values rather than age-adjusted percentiles. The percentile bands on this page are educational orientation points, not a published grading; the two fixed cut-offs are the only numbers here with a guideline behind them.

Medical review: Medical review pending. Last updated .

References

  1. Mathiowetz V, Kashman N, Volland G, Weber K, Dowe M, Rogers S. Grip and pinch strength: normative data for adults. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 1985;66(2):69-74. PMID 3970660
  2. Cruz-Jentoft AJ, Bahat G, Bauer J, et al. Sarcopenia: revised European consensus on definition and diagnosis. Age Ageing. 2019;48(1):16-31. doi:10.1093/ageing/afy169
  3. Leong DP, Teo KK, Rangarajan S, et al. Prognostic value of grip strength: findings from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study. Lancet. 2015;386(9990):266-273. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(14)62000-6
  4. Dodds RM, Syddall HE, Cooper R, et al. Grip strength across the life course: normative data from twelve British studies. PLoS One. 2014;9(12):e113637. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0113637
  5. Roberts HC, Denison HJ, Martin HJ, et al. A review of the measurement of grip strength in clinical and epidemiological studies: towards a standardised approach. Age Ageing. 2011;40(4):423-429. doi:10.1093/ageing/afr051

Grip Strength Percentile Calculator FAQ

The norms on this page are for the right hand. Most people are right-hand dominant and the dominant hand is typically about 10 percent stronger, so if you are left-handed your left-hand reading is the fairer comparison, with that caveat in mind. Whatever you choose, test both hands and keep the stronger reading; a large difference between hands is worth mentioning to a clinician.

Divide pounds by 2.2046 to get kilograms, so 100 lb is 45.4 kg. If the device reads in kilograms-force or newtons, kilograms-force equals kilograms here, and newtons divided by 9.81 gives kilograms.

For orientation, a reading at or above the 50th percentile for your age and sex is typical or better, and readings in the top quarter are strong. The numbers that have a guideline behind them are the low-strength cut-offs: below 27 kg in men and below 16 kg in women is the EWGSOP2 marker of probable sarcopenia at any age, though it was designed for older adults.

The Mathiowetz table is still the most widely used clinical reference because it was collected on the standard device and protocol and is reported by sex and five-year band. Newer datasets exist, including the twelve-study British pooling by Dodds and colleagues and US NHANES data, and they broadly agree in younger adults. Some show slightly lower values in older bands. Your percentile is an orientation against one well-described population, not a universal grade.

Less so. The oldest Mathiowetz band is 75 and over, which lumps together people from 75 to 94, and strength keeps falling across that range. A reading in the lower percentiles at 85 may be average for that age. The fixed EWGSOP2 cut-offs are the more useful reference at older ages, and a clinician can add a chair-stand or gait speed test to complete the picture.

Yes. Your answers and the numbers you enter are scored in your browser and are never sent to us. They stay in this browser tab so you can return to your result, and closing the tab clears them. The only thing the page sends us is a counts-only event: which test was started or completed, the result band and the headline number, with no answers, no entered values and no account. There is nothing to sign up for.

Talk to a longevity clinic that tests strength, not only blood

Browse US clinics offering NAD+ IV therapy and longevity programs. Look for ones that measure grip, muscle mass and function at baseline, repeat them, and put a training and protein plan ahead of any infusion. A listing on Regenerated.com is not an endorsement.

Browse longevity and NAD+ clinics

A listing is not a treatment endorsement. Read each clinic's published checks and talk to your clinician before starting any treatment.

Important: This calculator is educational arithmetic on a measurement you enter, compared with a published normative table. It is not a diagnosis of sarcopenia or any other condition and not a recommendation for treatment. A clinician who measures you on a calibrated device and knows your history can interpret the number properly. If your symptoms are severe or sudden, seek urgent medical care.