Abstract
The objective of this study is to examine the relationship among anthropometric dimensions, grip span, discomfort, gender, and grip strength. The 24 volunteer subjects (12 males, 12 females) performed five grips squeezing their hardest for 2 minutes at each of the five grip spans on the Jamar grip dynamometer. The grip strength was recorded using the UPC software and then averaged for each of the 30 second intervals. The data was analyzed using ANOVA, post-hoc (Tukey) hypothesis tests, and regression. In the ANOVA analysis gender, grip span, time, and the interactions of gender-grip span, grip span-time, and time-gender were determined to be the significant effects. In all four of the 30 second intervals, average grip strength was significantly higher for males than females. Female average grip strength was found to be 70% of male average grip strength. The post-hoc (Tukey) tests showed that grip spans 3, 4, and 2 were significantly higher than grip spans 5 and 1. The anthropometry of several segments of the hand were found to be important predictors of grip strength and discomfort in the stepwise regressions. Grip span 4 had the highest average severity of discomfort, while grip span 1 had the most areas of the hand experiencing discomfort.
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