Single dynamometric measures are sometimes used to characterize overall muscle strength. This study examined the legitimacy of that practice by assessing how dynamometer measures of grip and knee extension strength related to manual muscle-test grades of each upper and lower limb and of the trunk. Based on correlations and principal component analysis, grip dynamometry can be used to characterize upper limb strength but not lower limb strength; knee extension dynamometry can be used to characterize lower limb and trunk strength.
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