Grip strength and physical fitness: a predictive study with active elderly

INTRODUCTION: Evaluation of handgrip strength (HS) is a useful method for assessing overall muscle strength of old people. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between HS and the physical skills of old people practitioners of physical exercise, according to sex. METHODS: A descriptive study with 106 women and 30 man practicing physical exercises in a university extension program, which underwent a battery of Senior Fitness Test (lower limb strength, upper limbs strength, lower limbs flexibility, agility / dynamic balance, upper limb flexibility and aerobic endurance). HS was evaluated by a handgrip dynamometer. We used descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential U test of Mann Whitney tests for independent samples and simple linear regression. The significance level was 5%. RESULTS: The HS right and left was higher in men than in women (p <0.001). It was observed that HS is a good predictor of upper limb strength (approximately 11.4%) and aerobic endurance (approximately 14.0%) in women, while in men, HS explains these skills (approximately 22.0% and 20.0%, respectively) and also the agility / dynamic balance (approximately 21.0%). CONCLUSIONS: We observed that, among elderly practicing physical exercises, HS better predicts only the variation of physical tests that perform well, which increases the power of explanation and prediction among men, as they had better performance in physical assessments.