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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Sports Med Int Open 2025; 09: a24876175
DOI: 10.1055/a-2487-6175
Physiology & Biochemistry

Assessing the Potential of Hand Grip Strength as an Indicator of Spinal Muscle Size

Autoren

  • Salman S Alharthi

    1   Radiology and Medical Imaging Department, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia
    2   Medical Imaging Department, Faculty of Health & Life Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

  • Jonathan Fulford

    2   Medical Imaging Department, Faculty of Health & Life Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

  • Judith R Meakin

    3   Physics and Astronomy Department, Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
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Abstract

In order to assess how well hand grip strength can predict spinal muscle size and to determine if scaling improves prediction, Biobank data was acquired consisting of hand grip strength, age, height, body mass and abdominal magnetic resonance images for 150 age-matched male and female participants. The cross-sectional area of the multifidus and erector spinae was measured from the images at the L3/L4 level. Correlation strength and prediction errors were quantified for muscle size predicted from hand grip strength, age, height, and body mass. The effect of scaling muscle area by height and height squared was also determined. All variables correlated significantly with spine muscle size. The strongest correlator was hand grip strength (r=0.61, p<0.05) with a prediction error of 678 mm2. The strength of the correlations was reduced when muscle areas were scaled. Hand grip strength can predict spine muscle size in male and female participants; however, the confidence intervals on the predicted values are larger than would be expected from measuring muscle size directly using imaging technologies. Scaling by height or height squared does not improve the ability of hand grip strength to predict muscle size.

Keyword

paraspinal muscles - hand grip strength - anthropometry - UK biobank


Publikationsverlauf

Eingereicht: 25. Juni 2024

Angenommen: 11. Dezember 2024

Accepted Manuscript online:
11. Dezember 2024

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
22. April 2025

© 2025. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Georg Thieme Verlag KG
Oswald-Hesse-Straße 50, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany

Bibliographical Record
Salman S Alharthi, Jonathan Fulford, Judith R Meakin. Assessing the Potential of Hand Grip Strength as an Indicator of Spinal Muscle Size. Sports Med Int Open 2025; 09: a24876175.
DOI: 10.1055/a-2487-6175
 

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