The David Boles Bells Blog.
Ring Them Boles Bells!
“Ring them bells
from the sanctuaries
’Cross the valleys
and streams”
Pressing Kettlebells Over the Age of 50!
The Grip Report
Your doctor wraps a cuff around your arm at every visit. The number goes in the chart, and it follows you. Nobody wraps anything around your hand. Yet in the largest prospective study of its kind, the strength of a squeeze predicted death from cardiovascular disease better than the cuff did. That study came out in 2015. Almost nobody has acted on it, because grip still feels like a party trick and blood pressure feels like medicine.
Grip Strength and Longevity in Aging
One of the greatest ways to practice your grip strength is to simply take two Kettlebells of equal weight, and grab one in each hand and stand tall holding the weights by your side. The weights should challenge you, but not hurt you to hold them.
Gaining Grip Strength
If you use Kettlebells to build arm, torso, and shoulder strength, please know you are building up your grip strength, too! Grip strength is important because it determines how many grocery bags you can carry at a time, how long you can hold onto your perilously hanging friend over the rocky cliff, and how many pounds of pressure your hand can create to crush a can, cut some tin, or shake a hand!