Handstands: secretly anti-dementia??

"Brainy What-Why-How"

Your weekly nibble of science-backed goodness to help you move better and feel unstoppable.

🧠

What:

Recently I've been geeking out on grip strength. 

Turns out grip strength isn't just about strong hands.

It’s strongly linked to how well your brain is working (read: delaying your transformation into a frail, forgetful Victorian ghost lol)

Why:

Studies* on older adults show weaker grip strength comes from:

  1. The obvious: muscles getting smaller or weaker.

  2. The juicy bit: the brain getting worse at organising and coordinating movement.

Think about it: a strong grip means your brain has to:

  • Predict what force is needed (one-arm handstand? jam jar? suitcase so heavy it must be filled with regret?)

  • Coordinate multiple muscles (it's like 34 different muscles 🖐️ 😮)

  • Adjust grip instantly when things shift

  • Stabilise those objects in your hand

So we’re talking brain areas responsible for:

  • Movement planning

  • Memory and attention

  • Coordination and prediction

  • Efficient information processing

  • ☝️ that's like, your entire brain

Gripping is not “just squeezing.” It’s a full-blown brain-body group chat. When that chat runs smoothly, it reflects solid overall brain health.

And here’s an eye-brows raising bit: changes in grip strength can show up BEFORE noticeable cognitive decline. For example, lower grip strength at age 53 is linked to dementia diagnoses in the late 60s/early 70s 🤯

Your hands are basically gossiping about your future brain.

How:

Because brain-body relationships are a two-way street, the answer is YES if you’re wondering:

“So, can I train grip strength to help protect my brain?”

Research suggests combining motor challenge (gripping) + cognitive challenge (thinking hard and not just zoning out) creates the biggest benefits.

Ummm....HANDSTANDS ANYONE?! 

If you've ever trained handstands you'll know it’s gripping plus coordination chaos: constant micro-adjustments between shoulders, fingers, core, hips… plus your visual and vestibular systems doing some heavy lifting! *Cough cough*...

👀 consider this your cue to check out
Handstand Club
 ​Click here​ for info

Also: strength and resistance training. Pick up heavy-ish things and put them back down again. 

🤫 Move With Adell has plenty of ​at-home weighted workouts and yoga flows​

Finish with aerobic exercise that gets your heart rate up — supporting brain volume, memory, processing speed, and vascular health — and congratulations, you’re building yourself some premium, gold-standard golden years.

Here's to forcing your brain and body to communicate clearly and efficiently, because the world needs people with brains that actually work and, you know, critically think,

Adell 😘 

*If you want to examine the research yourself, this article is great: ​https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30172220/​

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