When you think of strength training, it’s the ‘big’ muscles – the glutes, the abdominals and the biceps – that most of us focus on. But the body is home to around 600 muscles, many of which can tell us fascinating things about our health.

One such group of muscles are the grip muscles in our fingers, wrists, hands and forearms. Beyond being incredibly useful, these muscles have come to be seen as a key indicator of longevity; studies have shown that grip strength (or a lack thereof) can tell us how well someone is ageing and even act as a more powerful indicator of cardiovascular health than blood pressure.

As such, there’s been increased interest in the idea of training these muscles, using dedicated hand exercise equipment to squeeze, stretch and move this intricate part of our body. But do we need to be training grip strength, and if so, what are the benefits? We spoke to Helen O’Leary, a physiotherapist at Complete Pilates, to get her take.

Grip strength is linked to longevity, so should we be training our hands?