Studying hand grip strength development among students who have taken tennis and massage courses

¹ Department of Physical Education and Sport, Dumlupınar University, Kütahya, Turkey
² Department of Physical Education and Sport, Faculty of Education, Erzincan University, Erzincan, Turkey

^a Corresponding author: msaid.erzeybek@dpu.edu.tr

Abstract

In this study, the finger and hand force developments of the students who have taken selective/applied Tennis and Massage courses at the University have been examined. From the students of the Department of Physical Education and Sport, 19 healthy females and 73 healthy males (age = 21.25 ± 1.55 years (average ± SD) who have taken selective Tennis courses;51 healthy males (age = 22.00 ± 1.04 years (average ± SD) who have taken Massage courses; and as the control group,16 healthy womenand50 healthy males(age = 21.72 ± 1.47 years (average ± SD) have been participated to the study. The age, length, body weight, grip strength of both hands as well as the finger grip strength of the subjects have been recorded. The course schedule has been set as once a week four hours practice for both tennis and massage. Two weeks of the education and training program that takes twelve weeks in total were assigned for theoretical classes. The remaining period of ten weeks was for practice classes and the measurements were performed before and after this ten weeks period. The hand grip strength measurement has been carried out with a Takkei branded hand dynamometer whereas for the measurement of the finger grip strength, a Baseline branded pinch meter has been used. For both the pre-test and final test of the finger grip and hand grip strength measurements, the paired sample t test has been used in terms of in-group comparisons, whereas for the inter-group comparisons, one-way ANOVA has been used. For the significant F values, post hoc Tukey test has been used. The right hand and the left hand grip values of both test groups as well as the values of the control group have been significantly increased between the pre-test and final test. Particularly, preferring the exercises that improve the hand and finger grip strengths would enable a better racket handle grip as well as an improved shot efficiency for tennis. This would also enable masseurs/masseuses to apply an efficient massage therapy with higher pressure.