TL;DR How do you know whether your muscle health is where it should be for your age?
Many people try to stay active by walking more, eating enough protein, or exercising regularly, but without a clear benchmark, it is difficult to know whether those efforts are actually supporting strength and resilience over time. Grip strength offers one useful window into muscle health, and a major new pan-Asian study, led by Prof. Andrea Maier and including more than 277,000 participants, now gives us age- and sex-specific reference values for grip strength and four other important markers of muscle health. In practical terms, that means we can move away from guesswork and towards a more personalised understanding of how the body is ageing.
Why This Matters in Real Life
Many people try to stay healthy by walking more, eating more protein, or exercising regularly. But it is not always easy to know whether those efforts are actually improving muscle health, or whether strength and resilience may be quietly declining over time.
These new Asian reference values help give results more context. Instead of only asking, “Is something wrong?” we can ask more useful questions such as:
- Am I where I want to be for my age and sex?
- Am I maintaining my muscle health well?
- Am I improving over time, or gradually losing strength?
That makes these measures useful not only for identifying problems, but also for tracking progress.
Five Markers That Help Assess Muscle Health
You can think of these as part of a physical resilience dashboard. Together, they give insight into strength, movement, power, muscle reserve, and simple screening signs.
1. Handgrip Strength: A Simple Snapshot of Overall Strength
Grip strength is one of the easiest ways to get a quick picture of overall strength and physical reserve. Although it only measures the hand, it often reflects wider muscle function throughout the body.
The new study provides age- and sex-specific reference values, so grip strength can now be interpreted in a much more personalised way.
Exercises that can help improve grip strength, and often overall strength too, include:
- Farmer carries using dumbbells or kettlebells
- Dead hangs from a bar, building time gradually
- Rows and pull-downs
- Hand grippers as an additional tool, rather than the main strategy
2. Gait Speed: How Well the Body Moves
Walking speed may seem simple, but it tells us a great deal. It reflects how muscles, joints, balance, coordination, and the nervous system are working together.
A slower walking speed can sometimes be an early sign that physical function is changing. That is why gait speed is often used as a practical indicator of mobility and resilience.
Exercises that may help support walking speed include:
- Brisk walking intervals
- Hill walking or stair climbing
- Step-ups
- Short bursts of faster walking on a safe surface
3. Five-Times Sit-to-Stand: Lower-Body Strength and Power
This is a simple functional test: standing up and sitting down five times as quickly and safely as possible.
It gives useful insight into leg strength, lower-body power, balance, and coordination. Unlike some other measures, a faster result is better here, because the goal is to complete the movement efficiently and with control.
Exercises that may help improve this include:
- Chair stands
- Squats to a chair or box
- Lunges or split squats
- Sit-to-stand practice with a focus on standing up powerfully and lowering down with control
4. Skeletal Muscle Mass: Your Muscle Reserve
Skeletal muscle mass refers to the amount of lean muscle tissue you carry. It can be measured using tools such as body composition analysis or DXA scanning.
This matters because muscle is a form of physical reserve. It helps support strength, movement, metabolic health, and recovery. Muscle mass generally tends to be higher earlier in life and may decline with age, especially if it is not being actively maintained.
The most effective ways to support muscle mass include:
- Progressive resistance training two to four times per week
- Compound exercises such as squats, hinges, presses, rows, and carries
- Good recovery, including sleep and periods of lighter training when needed
Nutrition also plays an important role, particularly adequate protein and overall energy intake. But when it comes to building and preserving muscle, resistance training is one of the biggest drivers.
5. Calf Circumference: A Simple Quick Check
Calf circumference is a low-tech and practical measure that can sometimes help flag lower muscle reserve, especially in older adults.
It is not a complete picture on its own, but it can be a useful screening tool in the right setting.
Exercises that may help support calf strength and function include:
- Calf raises, both straight-knee and bent-knee
- Hill walking or stairs
- Loaded carries
- Skipping or light hopping, where appropriate and if joints tolerate it
What Counts as a “Good Range”?
There is no single number that is “good” for everyone.
That is why these new reference ranges matter. They allow results to be interpreted in the context of age and sex, rather than against one fixed standard. In practice, this means a person can get a better sense of whether they are lower, average, or higher compared with others like them.
More importantly, it shifts the conversation away from a simple “normal versus abnormal” view. Instead, it allows us to ask:
- Where am I now?
- Is this a strong place to be for my stage of life?
- Is my current plan helping me move in the right direction?
The Chi Longevity Approach
We use a practical cycle:
measure → identify what may be limiting performance → tailor training and nutrition → re-measure to track progress
That is where these reference ranges become especially useful. They add context to the raw number. They help show where someone sits for their age and sex, and whether their muscle health is improving, holding steady, or declining.
If muscle is one of the foundations of ageing well, then the most useful question is not simply, “Am I normal?” It is:
Am I where I want to be for my age and am I getting stronger over time?
References
- Grgic, J., Tey, S. L., Huynh, D. T. T., Low, Y. L., Pedisic, Z., Schaller, N., Wazny, V. K., Wang, W., Saito, Y., Rannan-Eliya, R. P., Ghattas, H., Chaaya, M., de Leon, C. M., Gupta, P., Lamoureux, E. L., Subramaniam, M., Abdin, E., Malhotra, R., Chan, A., Tumenbayar, B., … Maier, A. B. (2026). Asian Reference Values for Handgrip Strength, Gait Speed, Five-Times-Sit-to-Stand Test, Muscle Mass and Calf Circumference. Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle, 17(1), e70216. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcsm.70216
