A muscle strength grading system was introduced to let you know what could be wrong with your body and if you need a doctor’s help.

What is muscle strength grading?

Most of us in our adult lives want to know how our muscles are doing, especially to show signs of illnesses or diseases entering the body. There muscle strength grading system was developed for doctors to use to test the strength of your muscles and put them in certain categories.

Most doctors and physiotherapists use the Oxford Scale; this scale grades your muscles so you know how your health is doing overall.

The Oxford Scale of muscle strength grading

Muscle strength is graded from 0 to 5; these grades are as follows:

• Grade 0: There is zero muscle movement and your muscles are not contracting
• Grade 1: There is a small glimpse of a contraction in the muscle, but still zero movement of the joint
• Grade 2: Your joints can move but only when gravity is taken away (such as someone is holding your arm or leg in the air)
• Grade 3: Your entire muscle group can now move even with gravity, but if you add any form of resistance movement is impossible
• Grade 4: Your muscle group can now move against gravity, and also against a form of resistance; however, it is less than normal for a person of your age/size
• Grade 5: Your muscles are in tip top shape and work normally for a person at your age/size

Testing muscle strength

If you find you have less strength than normal, or are worried about your body in any way, you can go to your doctor or a physiotherapist who can run tests to find out your muscle grade. However, if you do not have insurance or don’t have the time to go to the doctor, you can in fact test your own muscle strength very easily.

All you need to do is have someone with you to conduct various muscle strength training exercises and see where you fall on the grading scale above. Do not over exert yourself, but you can simply move your arm with a 10-pound weight and see how you do.

If there is no movement at all, clearly you have a Grade 0 and need to be seen by a doctor right away. With the grading scale that I have provided above, it is very easy to see where you fall by doing simple exercises.

Why is this important?

Muscle strength grading is very important because it allows you to sense any neurological disorders or diseases before they get any worse. Having any muscle weakness, or lack of muscle strength can be signs of skeletal muscle diseases. It is also a sign that you might not be getting enough potassium in your diet and need to boost your body’s electrolytes.

The main goal is to make sure that you are at a Grade 5 level, even if you are getting up in your senior years. The moment you begin to realize that you can still move an area of the body but can barely lift objects, you need to go see a doctor right away and find out what is wrong. The earlier you can catch something, the earlier you can prevent it from getting worse!