How To Do The Stand Up Sit Down Test!

Learn How To Do the Stand-Up Sit-Down Longevity Test!

Want to learn how to do the stand up sit down test? This test is a simple test you can do to check your ability to go down to the floor and come back up without using any support. Not even your hands or knees or anything. 😛💪

This is a longevity test designed by a team of Brazilian researchers and published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. It's proven to be predictive of how long you'll live—or, to be more accurate, of how long you won't. YIKES!!!

This is a variation on the classic chair test (where a subject is asked to stand up from a seated position in a chair), which doctors have used to assess leg strength and lower body fitness in seniors. The stand up sit down test was designed to provide a look into an older person's ability to function well and remain independent. But it's revealing for those of us who are 40-plus, too, because it calls for flexibility, balance, motor coordination, and, most importantly, ample muscle power relative to body weight.

The test is simple to understand . Just sit on the floor from a standing position without using your hands, arms, or knees to slow your descent. Then stand back up—without using your hands, arms, or knees to help boost you back up, if possible. (Hint: Crossing your legs on the way down and the way up seems to help, and loosely holding your arms out to your sides can help with balance.)

In the Brazilian study, 2002 men and women ages 51 to 80 were followed for an average of 6.3 years, and those who needed to use both hands and knees to get up and down (whether they were middle-aged or elderly) were almost seven times more likely to die within six years than those who could spring up and down without support. This is staggering!! I was shocked by this statistic!!!

Their musculoskeletal fitness, as measured by the test, was lacking. And musculoskeletal fitness, it turns out, is very important. "It is well known that aerobic fitness is strongly related to survival," study author Claudio Gil Soares de Araújo, a professor at Gama Filho University in Rio de Janeiro, has said, "but our study also shows that maintaining high levels of body flexibility, muscle strength, and coordination also has a favorable influence on life expectancy."

So favorable that it's worth practicing!

It’s actually a 10 point test. 5 points if you can go down without wobbling or support. 5 points up if you can do it without using support or wobbling. If you wobble either way, take 1 point off. Lose your balance? Another point off. Use your hands or knees to get up, lose another point. What was your score?

Try it a few times and you’ll find you will do better each time. The body and brain start to learn new ways to connect and balance. That’s the GREAT news. It’s not only working your body…but your brain too!!!!

If you can do the stand up sit down test, GOOD FOR YOU! But if you got a low score—or if you want to maintain your physical skills and live a long, vital life, it's important to work on building up that strength, flexibility and balance.

This is exactly what we do in my daily classes! We work on all the different areas of fitness and we have fun while doing it!!! 🥳🔥🧘‍♀️

Love to have you join us. Check out our daily classes in the Membership site. You don’t have to do them live with us to be a part of our supportive community.

Let’s get strong, flexible, vital and happy…together!

xoxo

Renee