How many happy new years do you have left? Try these basic tests of strength and agility, devised by doctors around the world, to determine your likely lifespan.
They assess markers for poor health. And while they won't automatically extend your lifespan, doing them, combined with eating healthy and watching your weight, will improve your chances — and boost your test scores.
1. GET UP FROM SITTING ON THE FLOOR – WITHOUT HELP
Stand barefoot and then sit on your buttocks on the floor. Try to get up from this position with minimal support. (Make sure someone is nearby in case you fall over.) Ideally, you should be able to get up without the help of your hands or knees.
HOW IT WORKS: This test is based on a survey of more than 2,000 people over 55 by Gama Filho University in Brazil. This showed that middle-aged people (50 years and older) and elderly people (75 years and older) should use both. hands and knees to get up and down were almost seven times as likely to die within six years, compared with those who did not need support, the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology reported in 2012.
For a more detailed measure, the researchers suggested starting with a score of five and subtracting one point each time you use a hand or knee for support or propulsion while standing up. Each point left at the end of the test increases your chances of survival after six years by 20 percent.
The test assesses our flexibility, balance and motor coordination, but works crucially because it measures the strength of your body's largest muscles, in your core and thighs, the researchers said. Our muscle strength is strongly linked to longevity because as we age we lose muscle mass (known as sarcopenia).
Muscle mass not only makes us physically more robust, it also helps regulate crucial body functions.
For example, muscle fibers regulate blood sugar levels by absorbing glucose from the blood, which is burned through exercise. Muscle loss means that this mechanism is largely lost, which in turn increases the elderly's risk of type 2 diabetes, according to Diabetes UK.
This is the best known longevity test and is now also considered a strong predictor of future brain health (file image)
After the age of 50, most people lose up to 1 percent of their muscle mass every year. By the time we reach 80, half of us could suffer serious consequences from sarcopenia.
2. SIT-TO-STAND FROM A CHAIR
Sit on a dining room chair without armrests with a straight back, with your arms crossed so that each hand holds the opposite shoulder. With your feet flat on the floor, your back straight, and your arms against your chest, measure ten times how long it takes to fully stand up and sit back down in the chair.
HOW IT WORKS: A less strenuous sit-to-stand test than above, this also measures main muscle strength and is widely used by physicians as a general assessment of strength and health. A healthy, fit man over the age of 55 should be able to complete the test in less than 18 seconds; a healthy fit woman of that age, 19 seconds. Men aged 35-55 should be able to beat 13 seconds; women 15 seconds.
3. CHECK YOUR RUNNING SPEED
Walk in your normal style at your usual speed for six meters and measure the time it took. Divide this total by six to get your walking speed in meters per second.
HOW IT WORKS: A major American study found that people who naturally walk faster than average for their age have a longer life expectancy, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported in 2011.
If you are 60 years or older, your average speed should be about 0.8 meters per second.
Walk in your normal style at your usual speed for six meters and measure the time it took (file image)
If you walk faster than one meter per second, your life expectancy should be significantly longer than average, says Stephanie Studenski, a professor of geriatric medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, who led the study.
Walking speeds lower than 0.6 meters per second may indicate an increased risk of early mortality as this 'may reflect damaged body systems'. This test is useful, she says, because “walking requires energy, movement control and support – and places demands on multiple organ systems, including the heart, lungs, circulatory system, nervous system and musculoskeletal system.”
Walking quickly can especially indicate strong heart health. A study of more than 50,000 people, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in 2019, found that walking faster than average is associated with a 53 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease in people over 60 compared to slow walkers.
4. HOW MANY PUSH-UPS CAN YOU DO?
Perform a standard push-up – lie on your stomach, balancing on your hands, with arms straight and legs in line with your back – then bend your elbows to lower your chest and push yourself back up (that's a repeat').
HOW IT WORKS: According to a 2019 study of more than 1,500 middle-aged men, the more they did consecutively, the lower their risk of death from cardiovascular disease. Performing fewer than 10 push-ups indicated a higher-than-average risk of heart disease, JAMA Network Open reported.
Perform a standard push-up – lie on your stomach, balancing on your hands, with arms straight and legs in line with your back – then bend your elbows to lower your chest and push yourself back up (file image)
And above the magic number ten, each additional push-up reduces cardiovascular risk more and more. If you can do 40 or more in one sitting, your cardiovascular risk is reduced by 97 percent.
These figures only apply to middle-aged men, because the study – conducted among firefighters – did not include enough women to provide reliable statistics.
Push-up power is a good measure of your muscle strength. Separate research by the University of South Wales has found that doing it stimulates the release of BDNF, a chemical that stimulates the growth of new brain cells and can help protect against dementia.
5. TEST YOUR GRIP STRENGTH
Ask a friend to judge whether your handshake is crushing, medium, or weak.
You can also evaluate your grip strength by hanging from a pull-up bar for as long as possible. For men, 60 seconds is a reasonable target; for women, 30 seconds.
Men who can hang for just 30 seconds, and women for just 15 seconds, may have an increased risk of premature death, according to 2018 research in the BMJ.
HOW IT WORKS: GPs traditionally use the handshake test when greeting patients as a measure of their physical robustness.
Ask a friend to rate whether your handshake is crushing, average, or weak (file image)
Studies confirm that it is a reliable indicator. For example, in 2016, research on almost 7,000 people from University College London found that those who had weaker grip strength at the start of the 17-year study had a higher-than-average rate of premature death from all causes. And an analysis of previous research involving nearly 140,000 people found that poor grip strength is a more accurate predictor of premature death than high blood pressure, The Lancet reported in 2015.
Grip strength is not only a reliable measure of overall muscle strength (and longevity), but is also associated with brain power. A 2021 University of Manchester study of almost half a million Britons found that healthy middle-aged people with strong hand grips performed better in memory, reasoning and acuity.
Those with greater grip strength also showed significantly fewer signs of age-related loss of the white matter in their brains – the nerve bundles that allow them to function efficiently – the journal Schizophrenia reported.
6. THE TIME IT TAKES TO CLIMB UP 60 STEPS
Find a staircase with 60 steps and measure how long it takes to climb them.
HOW IT WORKS: Research presented at the 2020 European Society of Cardiology conference found that in middle-aged people, taking 60 steps in less than a minute is indicative of good heart health and a lower risk of mortality in the coming decade.
Lead researcher Dr Jesus Peteiro, a cardiologist at Coruna University Hospital in Spain, warned: 'If it takes you more than a minute and a half to do this test, your health is not optimal' – and you should consider exercising. more.
The study found that people who took that long had a 30 percent increased risk of death over the next ten years.
7. CAN YOU BALANCE ON ONE LEG?
This is the best known longevity test and is now also considered a strong predictor of future brain health.
Remove your shoes and socks and place the front of one foot on the back of the other lower leg, keeping your arms at your sides and your gaze straight ahead. Keep track of how long you can stand like this (try this three times and use your average time as your score).
HOW IT WORKS: People who cannot stand on one leg for 10 seconds in mid-life have almost double the average risk of dying within the next 10 years, according to a global study of 1,702 people conducted last year.
Those who scored the worst (on average just two seconds or less) were three times more likely than normal to die over the next thirteen years than those who could stand for ten seconds or more, the British Journal of Sports Medicine reported.
Last year, researchers from the University of Tsukuba in Japan reported that the better people perform in balance tests, the more robust their hippocampus.
This is an area of the brain related to memory, but it also plays a role in our balance, which is why this is such a useful test.