A simple fitness test you can try at home right now

The results could help you figure out what your routine may be missing

Photo by Danny Lines on Unsplash

Have you ever noticed what it takes for you to go from standing to sitting on the floor, then back up again? (Feel free to take a moment to try this right now!)

If you’re anything like me, despite being reasonably active, this is very hard to do. Many of us need the support of a hand or a knee, or even a sturdy surface to hang onto, as we lower ourselves to the floor and return to standing. Doing it independently (generally, crossing your ankles and bending your hips and knees until your butt touches down on the floor, then rising straight back up) takes a hell of a lot of hip mobility, core and leg strength, and coordination.

heymiddleage

A post shared by @heymiddleage

You may have heard that struggling with this test is an indicator of poor health. A 2012 study asked about 2000 adults ages 51-80 to try the sitting-rising test (SRT), then followed them over the next several years. What they found sounds a bit alarming: a low score on the SRT — the more supports you require to get up and down, the lower your score — was associated with a higher risk of death. Study subjects whose scores were lowest died on average three years earlier than those whose scores were highest. This seemed to remain true when researchers adjusted for age, race, gender, and BMI (which, yes, we know is a poor indicator of health, but still: Worth noting that the trend persisted regardless of BMI).

I discussed this study in my recent article for the New York Times, in a section about how working toward improving your score on the SRT could be a good new year’s resolution. I’m going to get into a bit more detail below on what to do with your SRT score. But let me stop right here and say three important things, very clearly:

1. First, if you score low on this test, it does not mean you are definitively in immediate danger of death! Please don’t panic. Major, major correlation-not-causation caveats here¹. And on the flip side of this, improving your SRT score does not mean you’re magically going to live longer. (Though hopefully it will improve your quality of life!)

2. Second, it’s important to know that the cohort in this study did not include folks with musculoskeletal limitations, such as osteoporosis, arthritis, or other conditions that can cause pain, stiffness, and loss of mobility. I personally have a mild form of congenital hip dysplasia that makes the SRT extremely difficult and, I imagine, would have disqualified me from this study. So I take my score with a grain of salt.

3. Finally, tests like this can be a bummer! Scoring low can cause a lot of anxiety, and may even make you feel defeated — like, you’re already screwed, so why even bother. I really encourage you to counter any defeatist messages your brain might be sending to you with something like this: “My score is low, but I know this test is not the end-all, be-all, and I have the ability to work on this and maybe feel a little better in my body.”

Because to me, that’s what this is all about: Using this test as a catalyst to take some simple actions that might help you feel a little stronger, a little more flexible, and a little more able to move through space easily and comfortably.

I’m also not going to get super specific on scoring — as in, if you scored 3, do this; if you scored 10, do this. The scoring system is a bit boringly complicated, and I’m not confident anyone can definitively say what each individual score indicates! (Especially since there are many paths down to the floor and back up.) Instead, let’s keep it very broad.

If you need a lot of support during the SRT…

In other words, maybe you needed to transition to all fours, then step one foot forward, and use your hands on a chair or other external tool to help you get up — that sort of thing.

• Go back to basics with exercises like squats, split squats, step ups, and lunges. Build your lower body strength in a way that feels challenging but accessible: Maybe you continue to hold onto something while you lunge, or sit back onto a chair while you squat. Try some variations, too, like bottom-up split squats (start in a half kneeling position with your back knee on the floor, then press into your feet to extend your legs into the top of a split squat).

Two simple ways to get more comfortable with squats

• Build core strength: Heavy lifting of all kinds can help with this, and so can more targeted exercise like Pilates. (The classical Pilates sequence also involves a great section of hip-strengthening work, which should help too.)

If you need a medium amount of support during the SRT…

For example, maybe you don’t have to use your hands to get down and back up, but you do have to rock forward onto your knees and lunge your way up.

• Get comfortable in the bottom of a squat. Spend some time there every day if you can! Check out instructions like these for a yoga pose called malasana: It’s a great way to improve ankle and hip mobility, and simply get more comfortable with a deep squat position, which is a central step in the SRT. If you start off unable to do it with your heels all the way down, you can place a towel or blanket under your heels until you build the ankle mobility to place your feet flat on the floor. Anyway, hang out in that squat regularly, for as long as you have time for.

• Hang out on the floor, too. Sitting cross-legged is really good practice for all of this, and if you’re not used to it, it’s hard! Try sitting on the floor while watching TV or hanging out with friends.

• Work on hip mobility even more: One exercise I love (and sometimes loathe) for this is the 90-90 stretch. Quite a few tutorials on this online, but here’s a simple and quick one. (You’ll also see it in a WOW a couple of weeks from now.)

• Practice rocking: It sounds weird, but lie on your back, hug your knees into your chest, then rock forward and back until you get to an upright, seated position. Now, see if you can rock upright straight into that malasana/deep squat position — landing right on your feet. Even if you find it really hard to sit straight down into that deep squat, it may be more manageable to get there from the bottom up. Something to play around with, anyway.

If you don’t need much or any support during the SRT…

You’re able to get up and down without using hands, knees, or any outside supports.

• Take note of your typical movement pattern, and practice varying it! The reel I included above from Mimi at @heymiddleage includes quite a few challenging and fun variations to try. Or even consider things like, you normally cross your right ankle in front of your left — so try crossing left in front of right.

• More bottom-of-a-squat and floor time could be great for you, too.

Try to have fun with it and don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Again, some of us are just always going to need a little help with this, and that’s ok! There’s no moral obligation to ace the SRT (as with any fitness measurement or activity). Look at this as a way to be curious about your body and notice ways that you can support how comfortably you can move throughout your daily life.

Special thanks to two wonderful sources I interviewed for the NYT article whose insights also inspired some of this piece:

• Julia Rosenthal, DPT, a pelvic floor physical therapist and the founder of Empower Physical Therapy in Brooklyn, NY.

• Maillard Howell, a personal trainer and co-owner of Dean CrossFit in Brooklyn, NY (a beloved friend and former coach of mine!)

And shoutout to study author Claudio Gil Araújo, a Brazilian researcher who kindly reached out after my NYT article went live, for the helpful additional context.

Let me know what you think here. Did I totally stress you out? I really hope not!

xo
Anna

1. I also want to add a little side eye to a lot of headlines I’ve seen suggesting this is a good test for heart health. The Today show literally ran a story online a couple of years ago with the headline “Try the sit-to-stand test to see how healthy your heart is.” What?! The whole point of the study, as expressed clearly in the full text, is that there’s a lot of research out there about the link between cardiorespiratory fitness and longevity, but comparatively little out there about how musculoskeletal fitness affects longevity. ANYWAY.