Are you FIT enough to LIVE healthier for longer?
Take these DIY tests to find out...
HoW well are you ageing? This is partly a question of what you are physically able to do, and your levels of fitness. one way to check these are with these DIY tests that measure muscle strength, flexibility and stamina.
SIT TO RISE TEST
THIS is a simple test — where you sit down and stand up again — that specialists use to get an indication of longevity because it assesses co-ordination, muscle strength and balance — all good predictors of longevity. All these things can be improved, but we are susceptible to reductions in them as we age.
The benefits of strength are enormous: strong muscles are useful in navigating every-day life, whether it’s shopping or getting children or grandchildren in and out of the car. They also protect us from falls and injuries.
As well as these obvious effects, strong, healthy muscles improve the levels of fats in our blood, our hormone profiles and help us manage the sugar content of our blood as they are more sensitive to insulin.
Co- ordination and flexibility similarly prevent injury and falls, which can determine the length and quality of our lives.
By using an exercise programme to improve your sit-to-rise scores, you’ll have evidence that what you are doing in the gym or in the park is working.
Practise a few times first, with a hand on a table for balance. Be warned: the test will be difficult for people who are not used to sitting on the floor, and is not recommended if you have arthritic knees.
To do the test stand in front of a mirror in comfortable clothes (shoes off) and try to lower yourself into a cross-legged sitting posi-tion on the floor without using your hands for support or kneeling on the way down, then return to a standing position without using your hands, knees or arms for support.
Score how well you lower yourself out of five, and score your ability to rise to standing out of five, subtracting one point every time you have to use a hand or knee for support, and half a point every time you noticeably lose balance or wobble.
In a study (published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology in 2014), researchers found that adults aged 50 to 80 who scored fewer than eight were twice as likely to die within the next six years com-pared with people who had perfect scores. Every point increase in the test is linked to a 21 per cent reduction in dying from all causes.
THE WALKING/ RUNNING TEST
THIS test involves simply finding a stretch of flat ground or a running track: set a stopwatch and walk or run as fast as you can for exactly 12 minutes. The key is to be able to measure how much ground you have covered in that time.
This is called the ‘Cooper Test’ after a doctor called Kenneth Cooper who created it in 1968 to assess the fitness levels of military candidates. He devised a mathematical equation to assess your degree of fitness from the dis-tance you are able to cover in that time; the scores are averages for athletes in the age group and are slightly different for men and women. The test doesn’t go above the 50s. Clearly there are lots of people for whom this test isn’t perfect, but it’s a reasonable guide. Your local gym will have many other ways of assessing your fitness and guiding you towards a sensible plan.
THE THREE-MINUTE STEP TEST
THIS three-minute test is used to assess basic fitness and heart health.
Find a high step or block 12 inches or 30cm high, and a metronome (or a mobile phone app which will provide
audible beeps at set times) — set to 24 bleeps per minute. Warm up for ten minutes (march on the spot swinging your arms). Then start a stopwatch and simply step up onto the step and off again, one foot at a time, in time with the metronome/ bleep, for three minutes. Now record your heart-rate in beats per minute by counting the pulse in your wrist.