Wowza!
I just came across this study. The name pretty much says it all:
“Ability to sit and rise from the floor is a predictor of all-cause mortality.”
That means the better you can get up off of the ground, the less likely you are to die!
Here are the specifics:
They used something called a sitting-rising test (SRT) in 2012 adults aged 51-80 years old. The participants were told, “Without worrying about the speed of movement, try to sit and then to rise from the floor, using the minimum support that you believe is needed”
(If you’d like, you can go ahead and do it now.)
The SRT then rated them on a five-point scale.
“One point was subtracted for each support utilized, that is, hand, forearm, knee, or side of leg, and an additional 0.5 point was subtracted if the evaluator perceived an unsteady execution (partial loss of balance) occurring during the action. In addition, one point was subtracted if the subject placed one hand on the knee in order to sit or rise.”
So a higher score was better. And the result was that “each unit increase in SRT score conferred a 21% improvement in survival.”
This doesn’t surprise me in the least…but it is great to hear science-backed confirmation of my ideas.
We all know: “Move it or lose it.”
The thing is when you “lose it,” it isn’t just movement you’re losing. In addition, your body begins to degrade in other ways. That’s because our bodies need to move and need the forces involved in order to maintain health. Remember yesterday, where I shared something the new field of mechanobiology has discovered. Movement affects DNA.
When I created the Stand Up Challenge, I was not aware of this 2012 study, nor the epigenetic influences. But I knew that if you could not just stand up easily, but actually do it in ever more complex and harder ways, it would make you stronger, fitter and healthier overall.
Whether you want the basics…or the advanced moves…this course will help you to move better.
And that means you’ll live longer!
Oh, and I give it away free, along with lots of other stuff, to my members.
