Tag Archive for: balance

The Sitting Rising Test (SRT), originally developed in Brazil, is a simple measure of flexibility, strength, and balance that can predict who will live longer and whose lives will be cut short.
 
To perform:
 
1. Stand in comfortable clothes, with your shoes off, and plenty clear space around you.
 
2. Without leaning on anything, lower yourself to a sitting position on the floor.
 
3. Now stand back up, trying not to use your hands, knees, forearms or sides of your legs.
 
(If you have joint pain or may be at risk of falling, DO NOT PERFORM this without the supervision of a physical therapist).
 
Everyone starts with a score of 10 (as Darryl demonstrates in the video), 1 point is deducted each time a hand, arm, knee, or side of the leg is used for support and half a point is deducted for any loss of balance.
 
In a study published in the European Journal of Cardiology, researchers had more than 2,000 patients ages 51 to 80, take the SRT. People who scored fewer than eight points on the test were twice as likely to die within the next six years compared with those who scored higher; those who scored three or fewer points were more than five times as likely to die within the same period compared with those who scored more than eight points.
 
Overall, each point increase in the SRT score was associated with a 21 percent decrease in mortality from all causes.
 
We hope this information can help get more people walking through the doors of a gym rather than rolling into an emergency room.