This Mobility Test Is Linked To How Long You’ll Live

Can you do it?

Sit-to-rise

The sit-to-rise (STR) or sitting-rising test (SRT) is a quick mobility assessment where you sit down on the floor and stand back up again using as little support as possible, measuring how well your strength, mobility, balance, coordination, and control work together.

• How the test works: start with 10 points total—5 points for sitting down and 5 for standing up.
• How points are deducted: lose 1 point every time you use a hand, knee, elbow, or another support, and lose 0.5 points for wobbling or losing your balance.
• What higher scores suggest: scores between 8 and 10 are associated with strong physical capability, good overall function, and the lowest mortality risk in research studies.
• What mid-range scores suggest: scores between 5 and 7.5 may indicate emerging physical limitations or reduced movement quality.
• What lower scores suggest: scores below 5 are linked with reduced physical resilience and substantially higher mortality risk in long-term studies.

What the science says: studies involving thousands of adults over 40 found that lower SRT scores were consistently associated with higher mortality risk over subsequent years. Indeed, each additional point on the SRT was associated with roughly a 21% improvement in life expectancy in the cited research.

In terms of expectations, you should know that perfect scores are common in people aged 16 to 25, but fewer than 8% of adults over 55 achieve a perfect 10.

However! The good news is that if you don’t score well, you can practice and then score better.

You may be thinking: but I use a wheelchair and physically cannot stand at all, what does this mean for me? And the answer is: nothing, really. The research wasn’t done with your body in mind, and therefore the results may not reflect your healthy longevity. Likely a different test is needed, and the grip strength test is generally considered a good one that has similar associations (due to being inversely associated with frailty, and therefore positively associated with healthy longevity).

For more on all of this plus demonstrations of the incorrect ways of doing it and suspiciously no demonstration of the correct way, just a slightly edited bit where she sort of teleports from sitting to standing (we suspect she cannot do it and was embarrassed to admit it and hoped nobody would notice), enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

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Take care!