Biological Age Test: Can You Pass These 3?

Alisa Zuravskaja gives us some insight:

On your feet!

In fact, biological age is not one thing but quite a lot of things, each of which can age at different rates.

See for example: Age & Aging: What Can (And Can’t) We Do About It?

Today we’re focusing on “functional aging”, that is to say, “how much is aging affecting your ability to physically perform critical movements?”.

With that in mind, here are the three functional aging tests and what they actually tell us:

• Sit-to-rise test: lower yourself to the floor and stand back up, without using your hands, knees, or arms, starting from 10 points and subtracting 1 for each support used and 0.5 for loss of balance, with scores of 8–10 indicating strong overall function, 6–7 showing mild decline, 3–5 signalling significant decline, and below 3 linked to up to a 5x higher mortality risk, while each 1-point improvement is associated with a 21% reduction in all-cause mortality.
• Single-leg balance test: stand on one leg with your hands on your hips, and time how long you can hold it (eyes open, then closed), where poorer performance—especially with eyes closed—indicates declines in your vestibular system and proprioception, both key components of neuromuscular aging and strong predictors of mortality. Not least of all because of the old “fall over, break a hip, decline rapidly and die” factor.
• Deep squat hold test: hold a full deep squat with your heels flat on the floor and your chest upright for 10–30 seconds, where success reflects good hip, knee, ankle, and spine mobility, while compensations (heels lifting, falling backwards, rounding your lower back, or inability to squat) show up specific joint or mobility limitations that you might want to work on.

Passing all three (while over the age of 40) suggests your biological age is younger than your chronological age, passing two highlights one weak area to improve, and passing one or none indicates multiple declining systems—but all are highly trainable regardless of age.

For more on all of this plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:

Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

Want to learn more?

You might also like:

Mobility For Now & For Later: Train For The Marathon That Is Your Life!

Take care!