Can you perform these sitting-to-standing tests?
They are predictors for overall mortality — and frankly, you'll just feel better if you can do them. Some tips on how to improve.
Image source: CDC
Warmup
After dinner out a few nights ago, my good friend and neighbor, David, asked me a simple question that made me rip up (metaphorically) the newsletter I had planned today and write this instead.
David is a guy I admire for a lot of reasons, including the fact that he stacks his own firewood at age 67. We’d been sitting at a restaurant for two hours with our spouses — and then we all went to stand up and say good-bye.
Insert collective sound of stifled groans and shaking out of stiff limbs.
“Could you please write a newsletter about how not to hurt when you’ve been sitting?” he asked me.
David - this one’s for you.
Post
There are lots of reasons why sitting can make your body feel like you’ve been crammed in a jar with the lid on tight.
Reduced blood flow. Muscle imbalances. Nerve constriction. Joint compression.
A few ideas to ground us before we get going:
The less you sit, the better it is for your body. As a refresher, a study of 8,000 adults showed an association between prolonged sitting and a risk of early death from any cause. But people who sat for no more than 30 minutes at a time had the lowest risk in that study. Source.
Sometimes, however, we need to sit for more than 30 minutes. Like at a nice restaurant. It would be, well, weird to stand and eat.
Moving easily from a sitting to a standing position — whether from a chair or the floor — is a basic task we need for autotomy - i.e., to do many of the things we love.
However, the reality is, transitioning from sitting to standing requires proper levels of muscle strength/power, coordination, body composition, balance and flexibility.
If you can improve your fitness level for all of the above ^^ then you will have an easier time getting out of a chair or off the floor.
In fact, research showed that fitness, as assessed by the ability to sit and rise from the floor, was a significant predictor of mortality in 51–80-year-olds. Source.
So, how can we measure our own “sit-to-stand fitness”?
And to David’s point, how can we get better at this particular movement so it hopefully doesn’t hurt so much?
Note: the tests and exercises to follow aren’t for everyone. If you have injury, balance issues or other limitations, it’s best to work with a physician or physical therapist.
Let’s get it done.
1. The 30-second chair stand test
This test is widely used in doctors’ offices — and is super easy to do at home. It works like this:
Put a chair (seat about 17-inches high) with its back against the wall.
Sit in the middle of the chair.
Cross your arms flat against your chest so your wrists overlap. (Like the person in the image at the top of this newsletter.)
Stand up keeping your arms crossed against your chest. Your back should be straight. Sit back down.
Count how many times you can do this in 30 seconds.
This video demonstrates how the test works.
Here’s how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grades the test.
The CDC ranks for these age groups. However, according to ChatGPT 4o, the average for adults (ages 18-39) is around 14-18 repetitions and more than 19-20 is generally considered above average for most age groups. Endurance athletes may score even higher.
2. Floor get up
It gets harder to move from sitting to standing when you are on the ground. And particularly when you don’t use your hands, arms or knees.
I’ve been working for a while to perfect the cross-legged get up. This means I can slowly sit down onto the ground (not using my hands) with my ankles crossed. And then I can rise to standing from a sitting cross-legged position (also not using my hands.)
Watch how to do it properly in this video — which also demos ways to modify and use your hands if necessary to learn the movement.
Because it’s not as easy as it looks.
More: If the above is too hard or too easy, there are many modifications of this movement, which include a “squat get up” and “figure four get up.” My goal is to one day perform the “single leg squat get up.”
Here’s a way to grade your progress: deduct a point each time you use one of the following to help you stand up from the floor. (A perfect score = 10) Source.
use your hand
use your knee
use your forearm
use one hand on the knee or thigh
use the side of your leg
lose your balance at any time.
3. Exercises to get better at the above ^^
Working on quad, glute and hamstring strength in your legs will go a long way to easing the difficulty and discomfort of moving from sitting to standing. So will shoring up your core.
These 3 exercises outlined by Harvard University Health can help:
Plank: builds the core.
Lunges: good for balance and leg strength.
Hamstring stretch: reduces tightness.
So can these as demonstrated on Livestrong.com:
Glute bridge: If you’re having trouble getting up from a chair without assistance, this is a good place to start because it targets hamstrings and glutes.
Supported mini-squats: Mimics getting out of a chair but helps with balance.
Straight leg raise: strengthens quads, hip flexors and core.
Side-Lying Hip Abduction: targets hard to reach but super important muscles for sitting and standing.
And a few more good ones from author Michael Easter who deploys this “Sitting Fix” regimen on long road trips. Note: At least three of these are ones you could get away with doing in a restaurant after sitting for a long meal — and not get stares.
Cooldown
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Thanks for reading. Tell us if you know any other good sit-to-stand tests or tips. And as always, find something you love. Dig in. Stick with it when things get hard.
Wendy