This post is the last of the tests described in The New York Times article, “Are You Aging Well? Try These Simple Tests to Find Out.” Here’s the fourth test:
Single-leg stand
Stand on one leg for a minimum of 10 seconds on at least one
side. As an added challenge, the article says, try it with your eyes closed.
I found that I could stand on my left leg for significantly
more than 10 seconds (I stopped after 20) but couldn’t make it to 10 on my
right leg. What’s with that? Maybe if I practiced.
Like everything else, balance declines with age, raising the
risk of falls—a major cause of injury and death for old people. One study found
that 20 percent of people aged 51 to 75 were unable to make it to 10 seconds.
Experts say that those individuals had an 84 percent higher chance of dying in
the next seven years, possibly because they were unhealthier at the start of
the study.
I didn’t try standing on one leg with my eyes closed. I’m
not going to push my luck.
Update: I have trained myself to get up off the floor using just one knee instead of two (plus both hands), which gives me another point, as described in an earlier blog. I used the technique suggested by alert reader, Jocelyn. You can see it on this video she sent to me.
For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.
