Can you get off the floor without your hands?
Score it out of ten.
Sex
Which test?
Scored from 16 to 98, so it works at any adult age.
Barefoot, in loose clothes, with space around you. Lower yourself to sitting cross-legged on the floor, then stand back up, using as little support as you can. Tick whatever touched down.
Going down, I used
Getting up, I used
Steadiness
Sit-and-rise score and what followed
| Score | Natural-cause deaths over the follow-up |
|---|---|
| 0 to 4 | 42.1% |
| 4.5 to 7.5 | 20.4% |
| 8 | 11.1% |
| 8.5 to 9.5 | 7.0% |
| 10 | 3.7% |
4,282 people aged 46 to 75, median follow-up 12.3 years, 665 deaths, adjusted for age, sex, BMI, heart disease, blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes. An earlier paper on the same cohort used different score bands, and the two tables cannot be merged. Source: Araujo et al, European Journal of Preventive Cardiology 2025.
All six together
nothing measured yetThree things the six tests measure, each against a published cohort. Two minutes apiece.
Results stay on this device unless you save them.
The sitting-rising test scores getting down to the floor and back up out of ten, losing a point for every hand, forearm, knee or side of leg you lean on. In 4,282 people aged 46 to 75 followed for a median of 12.3 years, 42.1 percent of those scoring 4 or under died of natural causes, against 3.7 percent of those scoring a perfect 10. The reason one movement carries that much signal is that it reads flexibility, leg strength, balance and body composition all at once.
What actually improves it
Practising the movement works. Stretching often does not transfer. The difference between training the score and training what the score is reading.
Common questions
How is the sitting-rising test scored?
You start with ten points, five for getting down and five for getting up. Subtract one point for each support you use on the way, whether that is a hand, a forearm, a knee or the side of a leg, and one more if you put a hand on your knee. Subtract half a point if you wobble. A perfect ten means down and up with nothing touching but your feet and your backside.
What is a good sit to stand score for my age?
Ten is the ordinary result for men up to about 25 and women up to about 40. After 55, fewer than one person in twelve manages it. So a nine at seventy is a good score and a nine at thirty is worth a look at hip and ankle range and single-leg strength.
Does the sit to stand test really predict lifespan?
It tracks survival closely in the age range it was studied, which is 46 to 75. It is an association in an observational cohort, not a prediction about one person and not a causal claim. Nobody has shown that practising the movement changes anyone’s risk, only that people who can do it easily tend to be in better shape overall.
What is the 30 second chair stand test?
A different test, and the two get confused constantly. You sit in a straight-backed chair with no arms, cross your arms on your chest, and stand fully and sit fully as many times as you can in thirty seconds. It is normed for ages 60 to 94 and the CDC uses a below-average score as a fall risk signal. Under sixty it hits the ceiling and stops discriminating.
I scored badly. What actually improves it?
The three things it measures. Hip and ankle range, so that sitting cross-legged is reachable at all. Single-leg strength, which is what the rise out of the bottom position demands. And balance, which is what stops the wobble that costs the half point. Deep squats to a box, split squats and simply practising getting off the floor all work.
Can I take it if I have knee or hip problems?
Ask first if you have had a joint replacement, or if getting to the floor is painful or unsafe alone. The chair stand version answers a similar question without needing the floor, and is the sensible substitute.
Written and checked by the AskDoc Medical Team under our Medical Director, MBBS. How we review. Health education, not medical advice.