The chair-rise test predicts 10-year survival with startling accuracy

In 2014, researcher Claudio Gil Araújo published findings from a 12-year study of 2,002 adults aged 51–80 in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. Participants were asked to sit cross-legged on the floor and rise to standing without using their hands, knees, or forearms. Each support used deducted from a score of 10. Those scoring 0–3 had a mortality risk 5–6 times higher than those scoring 8–10 over the following decade.

Improving Your Score

• Deep squat practice — spend time in a full squat without heel rise or lumbar rounding
• Hip 90/90 stretching to improve hip internal and external rotation
• Ankle mobility drills to allow the dorsiflexion required for a controlled descent
• Turkish get-up — the most thorough floor-based coordination and strength movement available
• Practice the movement itself — the motor pattern improves with repetition independent of strength changes