What is your flexibility score?
Tracy Adshead is a yoga teacher specialising in yoga for seniors. She is passionate about bringing healing and healthy ageing to the community.
There are many ways in which we can begin to notice our mobility and flexibility changing in everyday life. You may be able to bike or run on a treadmill but how about bending forward to tie your shoe laces or reach a pair of glasses lying under the bed or table?
The term flexibility refers to the ability of your soft tissue (your muscles) to stretch. Mobility, on the other hand, refers to the many elements that contribute to movement with full range of motion. Therefore, exercises or movements that stretch muscles increasing flexibility and improving range of movement are particularly important for quality of life. Strength, flexibility and balance are the key elements to prioritise when considering which sort of exercise you will choose.
The Sit-Rise Test (SRT), a deceptively simple measure of flexibility and strength, is widely used in the medical community to test the whole body and to predict future health.
Let’s do the Sit-Rise Test: sit down on the floor, no pillows or cushions. Now stand up, notice how you got up – if you simply stood up without losing balance and without using any limbs for support, give yourself a score of 5 points. If you had to use a hand or a knee to get up, take off one point. Both hands and both knees: subtract two points.
It’s maybe that bad knees and stiff joints affect your ability to do this – good news, this test can also be applied to sit and rise from a chair. From a seated position, arms crossed in front of the body, feet flat on the floor, how many times can you rise and sit in 30 seconds? (The average results for men and women are at the bottom of the page).
Try it a couple of times, what’s your score?
Got a low score? Sitting down on the floor and getting back up again, sitting and rising from a chair – do it 5 to 10 times a day that becomes a workout, you’re improving your fitness. This is where Chair Yoga comes in because it’s the best way to start to improve joint and muscle flexibility, a wide variety of movements for the whole body. Applied yoga exercises have also been shown to increase spinal mobility and flexibility of the hamstrings regardless of age.
An improved SRT score could reflect an individual’s capacity to successfully perform a wide range of activities, moreover a high SRT score indicates a reduced risk of falls going forward.
Take on a 30-day challenge of improving your SRT score by practising every day.
Average number of rises from seated in 30 secs:
- Men, aged 60 to 64: 14 to 19.
- Men, aged 65 to 70: 12 to 18.
- Women, aged 60 to 64: 12 to 17.
- Women, aged 65 to 70: 11 to 16.
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