Can you get up off the floor without your hands?
Three tests that take five minutes in your living room: getting up off the floor, standing on one leg and hanging from a bar. Each is scored against what the studies found.
Do these beside a sturdy chair or a wall, on a rug or mat. Skip any of them if you've had a recent fall, dizzy spells, or a hip, knee or shoulder injury, and ask your doctor first.
1. Sit down on the floor and get up again
Cross your feet, lower yourself to sit, then stand back up, without leaning on anything if you can. Count each hand, forearm, knee or side of a leg you use.
2. Stand on one leg for 10 seconds
Rest the front of your free foot on the back of the other calf, arms by your sides, eyes ahead. Three tries on either foot.
3. Hang from a bar
Both hands over the bar, feet off the floor, arms straight. Stop when a hand lets go or your feet touch down. Use a low bar.
What the studies found
Claudio Gil Araujo's exercise clinic in Rio de Janeiro scores its patients on this test. In the 2025 report, 4,282 adults aged 46 to 75 were followed for a median of 12.3 years. The lower the score, the more of them died of natural causes, even after taking account of age, sex, weight and their health conditions.
| Score | Share of people | Died of natural causes | Risk against a perfect 10 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 to 4 | 10.9% | 42.1% | 3.84 times |
| 4.5 to 7.5 | 29% | 20.4% | 2.23 times |
| 8 | 27.7% | 11.1% | 1.51 times |
| 8.5 to 9.5 | 22.2% | 7% | 1.25 times |
| 10 | 10.1% | 3.7% | the comparison |
The same clinic timed a one-leg stand in 1,702 adults aged 51 to 75. One in five couldn't hold it for 10 seconds, and over about 7 years they had 1.84 times the risk of dying.
| Age | Couldn't hold 10 seconds |
|---|---|
| 51 to 55 | About 5% |
| 56 to 60 | About 8% |
| 61 to 65 | About 18% |
| 66 to 70 | About 37% |
| 71 to 75 | About 54% |
The hang
No study has timed dead hangs against lifespan. The ones that measured grip used a squeeze gauge: in 139,691 people across 17 countries, each 5 kg less grip went with 16% higher risk of dying (Leong 2015). The hang is the home version, and the bands here are Gyroscope's training bands, not clinical norms.
What your result means and what to do next
These are snapshots taken once. Nobody has shown yet that raising your score adds years, but the things the tests need (strong legs, balance, flexible hips, a firm grip) are the ones you use to get out of a chair, climb stairs and catch yourself when you trip. All of them improve with a few weeks of practice, so test again in eight weeks.
If you scored under 8, practice getting down to the floor and up again a few times a day, using as little help as you can, and lift weights twice a week. If you couldn't hold one leg for 10 seconds, stand on one leg beside the sink while you brush your teeth. If you scored 8 or more and held the balance, keep the strength work going and retest every couple of months. The simple plan has the other steps.
5 sources
- Araujo CG and others, sitting-rising test and natural and cardiovascular death, European Journal of Preventive Cardiology 2025academic.oup.com
- Araujo CG and others, Successful 10-second one-legged stance performance predicts survival in middle-aged and older individuals, British Journal of Sports Medicine 2022pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- University of Eastern Finland, the one-leg stance results by ageuef.fi
- Leong DP and others, Prognostic value of grip strength (PURE), The Lancet 2015pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Gyroscope, Grip strength test: how long can you hang?gyrosco.pe
