According to Stuart Phillips, a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, it’s never too early to begin training for your later years. People naturally lose strength and muscle mass with age, so you want your starting point to be as good as possible. Getting a head start on training is “money in the bank”, Phillips said.

Try these four tests to determine where you currently stand. If you don’t perform as well as you might have hoped, don’t worry — a few strength, conditioning and balance exercises, done regularly, can help you improve your score on each one.

Sitting-rising test

The goal with this assessment is to go from standing to sitting on the floor and back up again, using the least amount of support possible. The test is scored on a 10-point scale — five points for sitting down and five points for standing up — and you lose a point for every hand, knee or other body part you use to help yourself. Subtract a half point if you’re unsteady or lose your balance.

Adults in their 30s and 40s should aim for a perfect 10, said Dr Claudio Gil Araújo, the dean of research and education at the Exercise Medicine Clinic in Brazil, who developed the test. Anyone over 60 who gets an 8 is “in very good shape”, he said.

The test evaluates strength, power, balance and flexibility. Dr Araújo has also shown it’s a predictor of mortality. A recent study of his looked at more than 4,000 adults ages 46 to 75 and found that, over the course of 12 years, the people who scored four or below on the sitting-rising test had death rates nearly four times as high as those who scored a 10. He said that was primarily because people with low scores were at a higher risk for falls.

Walking speed

How fast someone walks at their normal gait is “a very important indicator of functional ability and vitality”, said Jennifer Brach, a professor of health and rehabilitation sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, US. “It is predictive of future decline; it’s predictive of mortality, nursing home placement, disability, a whole host of different things,” she said.

To assess your walking speed, measure out 4 metres, or about 13 feet, on a straight, flat surface, and time how long it takes you to cover the distance. Remember, you’re walking at your normal speed, not as fast as you can. People of all ages should aim for a gait of at least 1.2 metres per second, a little over three seconds total.

Brach recommended people retest themselves every few months. “If the value changes, that can be a warning sign,” she said. That’s because while walking feels like a simple task, it requires proper functioning of the cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, vestibular (balance), sensory and nervous systems. A slower gait could indicate that there is a problem in any one of those systems, which will have to be investigated and addressed.

Grip strength test

Grip strength is also related to mortality. While that connection may seem far-fetched, experts say a grip strength test serves as a helpful indicator for how active a person is in their daily life.

“When you’re using your hands more, it’s probably because you’re doing things more,” said Cathy Ciolek, president of the American Physical Therapy Association Geriatrics. “You’re carrying groceries, you’re opening the car door, you’re picking up a grandchild.”

All of those things work your hands and the more you do them, the better your grip strength.

Grip strength is also important for maintaining independence with household tasks like cooking. (Think about pulling a heavy dish out of the oven.)

A doctor or physical therapist typically assesses grip strength using a special device called a dynamometer. To test yourself at home, try walking for 60 seconds while holding a heavy weight in each hand (also known as a farmer’s carry), suggested Dr Nima Afshar, a physician at concierge medical practice Private Medical. Start with lighter weights and work your way up to heavier ones over time. If you experience hand or body pain, stop.

There aren’t age-related norms for the farmer’s carry like there are with a dynamometer. But Dr Afshar said a 45-year-old man should aim to carry two 60-pound (27 kilos) dumbbells, a 65-year-old two 40-pound (18 kilos) dumbbells and an 85-year-old two 25-pounders (11 kilos). For a woman at those ages, goal weights are 40 pounds (18 kilos), 25 pounds (11 kilos) and 15 pounds (6.8 kilos) in each hand.

Single-leg stand

Just as strength naturally declines with age, so does balance. And that raises the risk for falls — a major cause of injury and death in older adults.

Testing one’s balance is as simple as standing on one leg. Adults should aim for a minimum of 10 seconds on at least one side. For an added challenge, Dr Afshar recommended attempting the test with your eyes closed.

According to a study Dr Araújo published in 2022, 20 per cent of adults age 51 to 75 were unable to make it to 10 seconds. And those individuals had an 84 per cent higher chance of dying in the next seven years, possibly because they were unhealthier at the start of the study.

NYTNS