Let me ask you a question. Are you aging too quickly? You already know your chronological age,
but physically are you aging at an accelerated pace? As you get older there's all kinds of
natural things that happen. Your hair gets a little thinner, you get some wrinkles,
a little bit less energy, this is all a normal part of life. But I think many of us are wondering
are we aging gracefully or are we burning the candle at both ends and aging a lot faster than
we need to? There's lots of things you should pay attention to - your blood work, your hormones,
your bone density, but today I'd like to talk about a simple at-home test called the sit-to-rise
test, which is a very good proxy for your overall fitness, or at least your lower body
strength mobility and end range fitness. Hey, my name is Lucas. I'm a yoga teacher. In this video
I'll show you how to perform the sit-to-rise test, how to give yourself a score, and most importantly
I'll show you how to improve your score. This test was first developed in the 1990s in Brazil
and the original researchers they made some hyperbolic claims about this test predicting
lifespan. That's probably not accurate, but what it can do is it can really help you to understand
your strength from getting up and down from the ground. And why that matters is because
when you're carrying groceries and you stumble, when you're going up and down from the stairs
and you trip, when you have a grandchild in your arms and you're trying to sit down,
were you to fall bone fractures and bone breaks, especially if we're talking about your hips as
you get older, this is a major cause of mortality. A hip fracture, for example, over the age of 65,
anywhere from a 20 to 50 percent of hip fractures can result in death within that year. So it's a
very big risk factor and your ability to get up and down from the ground without the use of
your hands makes a big difference. Enough talk, let's take the test. Before we do, I'll warn you
in advance a lot of people score badly. By a lot of people I mean I have 30 year old students who
score terribly on this test, so don't be dismayed. The second thing is you can get better,
but these exercises I'll share with you they're a lot harder than they look. They might feel okay,
but you can get really sore, so don't try to push too hard, too fast. Most people can learn
this within about four to twelve weeks, but you need to take it step by step. As always, there's
a PDF down below to the exercises if you'd like to skip ahead. OK, let's take the test. Standing
up tall take off your shoes and do this on a soft surface. I'm on a yoga mat, but a carpeted surface
will work as well. If you're on a hard floor it can kind of hurt your ankles. Cross your legs,
place your hands in the air, and you can use your hands for a little bit of balance, but our goal is
to go down, down, down, with control and sit down on the floor. No knees, no shins, no support from
my hands is the key thing. Now from here we did the sit, now I'll do the rise portion of the test
and again I might lean forward, but I'll do my best to do no knees, no hands, and to control
the ascent. So that sit-to-rise score would be a ten out of ten. I didn't need any extra support
to get up and down from the ground. Now let's assume that you were unable to do that,
let me show you how to deduct points. I'll do the test again. Cross my ankles as I lower down, down,
down. Maybe I get stuck and I drop a knee, that would be minus one. Maybe I get stuck and I drop a
hand, that would be another minus one. And then I sit down on the floo. So now I'm at ten minus two,
I'm at eight of ten. But now I need to rise. To rise let's say I need my knee again. I need my
hand again, but I still need one more hand, that would be one, two, three points in the negative.
So two points on the way down, three points on the way up. I'm at five out of ten on my sit-to-rise
test. My goal for you is to get you all to at least an eight out of ten. Some of you will even
hit ten out of ten, but we need to take it really slow and progressive with our practices. So let's
jump in and take a look at some simple protocols to improve your sit-to-rise score right away.
No matter what your sit-to-rise score was you can improve very, very quickly. Just remember
we're working on a different kind of strength here. This is strength, it's mobility, and then
end-range strength. What that means is it's very helpful if you practice a little bit every day,
rather than going really hard a couple of times a week. So I'll show you how to do five rounds
on both your right and left side and I'll show you how to do it with support. For these exercises we
need a stool for our first modification and we'll need a broomstick for our second modification.
I'll put this down for now and I'll show you how to do it with a stool. As before, we want
to do this on a soft surface like a yoga mat or a carpeted surface. I'll stand in front of my stool,
cross my ankles just like before, right leg on top, and then I'll do the same test. I'll start to
sit down, sit down, sit down, and the moment when you start to feel wobbly I'd like you to use the
stool, but only as much as you need to. Here's the key thing, keep that right heel down. Maybe you
need your knee and lower down. I'm using the stool only as I need to and I'm focusing on this right
heel hitting the floor. Right heel's down, lean forward, maybe you even need your elbows, whatever
you need all the way up and that's one. Cross your ankles, the right leg stays in front, we slowly,
slowly, slowly lower down. Notice the heel, seated position, notice the heel all the way up,
and that's two. Cross your ankles, maybe this time you just need your fingertips.
Good, keep that heel down, lean forward using our stool, and that's three. Cross your ankles,
slowly, slowly, slowly lower down, seated position, and all the way
back up, it's four. And slowly lower down, seated down, you might find you get better at this
little by little, and that is five. Switch left legs in front, heel stays down on my left leg
and I slowly start to lower down. If I need my shin and my knee totally fine for support.
Focus on that left heel, so the weight is being driven into your front foot. Using as
much or as little support as you need. That's one. Slowly lower down. Good. Once you find your seat,
find your heel and push all the way up. We're at two. Cross, sit all the way down, good. Press
all the way back up, that's three. Cross your ankles, place your hands and slowly lower
down. Press all the way back up, we're at four. One more time. Cross your ankles,
sit down and back again, focus on that heel, this is the driving leg, the one in front,
and we're at five. Great. For our next variation, after you've been working with the stool for
let's say four weeks, let's switch and we'll make it a little more challenging by working
with the broomstick. The idea is the same. I'm using this for minimal support, which means I'll
make my hands into a cupping position around the pole and I'll use my hands only when I need
to. So start off with the pull stuck into the ground, I'll cross my right foot over my left,
cup my hands around the broomstick, and I'll squat down, down. Maybe I start to feel wobbly
and I hold on. Maybe I start to feel wobbly and my knee hits the ground. Slowly lower down and then
I press all the way back up, that's one. Slowly lower down and then press all the way back up,
that's two. Slowly lower down, maybe you need less support here, all the way back up,
that's three. Cross, remember my right leg stays in front, that heel stays down the whole time,
all the way back up, it's four. Slowly lower down and then all the way back up, press that
heel down, that's five. Switch, left leg's in front and I'll slowly lower down, focusing on my
heel, using my knee and my shin if needed, but try to keep your form throughout really clean.
And most importantly control, that's what we're looking for here. All the way back up,
that's one. Slowly lowering down, think of this like a cane giving you just as much support as
you need. Press your left heel, drive the weight up, it's two. Slide your hands down, sit down,
all the way back up, that's three. You've got me sweating now. Slowly down and then press your heel
down, all the way back up, that's four. We'll do it one more time. Drop all the way down,
all the way down, cross your legs, now all the way back up to stand, and that is five. So remember,
your objective as you're trying to improve your sit-to-rise score is to do five sets on your right
side, five sets on your left left side. If you're using a stool that's five and five. If you're
using a broomstick that's five and five. If you don't need this stool or the broomstick, you can
do five and five in the middle of the room. If you'd like more science-based yoga videos click
subscribe down below. I try to answer all my own comments, if you have a question or comment down
below. You can always find my teaching calendar at yogabody.com. Thanks so much for joining us.