fitness
This simple workout can predict how long you might live
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Fitness exercises are also a precaution for old age. This workout can predict your risk of accidents later in life.
Nobody should be really surprised when he:she reads: Sport is healthy! Most of us know—at least in theory—that it’s important to exercise, build muscle, and watch your diet. And at any age.
But that’s the thing with theory, it’s not always that easy to put into practice. Maybe this workout will help you overcome your weaker self – because this exercise can be an indicator of how long your own life is. At least according to the results of a recent study.
The “Sit-and-Rise” fitness exercise provides information about your own accident risk
Statistically speaking falling is one of the most common domestic accidents resulting in death: In 2019, 12,436 people died in their own homes – 10,755 from falls. Falls can be particularly dangerous in old age, as muscle mass, which otherwise protects the bones, is broken down more quickly.
An exercise that a current study has examined more closely provides information about how mobile you actually are at the moment – and how at risk of falling in old age. The researchers followed a group of 51- to 80-year-old adults for over three years to examine a possible link between exercise and their likelihood of dying.
How the exercise works – and why it is so important
In the “sit and rise” exercise, your feet are crossed in front of each other and you slowly sit down on the floor – without moving your hands. Then you have to get up in the same way and you are not allowed to use your hands to support yourself, for example.
In fact, it was found that those who performed the “sit-and-rise” exercise well – i.e. did not use their hands – lived longer than those of the more than 2,000 subjects studied who were less able to complete this exercise. Study author and physiotherapist Dr. Kelly Starrett told the Daily Telegraph: “Being able to do that is a sign that in later years you will be less likely to have a bad fall and stay in better overall health.”
In general, sitting on the floor is good for your health because it forces the body to maintain balance and keeps the center of the body active, the scientist continues. “This could be one reason why people in China, for example, suffer from hip pain 80 to 90 percent less often than people in the western world.”
Important in these study results in connection with the exercise: Ultimately, it is a possible indicator that muscle mass and mobility can be expanded in the current state and problems could arise in old age if work is not done on it. What the results and the outcome of the exercise are certainly not: a death sentence or a sure guarantee of a short (or long) life. What it can be is a reminder that our health is – at least in part – in our hands and we can do something about it to support our body in its important work.
Sources used: de.statista.com, smart-altern.de, telegraph.co.uk, thesun.co.uk, journals.sagepub.com
