People are giving a new test of their health a go after hearing it can give them an idea of how long they've got to live.
In general, it's a pretty good idea to know where you're at when it comes to the topic of your own health, but working out the details might require taking a trip to the doctor.
Wouldn't it be so much easier if you could give yourself a quick biological equivalent of an MOT right in the comfort of your own home in just a matter of seconds?
Advert
Of course it would, so maybe that explains why a whole load of people are giving the 'sit to stand' test a bit of a go as it can apparently give you an idea of how long you've got left to live.
The test is really simple, you start off in a standing position, sit down cross-legged on the ground and then stand back up again.
If you can do that then you're apparently in pretty decent health, but there are a few extra rules to it than the ability to sit down and get back up again.
The golden rule for the 'sit to stand' test is that you can only use your legs and core muscles to help you with this, so no pushing yourself back up off the ground with your arms or anything like that.
Advert
Basically, you start in the standing position and have 10 points, each time you need to use your hands, knees, forearm or the side of your leg to move yourself around you lose a point.
If you can stand, sit and stand again without the use of anything but your legs and core muscles then it's a perfect 10, if you can't get back up again at all without using your other limbs then you're on zero.
Apparently you'd want to be scoring about 'eight or higher', so says Dr. Natalie Azar to TODAY, and a study found that your test results help indicate whether you're likely to die within the next six years.
She explained that the lower the score the more likely a person was to die in the next six years, but that the test was normally used for 51 to 80 years olds.
Advert
If you can't get back up and you're in your mid-20s then that might be a cause for concern but is probably not a sign that you best be looking into how to make a will anytime soon.
People have been giving the test a go for themselves with varying results.
TODAY had one of their researchers demonstrating perfect form on multiple goes of the 'sit to stand' test, but others have been posting their attempts to TikTok and they haven't gone quite as well.
Someone posted an absolute disaster of an attempt, being utterly unable to stand back up again while her dogs swarmed around her as a distraction.
Another TikToker posted a video of themselves crying as they were in a wheelchair and just couldn't do the test.
Advert
Others said they 'almost died' giving it a go and 'landed on my back just getting down', so perhaps this test is much tougher than it looks.
Not to blow my own trumpet or anything but I was able to do this test without much of a bother, which is apparently good news.
Joe Harker