Ability to Sit and Rise From the Floor Linked to Lower Risk of Death in Midlife and Later

CATEGORY: HEALTHY AGING & LONGEVITY

How easily you can lower yourself to the floor and stand back up again — without leaning on your hands, a knee, or nearby furniture — is linked to how likely you are to stay alive over the following decade or more, according to a large study of middle-aged and older adults. Those who could sit down and rise with no support at all were far less likely to die during the study than those who needed the most help, and each small drop in performance tracked with a meaningfully higher risk of death.¹

What the Test Measures

The sitting-rising test is a simple movement check developed by exercise researchers. You lower yourself from standing to sitting cross-legged on the floor, then stand back up, using as little support as possible. You start with a possible five points for sitting and five for rising, and a point comes off each time you use a hand, forearm, or knee for support, with a half point off for wobbling — so scores run from 0 to a perfect 10. Rather than testing how well your heart and lungs handle exertion, the test captures what researchers call non-aerobic fitness: a blend of muscle strength, flexibility, balance, and body composition (the proportion of muscle to fat). These qualities tend to fade with age, and the test rolls them into a single number.¹

How the Study Worked

Researchers followed 4,282 adults between the ages of 46 and 75 who completed the test at an exercise-medicine clinic. This was an observational study — it tracked what happened to people without changing anything they did — so it can show an association but cannot prove that better movement itself causes longer life. The key point is the timeline: the test took only a minute or two, but the researchers then followed these adults for a median of about 12 years, meaning half were tracked longer than that. Over that stretch they recorded who died, using official state death records, and compared survival across five groups ranging from the lowest scorers to those with a perfect 10. The long follow-up, not the brief test itself, is what turned a single movement into a picture of longevity.¹

What the Numbers Showed

The gap between the groups was large. Among people with the lowest scores (0 to 4), about 42 percent died of natural causes during the follow-up. Among those who earned a perfect 10, fewer than 4 percent did. After accounting for age, sex, and other health factors, the lowest-scoring group had roughly four times the risk of natural death compared with the top scorers. Even small differences mattered: each single point lower on the 0-to-10 scale was associated with about a 33 percent higher risk of dying from natural causes over the study period. The pattern held for deaths from cardiovascular causes — problems of the heart and blood vessels — as well.¹

Why Movement May Track With Longevity

Getting down to the floor and back up draws on many systems at once, which may be why it lines up so closely with survival. It requires leg and core strength, flexible hips and knees, steady balance, and a favorable ratio of muscle to body fat — the same attributes that help older adults avoid falls, stay independent, and recover from illness. A low score can also be an early flag that one of these systems is slipping. Because the study was observational, some of the link may run the other way: people already coping with hidden illness or frailty may simply find the movement harder. The finding does not mean the test alone determines your future, but it does suggest that this everyday ability is a useful window into overall physical resilience.¹

Key Takeaways

• In middle-aged and older adults, better performance on a simple sit-and-rise floor test was associated with a lower risk of death over roughly 12 years; the study shows a link, not proof of cause.
• Each one-point-lower score (on a 0-to-10 scale) was tied to about a 33 percent higher risk of natural death, suggesting the measure reflects strength, flexibility, and balance together.
• If you find it noticeably hard to get down to or up from the floor, that may be worth raising with your doctor, who can look at strength, balance, and joint health in the context of your overall health.
• Talk with your healthcare provider before starting or changing any exercise, movement, or fall-prevention routine, especially if you have joint problems, balance concerns, or a heart condition.

References

1. Araujo CGS, de Souza e Silva CG, Myers J, Laukkanen JA, Ramos PS, Ricardo DR. Sitting-rising test scores predict natural and cardiovascular causes of deaths in middle-aged and older men and women. European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. 2025;zwaf325. link