Test your fitness/ Lifespan

Bar a few, most on here are ranging between mid 30s - 50s.
A few simple fitness tests in the below to see how close to death you are.

I tried to get up off the ground but had to use 1 hand.

Only hit 37 on the pushups.

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Post it up there - subsciber only content

Surprise, surprise.

@Thomas_Brady on the O’Sullivan subscription plan to the Cark Examiner

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Six tests you can do now to check your risk of illness and predict how long you may live
Take time out to try these science-backed DIY assessments to measure your fitness, risk of illness and potential lifespan
Six tests you can do now to check your risk of illness and predict how long you may live
Handsome mature man doing push-ups on a yoga mat while indoors

How fit and healthy are you? Based on scientific studies, experts have devised a battery of simple tests that can tell us a lot about our risk of illness and disease or our potential for a prolonged lifespan.

“There are very simple tests that you can do yourself at home to give an idea of strength and fitness,” says Niall Moyna, professor in the School of Health and Human Performance at Dublin City University.

From calf raises to press-ups and stretches, here’s how you can assess your health at home:

How long can you stand on one leg?

How to do it: Stand barefoot with your eyes open and raise one leg off the floor by bending at the knee. Time how long you can maintain that position. Aim for 10 seconds on each leg.

What it tells you: Your risk of falls and fractures and health issues including stroke and brain health.

Why it works: Balance diminishes quickly from the mid-50s onwards and the less stable we become, the greater the risk for falls, fractures and other adverse health outcomes.

Japanese researchers used MRI scans to measure brain abnormalities in a group of otherwise healthy people in their 60s asked to perform a series of one-leg stands. Struggling to balance on one leg for 20 seconds or longer was associated with an increased risk for small blood vessel damage in the brain, stroke and reduced cognitive function with the researchers suggesting it “is an important test for brain health”.

A recent study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine showed that the ability of middle-aged adults to stand on one leg for 10 seconds was associated with higher rates of survival years later and others have shown that people in their 50s who can’t manage more than two seconds are three times as likely to die before the age of 66.

Goals: We need to work at balance to maintain it. Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University say that even elite Masters athletes who train for several hours a day have poor balance skills unless they incorporate exercises such as this into their programme.

Build up to 60 seconds on each leg if you can – balancing on each leg for that long three times daily can improve the hip bone density of older people. Once you can manage 20 seconds on each leg, you can try it with eyes closed.

How many press-ups can you do?

How do it: Count how many consecutive full push-ups as you can manage (with no long pauses) before you have to stop.

What it measures: Risk of cardio-metabolic health, cardiovascular disease and frailty or risk of falling as you get older.

Why it works: A 2019 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that men in their 30s and 40s who were able to complete fewer than 10 press-ups were at a significantly higher risk of cardiovascular disease in the next decade than those who could do more.

Men who managed more than 40 press-ups were at 96% less risk of heart problems in the next 10 years than those who did less than ten and the researchers said it proved a better predictor of future heart problems than conventional predictors.

Goals: Press-ups improve muscle strength and endurance and are widely considered the best all-round exercise working the core, back, shoulders, arms, glutes and legs. The more of them you can do, the better. If you are unable to do a single full press-up, start with modified ones with your knees on the ground.

Moyna says: “Ideally, men in their 20s should manage at least 21 or 14 for women; men in their 30s at least 16 or 12 for women; men in their 40s, 12 or 10 for women and anywhere close to ten for over 50s”.

Based on scientific studies, experts have devised a battery of simple tests that can tell us a lot about our risk of illness and disease or our potential for a prolonged lifespan.
Based on scientific studies, experts have devised a battery of simple tests that can tell us a lot about our risk of illness and disease or our potential for a prolonged lifespan.

How many times can you sit and stand from a chair in 30 seconds?

How to do it: Sit upright in the middle of a hard-backed dining chair, arms folded across the chest and feet flat on the floor shoulder-width apart. Raise yourself to full standing position, knees straight, before sitting down fully again.

Don’t cheat – half standing or sitting doesn’t count.

What it measures: Functional lower body strength, dynamic balance and functional mobility in older people and those of any age who spend much of their day sitting – all important for movement and prevention of falls. Complete as many full stands followed by full sits as you can in 30 seconds.

Why it works: “This test measures lower body strength which tends to deteriorate in older people and is a predictor of falls,” Moyna says.

Goals: The more full and controlled repetitions you can manage in 30 seconds, the better, says Moyna. Men in their 20s should manage about 24 reps and women 23. “After that, the target number drops an average two reps per decade so that by age 70 you should aim for 14 reps although at 80 plus it should be 10 reps,” he says.

How easily can you get up from the floor?

How to do it: Sit down on the floor, with legs crossed, and get back up without the help of your hands or knees. If you can stand back up without using a hand, forearm, knee, side of a leg or hand on a knee, you score a perfect 10. If you use any of these for support, subtract one point each time. Subtract a half-point if you were wobbly sitting or standing. Do the test twice to obtain an average of your best scores.

What it measures: A measure of musculoskeletal fitness that is a tool to predict mortality risk in middle-aged and older people.

Why it works: In a landmark study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology and involving 2,002 adults aged 51 to 80, those who had the lowest score of zero to three points in the rising-sit test were found to be at five to six times higher risk of dying prematurely than those who scored eight to 10 points.

“If a middle-aged or older man or woman can sit and rise from the floor using just one hand - or even better without the help of a hand - they are not only in the higher quartile of musculoskeletal fitness but their survival prognosis is probably better than that of those unable to do so,” the researchers wrote.

Goals: Aim for eight to 10 points. Gradually improve your score until you can stand unaided.

How far can you walk in six minutes?

How far can you walk in six minutes?
How far can you walk in six minutes?
How do it: Power walk (not running, but not dawdling) for six minutes, measuring the distance covered on a hard, flat surface (it is best to do this on an athletics track or use a fitness tracker).

What it tells you: Measure of endurance and aerobic capacity, cardiovascular and lung health.

Why it works: The six-minute walk test (or 6MWT) is an established measure of aerobic capacity originally developed by the American Thoracic Society [exa.mn/Walk-Test].

If you don’t get farther than 350 metres on a flat, measured route it might be an indication of poor cardiovascular function and could be a sign of health conditions including respiratory or lung conditions, muscle loss or underlying illness.

Goals: Aim for 400-700 metres. The more you walk, the more efficient at it you will become and it is recommended the test is repeated every six months to check progress.

How many calf raises can you do in 30 seconds?

How do it: Stand barefoot facing a wall 10-12 inches away. Place fingertips lightly on the wall at shoulder height, elbows slightly bent and feet hip-width apart.

Raise your heels as high as possible with knees fully extended, then lower to the ground. Repeat the full movement counting how many repetitions you do in 30 seconds.

What it measures: Muscle and tendon strength in the foot, lower leg and ankle, important for walking and functional movement reaching and lifting.

Why it works: Older adults with the best calf raise scores were found to have higher levels of functional fitness, strength, power, speed and range of movement in a study in the journal Physical Therapy in Sport.

Goals: Under 60s should aim for 25 calf raises, over 60s 21-22 per 30 seconds.

Build up your calf raises, aiming for 3 x 15 seconds two to three times a week to strengthen the lower leg and ankle, suggests physiotherapist Paul Hobrough, who has worked with many Ireland athletes.

Balance diminishes quickly from the mid-50s onwards and the less stable we become, the greater the risk for falls, fractures and other adverse health outcomes.

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It reads if you click on it through twitter but is subscriber if you click straight on link :person_shrugging:

My legs have gone - I’ll be dead within the year.

I’d heard the press up one before alright

I’d say I could knock out 60 strict press ups no bother

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Im around 40ish … I’d been to the gym already the other day :wink:

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Very smug reading all that. Then i remembered id gassed playing chasing with the kids on the beach yesterday.

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You’ll probably be murdered before then anyhow.

Best off hammering the shit out of your gut until the inevitable happens.

Chasing is a different type of fitness. Couple of years ago I’d been flying with the 5k/10ks and decided to go senior training in advance of playing a bit of junior. Did the first game which was all short, sharp tackling and i nearly keeled over

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Ive been telling @Bandage this for years but he won’t listen. He’s taking years off his life flogging himself with all this long distance running… From the last online picture i saw of him he looked like a man of 50.

Time to reverse the aging process bud.

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100%

you could be doing 20 min 5ks but having to chase a nippy corner forward for 2 minutes might kill you.

anaerobic vs. aerobic is what the case is i imagine.

Bullshit. @briantinnion remarked at yesterday’s Wexford GAA #Gamechangers Lunch that my complexion was remarkable.

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Running ages lads something awful.
I’d say they are out every day and no SPF.

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2022/1129/1338924-bleep-test/

Maybe they could do it on an xBox instead

Niall Moyna on drivetime blamed the woke generation

Is this on the back of @Raylan’s alienation chart yesterday? But how does that cater for competitive students and those that thrive on competing physically? Robbing Peter to slip Paul a donut there.

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Any of ya’s lie depressed there in Dec and think I’m gonna kill the fitness next month?? Because I haven’t…