What How Long You Can Balance on 1 Leg Says About Your Health
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How long you can balance on one leg may be an important indicator of health and how well you’re aging, a new study finds.
Researchers found how long a person can stand on one leg is a better measure of aging than changes in strength or gait.
Experts explain what balance has to do with biological age, and how the test to figure out yours.
Sure, yoga can be a great low-impact exercise to boost overall health. But it turns out one pose, in particular, may show more than your flexibility. How long you can stand on one leg may be an important indicator of your health and how well you are aging, according to new research.
A small Mayo Clinic study published in PLOS One looked at 40 healthy, independent people over the age of 50—half of whom were under 65; the other half were 65 and older. Researchers used the following tests to assess age-related decline as well as differences between sexes.
Grip strength: A handheld device was used to measure upper body strength.
Knee strength: Knee extension exercises assessed lower body strength.
Gait: Participants walked at their own pace on a designated path while a motion analysis system captured their movements.
Balance: Participants stood on plates that measured balance during four different scenarios: on both feet with eyes open, with eyes closed, and on the dominant and non-dominant leg with eyes open. Participants could hold the leg they weren’t standing on where they wanted.
Out of the four tests, researchers found that how long someone maintained their balance while standing on one leg showed “the highest rate of decline with age,” per Mayo Clinic. In other words, the results showed that the amount of time in which a person can stand on a dominant and non-dominant leg significantly decreased with age—and had a larger decline than gait and muscle strength.
More specifically, researchers determined that the duration a person can stand on a single leg declined at the rate of 2.2 seconds per decade in the non-dominant leg, while doing the same at the rate of 1.7 seconds per decade in the dominant leg. Researchers noted that these findings were true for all genders.
“Balance is an important measure because, in addition to muscle strength, it requires input from vision, the vestibular system [a sensory system in the inner ear that helps maintain balance], and the somatosensory systems [part of the nervous system that allows people to perceive sensations from the body, like touch, pressure, pain, temperature, and movement],” said Kenton Kaufman, Ph.D., senior author of the study and director of the Motion Analysis Laboratory at Mayo Clinic, in a statement. “Changes in balance are noteworthy. If you have poor balance, you’re at risk of falling, whether or not you’re moving. Falls are a severe health risk with serious consequences.”
The statement pointed out that the leading cause of injuries among adults who are 65 and older is unintentional falls—and most falls among older adults result from a loss of balance.
The bottom line
This research shows how balance may be used as a measurement of age, but it’s not the first study to do so. A June 2022 study affirmed that the ability to balance is linked to a longer life, finding that those who failed to stand on one leg for a 10-second balance test were associated with an 84% increased risk of death over the next seven years.
The good news is that you can take steps to prevent this with balance exercises. “For example, by standing on one leg, you can train yourself to coordinate your muscle and vestibular responses to maintain correct balance. If you can stand on one leg for 30 seconds, you are doing well,” Dr. Kaufman said in the statement from Mayo Clinic.
“If you don’t use it, you lose it. If you use it, you maintain it,” Dr. Kaufman continued. “It’s easy to do. It doesn’t require special equipment, and you can do it every day.”
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