You try to eat right, exercise and keep your mind engaged so you stay sharp, but it’s hard to know for sure how healthy you will be as you get older.
Well, it turns out there may be a way to get an idea: The single leg stance test, also called the unipedal stance test, may be an easy and accurate measurement of your rate of neuromuscular aging, a study in PLOS One found.
Here's why that matters: Your body’s neuromuscular system encompasses all the muscles and nerves in your body, and controls how they work together to coordinate every movement you make. As you age, your neuromuscular system’s function normally declines, but how quickly it declines can make the difference between traveling, playing pickleball or simply living independently into your later years and needing lots of support.
The other big benefit to knowing how well your body is aging is that if you know your neuromuscular system is declining rapidly, you can take steps to preserve healthy movement for as long as possible.
What the study found
The study team (made up of researchers from Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and a hospital in China and Taiwan) set out to investigate decline in gait, balance and strength as people age. Forty healthy subjects of similar body composition and activity levels over the age of 50 held the following positions as long as they could, with a goal of 30 seconds each:
- Standing on both feet with their eyes open
- Standing on both feet with their eyes closed
- Standing on one leg with their eyes closed
- Standing on the other leg with their eyes open
Not surprisingly, older people in general could not hold the stance as long as younger people in general.
That said, the longer subjects could hold the stance, the better their individual bodies were faring. The researchers found that the length of time a subject could do the single leg stance was the most significant indicator of how well that person was aging, more so than other measurements such as grip and knee strength.
Why standing on one leg?
“The ability to stand on one leg for an extended period of time is a test of your balance,” says study co-author Kenton Kaufman, PhD, PE, W. Hall Wendel Jr Musculoskeletal Research Professor, professor of biomedical engineering and orthopedics and director of the Motion Analysis Laboratory at Mayo Clinic. “Balance is complicated. The information from many body systems including your muscles, eyes, the balance organ in the inner ear, and nerves need to be integrated together in order to have good balance.”
As you get older, it’s normal to have a harder time with balance. “All of these systems deteriorate with age,” Dr. Kaufman explains. “However, they deteriorate at different rates. So the body now needs to integrate information that is changing over time.” Balance, of course, is critical, especially for older folks, for whom falls can be debilitating or even deadly.
How to test yourself
Stand on both legs, near a wall in case you start to fall. Then lift one leg, aiming to hold this position for 30 to 60 seconds. If that’s too easy, do the same thing with your eyes closed, which will make it more challenging.
How’d you do? If you’re not happy with how long you held the one-leg stance, you can use the same one-sided exercise to improve it.
“Unilateral exercises help stabilize the core and improve hip mobility and strength,” says Anita Mirchandani, MS, RD, a certified fitness professional, registered dietitian and nutritionist. The single leg stance can also help you stand taller. “Unilateral exercise training also helps you negate postural issues that occur from overcompensation of one side of your body being stronger than the other,” Mirchandani adds. “Posture is one of the reasons adults have back pain or other lower extremity pain as they age.”
To strengthen your balance, do this three times a week, with proper form, Mirchandani suggests. “Proper form would focus on ensuring your spine is neutral and your core is strong.” While doing the stance, “avoid leaning to one side to overcompensate – maintain a hip width apart position, shifting your weight evenly, and keep your gaze forward,” she stresses.
Try to maintain the stance for up to 30 seconds, then rest for 10. Repeat 6 to 8 times on one leg, then switch to the other leg. When you’re able to balance for 30 seconds with your eyes open, close them and try to balance for a tougher challenge.
Do these findings hold true for young people?
No. “The ability to stand on one leg changes as people age but doesn’t start to degrade until people are in their 50s,” Dr. Kaufman says. “The ability to stand longer at a younger age is not an indicator of how well you are aging.”
But if you’re over 50, and you can stand on one leg longer than your friends who are the same age (sounds like a fun activity to try together at your next girls’ night!) that is good news for you — the longer you can hold the position, the better.
The bottom line
“The duration an individual, whether male or female, can maintain balance on one leg emerges as the most reliable determinant of aging, surpassing strength, gait, and other balance parameters,” the authors concluded. And exercises like the single leg stance can help your balance, so adding it to your workout routine is a great idea.
