BEING able to sit down cross-legged and stand back up again could show how likely you are to live a long life, experts say.
The simple exercise gives an indication of how mobile you are — and could show you are less likely to suffer falls in old age.
GettyBeing able to do a sit-and-rise — sitting down on the ground and standing back up again with your hands — may indicate you will live to a longer age, experts claim[/caption]
Known as the sit-and-rise, the move involves crossing your feet in front of each other and slowly sitting down on the floor without using your hands.
You then have to get back up the same way, with no aid of support.
A study, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, showed people who could do the exercise survived longer in general.
Researchers tracked a group of 51- to 80-year-old adults for three years to see whether it was linked to their likelihood of death.
Dr Kelly Starrett, a physical therapist and author, said being able to do it can be an indication you’ll live longer.
He told The Daily Telegraph: “Being able to do this is a sign that you’re less likely to have a debilitating fall in later years, and you’ll remain in all-round better health.”
Sitting on the floor in general is good for your health, he said, because it forces your body to balance and keeps your core engaged.
Dr Starett said: “People in non-Western countries do things like squatting while waiting for the bus, or sitting cross-legged while eating.
“This may account for why people in China, for example, have 80 to 90 per cent less occurrence of arthritic hip pain than Westerners.”
And it’s not just sitting and standing that can help you live longer — a range of exercises have been shown to improve longevity.
Team sport
Playing sport as part of a team has been shown to be particularly beneficial for elongating your life.
The social aspect of playing in a team or against an opponent adds to the physical benefits, scientists say.
A study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings showed tennis, badminton and football are all better for longevity than cycling, swimming, jogging or the gym.
Dr James O’Keefe, of Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute, told Time: “For both mental and physical well-being and longevity, we’re understanding that our social connections are probably the single-most important feature of living a long, healthy, happy life.
“If you’re interested in exercising for health and longevity and well-being, perhaps the most important feature of your exercise regimen is that it should involve a playdate.”
Squats
Weight-lifting is vital for keeping your bones strong in old age.
Aleksandra Stacha-Fleming, of New York City’s Longevity Lab, said pumping iron is especially important for women.
This because the menopause causes bones to become less dense.
She told Well+Good: “You need to work your muscles to give signals to your bones to get stronger.
“Weight bearing exercises help you have stronger bones, which help you sustain strength for the long run.”
Squats are a particularly good weighted exercise because they can be scaled up easily and challenge multiple parts of the body at once.
Joel Giffin, of Flex Physical Therapy, said: “When done with optimal form, a squat is beneficial regardless of the level of difficulty because it is a functional exercise that represents a movement we need to do every day.”
Stress fitness
Another hack you can use to slow down how quickly you age is stress fitness.
The term, coined by Dr Elissa Epel, of University of California, San Francisco, refers to using exercises that hit your body with a short burst of stress.
This helps train the body to respond to tension in your every day life, which has been shown to cause you to age faster.
Chronic stress causes the cells in the body to wear out quicker and increases the chances of obesity, heart disease, dementia and depression.
Dr Epel suggests trying high intensity interval training (HIIT) to train your body against it.
This involves doing an exercise at your maximum level, such as sprinting, for 30 seconds before taking 10 seconds of rest.
Repeating this until seven minutes are up is a good way to start, and you can increase repetitions as your anabolic fitness improves.