It says a lot about your health
It is most likely that standing on one leg isn’t what you do every day, unless you practice yoga or something similar.
However, the quick activity, which doesn’t need to last longer than a minute, can say a lot about your physical health, it has been revealed.
According to research, standing on one leg can in fact be a strong indicator of how well you are ageing.
In 2023, in a study published in the journal of PLoS One, researchers found that strength and balance involved in the pose is among the first to go.
After the age of 65, they discovered, there is a sharp drop off in ability, as many older participants struggling to hold the pose for more than two seconds.
“These findings suggest that the duration of unipedal stance [standing on one leg] can serve as a reliable and gender-independent measure of neuromuscular ageing for both elderly male and female subjects”, the authors wrote.
The researchers say that standing on one leg is a “valid measure of frailty, independence, and fall status and proves to be a useful tool in identifying patients with peripheral neuropathy”.
The NHS too has a guideline for how long you should be able to stand on one leg for, depending on how old you are.
So it’s not just academic, after all.
The NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Board asked: “How long can you stand on one leg like a flamingo?”, back in 2023.
“It might sound like an odd question, but your answer to the above question could tell you a lot about your general health and fitness”, they added.
The British Journal of Sports Medicine says the inability to stand on one leg for 10 seconds in mid to later life is linked to a near doubling in the risk of death from any cause within the next 10 years.
Here’s how long you should be able to stand on one leg, depending on your age.
Ages 18-39: 43 seconds
Ages 40-49: 40 seconds
Ages 50-59: 37 seconds
Ages 60-69: 30 seconds
Ages 70-79: 18 seconds.
80+: 5 seconds
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