If you ride regularly, the concept of longevity probably factors into your life. After all, you need to stay in good shape to keep riding your bike into your golden years. To get a picture of your baseline health – and some insight into how long you’ll live – you might have seen longevity tests floating around the internet. But do these tests really give you a clear view of your health and your lifespan?

“There are so many different types of tests that measure longevity, or predict mortality or the risk of falling in older age,” says Kimberly Esposito, a certified geriatric clinical specialist at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the US. 

To separate fact from fiction, we asked medical experts to share the four most commonly-used longevity tests, and explain what each assessment actually tells us.

1. Sit-to-Rise Test

The objective is to transition from standing to sitting on the floor and back to standing again without any help from your hands.

How to do it:

• Start by standing.
• Slowly lower yourself to the floor until you’re sitting with your legs crossed, without using your hands. (This is harder than it sounds.)
• Stand back up, again without putting your hands on the ground.

You get five points if you can sit down from standing without using your hands, and another five points if you can stand up in the same way, without using your hands or elbows. Ten is a perfect score. Subtract a point every time you use your hand, knee, forearm or the side of your leg to help.

A landmark study found that an older person’s ability to complete this test was an accurate predictor of mortality…

Why does this test matter? A landmark study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology found that an older person’s ability to complete this test was an accurate predictor of mortality. However, Esposito – the clinical specialist at Johns Hopkins – points out that the subjects tested did not have any musculoskeletal injury, such as an arthritic knee, recent surgery or pre-existing conditions.

2. Five-Time Sit-to-Stand Test

How to do it: The five-time sit-to-stand test is performed by a person sitting in a standard chair with their arms placed across their body, and then standing up and sitting down five times.

Esposito says that if you can’t complete the test in under 15 seconds, you have an increased risk of frailty and falls, and therefore increased risk of mortality.

3. Timed Get-Up-and-Go Test

How to do it: Sit back in a standard armchair and identify a line about three metres away on the floor. Get someone to time you – on the word ‘Go’, begin timing. Stop timing after you’ve stood up, walked the three metres, and walked back to the armchair to sit back down.

An older adult who takes longer than 12 seconds to complete the timed get-up-and-go test (also called a ‘Timed Up and Go’ or TUG test) is at a higher risk of falling.

4. Gait Speed Test

How to do it: This test is based on walking speed: if you can walk faster than 3.5km an hour, you have an average life expectancy.

There are age and gender standards for this test, but Esposito says that people who are 65 years and older, and who walk faster than one metre per second, tend to live longer and have fewer falls.

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