The Sitting-Rising Test: What Getting Off the Floor Says About Your Health And Longevity

Quick one today. It takes about ten seconds to do. But the results might stay with you longer than that.

It's called the sitting-rising test — and it was designed by researchers studying longevity, not athletic performance. That distinction matters. This test wasn't built to measure how fit you are. It was built to measure how well your body is holding up over time.

Fair warning: most adults are surprised by their score the first time they try it.

How to Do the Sitting-Rising Test (and Score It Accurately)

You'll need about two square feet of floor space. Use a rug or carpeted surface. Do not attempt this on a slick floor, and definitely not while holding a child.

Step 1: Stand in the middle of the space with feet roughly shoulder-width apart.

Step 2: Cross your legs. Lower yourself all the way down to a seated position on the floor without using your hands, knees, or forearms for support.

Step 3: From sitting, stand back up — again without bracing on anything.

Scoring

Start with 10 points — 5 for the descent, 5 for the ascent.

• Subtract 1 point each time a hand, knee, or forearm touches the floor for support.

• Subtract 0.5 for any notable wobble or loss of balance.

Maximum: 10 points.

• 8–10: Strong baseline. Keep progressing.

• 4–7: Functional, but there's meaningful room to build strength, mobility, and balance.

• 0–3: This is your starting line, not a sentence. Every component here is trainable.

Why This Score Predicts More Than You'd Expect

A study by Brito and colleagues, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology (2014), followed more than 2,000 middle-aged and older adults. People with lower sitting-rising scores had significantly higher rates of all-cause mortality over the follow-up period, including cardiovascular events.

Same age group. Very different outcomes.

The reason the test carries so much information: it doesn't measure one thing. Getting off the floor with control requires lower-body strength, core stability, hip mobility, balance, and coordination, all working together. It's a composite snapshot of your musculoskeletal system — the same system that catches you on the Lego in the hallway, carries the sleeping kid from the car, and gets back up off the playroom floor fifty times a day.

How to Improve Your Score

Hip mobility: 90/90 stretches, deep squat holds, and simply spending more time sitting on the floor all help. If you spend most of your time in a chair and on a couch, your hips will reflect that.

Lower body strength: Squats, lunges, step-ups, and single-leg movements build the capacity to lower and raise your bodyweight with control. Progressive resistance training and Pilates leg work both contribute.

Balance: Single-leg standing (even while brushing your teeth), balance board work, or any movement that asks your body to find and hold its center. Two minutes a day stacks up.

Core stability: Not crunches — stability. The deep postural control that keeps your torso upright as you descend and rise without lurching forward. This is one of the things Pilates does best.

Consistent work in all four of these areas is what my well-designed Pilates and strength programming delivers — not in isolation, but in a way that transfers to the functional demands of your actual life.

Want to build real functional strength that fits your schedule as a parent? The Let's Figure This Out Call is a no-pitch conversation about where you are and what would make sense. Book now: Let's Figure This Out Call

Sources:

• Brito, L. B., Ricardo, D. R., Araújo, D. S., Ramos, P. S., Myers, J., & Araújo, C. G. (2014). Ability to sit and rise from the floor as a predictor of all-cause mortality. European journal of preventive cardiology, 21(7), 892–898. https://doi.org/10.1177/2047487312471759

• Salamon, M. (2025, October 1). What the sitting-rising test says about your health. Harvard Health Publishing. https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthy-aging-and-longevity/what-the-sitting-rising-test-says-about-your-health