Physical exercise is a variety of planned physical activities, and it has many benefits such as strengthening bones or muscles, reducing health risks or weight management, etc. For example, stretching daily can be of great help in checking the condition of our body. Therefore, To check the state of our health, there is a “ten second test” that we can also do to determine our risk of premature death.
Unlike aerobic and anaerobic or strength fitness, balance is reasonably maintained until at least the age of sixty, when it begins to decline relatively rapidly. According to the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Its purpose is to calculate the risk of death over the next ten years. They recall that the balance test can provide rapid and objective information on mortality risk in middle-aged and older people.
What is involved in this test to know the moment of your death?
The researchers drew on data from participants in the Clinimax Exercise Cohort Study, which began in 1994, to assess the relationship between various measures of physical fitness and poor health and mortality. Thus, they took a sample of 1,702 people, aged between 51 and 75, of whom 68% were men. Various measurements were taken from these, such as weight, skin fold, waist size or other data from their clinical history.
This includes being able to stand on one leg during those ten seconds without falling or losing balance. Therefore, participants were asked to balance on one leg for at least ten seconds, with arms raised in a cross-shape, without any additional support and being able to rest the opposite foot on the floor of the opposite leg. Gone and looking straight ahead. Participants had up to three attempts on both legs. Strikingly, 20.5% of participants (that is, one in five) failed the test, and inability to do it increased with age. It was found that those who failed the test had poor health.
Another curiosity of this study is that with a follow-up period of seven years per participant, 7% died of various causes including cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease or complications from Covid-19. However, the researchers say that this is an observational study and not a clinical trial.
