Why you could live longer if you can sit and rise properly.
Recently I’ve been looking more at how functional exercises equip us for everyday life and how important that is. Being able to sit down and get up from a chair or the floor unaided may not sound like much but actually it can make a huge different to your quality of life and your mortality risk.
A study in 2012 looked at this in 2002 adults, following them for a median of 6.3 years. Those who had lower scored in the sitting-rising test had a higher mortality risk.
Go on, try it now. Can you get down to the floor using no levers (arms/body parts) to assist you and then up again? In the research they asked people to sit all the way to the floor crossed legged and then get up.
If you can’t do it, then hey there is a great challenge to work on.
Ideas:
Maybe start by using a curtsey lunge and focus on your alignment as you go up and down to the floor. This is also a great move for picking up things off the floor without hurting your back by the way.
Have a pile of cushions underneath you so it is not as far to get down and up.
Practise makes perfect, the more you try it the easier it will become.
So in your next pilates class when you are told to get down to the mat, try crossing your legs and just sitting straight down with no props.