It is often said that being able to balance confidently on one leg is a good test of your health.
Indeed, research has found those who can’t do so for more than ten seconds could be at vastly increased risk of dying within ten years.
But now, NHS scientists believe they have discovered the optimal time each age group should be able to stand.
Balancing on one leg continuously for more than 40 seconds is a key sign of strength and mobility among 18 to 39-year-olds, they insist.
By contrast, those aged between 70 and 79 should manage 18 to 19 seconds.
The reason standing on one leg is such a marker of fitness is because it uses so many different parts of the brain and body at once.
It tests balance, and strength — and these two things are lost, the more frail a person comes, making them more prone to bone shattering falls.
According to the NHS test, those trying to test should aim to stand one one leg with their hands on their hips.
Balancing on one leg continuously for more than 40 seconds is a key sign of strength and mobility among 18 to 39-year-olds, the health service says
Keeping their eyes open, the timer starts as soon as the foot lifts off the ground.
It stops when the foot is either lowered or their hands are taken off their hips.
Those aged 18 to 39 should manage 43 seconds, the NHS says, and 40 seconds if you’re aged between 40 and 49.
For 50 to 59-year-olds, the figure stands at 37 seconds and 30 for 60 to 69-year-olds.
By 70 to 79, this drops to between 18 and 19 seconds and a little over five seconds if you’re over 80.
Selina Lim, Divisional Director for Integrated Pathways at the NHS East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘We know that people who struggle to balance for the expected amount of time are at a higher risk of developing ill-health as they age.
‘By taking part in the ‘flamingo challenge’ people can quickly and easily assess for themselves whether they are at risk.
‘If they are, there are lots of different activities they can engage in that can help improve their overall fitness.’
It is often said that being able to balance confidently on one leg is a good test of your health – and not just for flamingoes
In 2019, much-loved TV diet guru and Daily Mail columnist the late Dr Michael Mosley advocated for practicing balancing on one leg. Mosley noted if you’re able to do so for ten seconds with your eyes closed, you should be in good health — regardless of your age
According to one 2022 observational study, being unable 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.
Writing in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers who carried out the study over 12 years in Brazil, said the test ‘provides rapid and objective feedback for the patient and health professionals regarding static balance’.
It also ‘adds useful information regarding mortality risk in middle-aged and older men and women’.
Research has long suggested that unlike aerobic fitness, muscle strength and flexibility, balance tends to be reasonably well preserved until people hit their 60s — from which point it deteriorates.
However, balance checks are not routinely included in health checks for older people, as there is a lack of a standardised test to measure it.
There is also limited data on how balance is linked with health, other than an increased likelihood of falls.
In 2019, much-loved TV diet guru and Daily Mail columnist the late Dr Michael Mosley advocated for practicing balancing on one leg.
Mosley noted if you’re able to do so for ten seconds with your eyes closed, you should be in good health — regardless of your age.
Last week, researchers at US-based Mayo Clinic also discovered the amount of time you can balance on one foot indicates how strong your bones, muscles and nerves are. With each decade of age, the amount of time someone was able to stand on their non-dominant leg declined by 2.2 seconds.
So, if someone who was 50 was able to balance for 15 seconds, someone who was 60 was able to balance for 12.8.
For the dominant leg – the amount of time they were able to stand decline by 1.7 second per decade.
The researchers said that this test could be implemented in doctors offices as an inexpensive, low-technology way to test bone strength and aging.
