h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"Ability to Sit and Rise from the Floor Is Closely Correlated With All-Cause Mortality Risk

A simple screening test of musculo-skeletal fitness has proved remarkably predictive of all-cause mortality in a study of more than 2000 middle-aged and older men and women."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121213085202.htm

I can, easily! Does that mean I am gonna live forever? But wait... I am not even close to the 50yr age mark, so it doesn't really count. But I shall from now on practice every day to keep that ability until I am fifty. (Wait... this sounds like a blonde dyeing her hair black to decrase the risk of skin cancer...)

Y.

>>But I shall from now on practice every day to keep that ability until I am fifty. (Wait... this sounds like a blonde dyeing her hair black to decrase the risk of skin cancer...)

While it's true that this test only claims to demonstrate a correlation between your skill and your longevity, I would have thought that practising it would have the effect of maintaining your strength, which is what the experimenters theorise is beneficial.

I decided not to check my ability after reading the article and spotting this quote 'Over the study period 159 subjects died, a mortality rate of 7.9%.'

Sounds a bit too risky for my liking.

I can't do this without using my left knee, not that I'm that unfit or frail but years of martial arts have instilled this way of rising from the floor, would this throw the results?

I can't even get down on to the floor without assistance, never mind get up without it. Yes, I am unfit and overweight. I am also disabled, suffering from MS and trochanteric bursitis, which combine to affect strength, agility and mobility.

I haven't watched the YouTube clip, but when I tried sitting on the floor and getting up again I had to get on my knees and use one hand to help myself up. That probably gives me a low score, but that's what I expected.

Depends... how tightly one is bound up/down to the floor... dunno... gona try

one hand, and one knee needed to rise up from sitting cross-legged... I can't sit on the floor non cross-legged, or I'll by laying flat on my back, (I've never been supple enough to sit with legs out front, and retain a more or less upright back posture, without being so near laying flat as to make no differnce)... that's really* bad ain't it?

I can sit cross legged and do it - but I'm quite young at 47

hmmm.... how much swearing can I get away with, in response to that? : I'm 36! or am I 37 now... err not sure actually soemthing like that Actually, I might be able to do it... think I'll try again, if I can find a slightly larger empty bit of floor... I've always been very unsupple though, even when a kid, let alone as I got older and even now, after loosing so much weight, that doesn't seem to help much (and I wasn't overweight as a kid, so back then, even, weight wasn't an excuess, and at soem point, as a kid, must have been before* I became a smoker )

When I was at junior school one of the teachers would tell us to sit on the floor with our legs crossed and our arms folded. She would then tell us to get up without unfolding our arms. We could get on to our knees, but we were not allowed to put a hand down to steady ourselves. I had no trouble doing that at the age of eight, but it's just not possible forty years on.

Hubby has MS too, Cheerful. On the odd occasion he's sat on the floor he's needed to use both his hands, and sometimes mine, to help him get up. I know exactly what you mean. Three years ago it wouldn't have been problem for him.

Being the short-arsed, flexible one in the family does I mean have to go in the small grotty places that no one else can reach, mind

"All-cause mortality" would include getting hit by a truck or being murdered, wouldn't it? I can't see how sitting and rising unaided would have any effect on those types of death.

I haven't tried this exercise, and am in no hurry to do so. However, I can easily reach down to get a pair of glasses that are under a table.
I'm 65, with all limbs intact and functional, and no arthritis anywhere. My father, who is 93, has a bad back and some arthritis, but is otherwise fine for his age.

I've taught myself to pick up just about any small object from the floor, using my toes/feet... saves an aweful lot of bending when dropping lighters, clothing whilst doing laundry, or escapee pieces of food during cooking... Mind, teaching myself to be less clumsy and not keep dropping things might have been a more useful thing to learn

I feel guilty of having saddened people who are unable to achieve this task.

Some people can and do change, though; here's a link to this so-called inspirational* video of how Arthur Boorman, disabled Gulf veteran, managed to rise above his mobility issues.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX9FSZJu448


*Not sure how true the story is though, since it's being used to promote a specific yoga course.

It is not that I canonot* do the task, it is as yet I have not, done* the task... Its only a matter of time... and a few more broken pieces of furnature, until I can achieve it This heat isn't exactly condusive to trying to do it though

"I feel guilty of having saddened people who are unable to achieve this task" [Quotes]

Please don't feel guilty. I think there are some flaws in the concept, so it's perfectly okay to disregard it and go on with one's life.

Just spent a couple of minutes on office floor and please to report I can do it without use of any hands or knees.



FB

I always use the method I was taught in ballet class.

Sitting on the floor with both legs curled to your right side. Put your right foot over your left knee and transfer the weight onto it. Now in my 50s, I sometimes need a little rocking momentum to get going, but I can still manage it.

I can do it with the use of just one knee, whilst my hands are handcuffed behind my back... does that count? but strangely, when my hands are free, I do* use one hand, plus* a knee maybe its just a natural* thing to stick ones hand onto the floor, to steady, if one has the oppertunity to do so