New Research Shows Your Ability To Balance On One Leg May Be Linked To How Long You’ll Live

A new study has found a connection between balancing on one foot and longer life.

On Tuesday, new research published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows that a person’s ability to balance one leg could define how much longer of a life a person will have. While a person’s physical fitness worsens with age, the study showed that a person’s balance typically doesn’t start to decline until they reach their 50s age range.

Suppose you’re unable to hold your balance on one leg for up to 10 seconds. In that case, the study shows you’re more at risk of falls, and your cognitive ability may be declining, CNN Health reports, per the study.

The study group included 1,703 people living in Brazil ages 51 to 75. For the first test check, the participants were instructed to hold their balance without help on one leg. The participants were then told to move the front of their free foot behind their standing leg while keeping their arms to their sides and their eyes straight ahead, CNN Health reports. They were given three tries on both feet.

“We regularly need … a one-legged posture, to move out of a car, to climb or to descend a step or stair and so on. To not have this ability or being afraid in doing so, it is likely related to loss of autonomy and, in consequence, less exercise and the snowball starts,” says the study’s author Dr. Claudio Gil Araújo at Exercise Medicine Clinic – CLINIMEX – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.