\n You lift weights at the gym and walk several miles for exercise, but how easily can you get up from the floor? What about rising from a low chair without pushing off with your hands?\n <\/p>\n
\n These ordinary movements can reveal aspects of fitness that aren\u2019t always obvious during a workout. Changing levels by getting up and sitting down requires your muscles, joints and nervous system to coordinate strength, mobility and balance while controlling your body weight.\n <\/p>\n
\n With more than 1 in 4 adults 65 and older in the United States reporting falling each year<\/a>, having that combination of physical coordination becomes increasingly important with age. Falls are the leading cause of injury and injury-related death<\/a> in this age group, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\n <\/p>\n \n But everyday movement skills aren\u2019t just for older adults. Strengthening and maintaining these moves early on can help you stay functionally active for decades to come<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Standing from a chair requires a stable base, enough ankle and hip mobility to shift your weight forward, lower body and core strength to lift yourself, and balance to keep you steady<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Because this action requires all those abilities to work together, clinicians regularly use chair rises when assessing for functional limitations. And that\u2019s why the CDC includes a 30-second chair stand<\/a> in its fall-risk assessment.\n <\/p>\n \n The same movement also gives you a practical way to train. Standing up and lowering back down with control<\/a> challenges the strength, mobility and coordination you depend on every day. If you don\u2019t regularly use and train these muscles and motor skills, your capacity to get up and down can decline, which can lead to increased risk of injury.\n <\/p>\n \n Your ability to get down to the floor and back up can help predict your longevity, even in midlife, according to a 2025 study of more than 4,000 adults<\/a> ages 46 to 75. Researchers used a sitting-rising test to investigate whether the ability to get down to the floor and back up was associated with the risk of dying from natural or cardiovascular causes.\n <\/p>\n \n Participants earned up to five points for sitting and five for rising with points deducted for losing balance or using a hand, knee, forearm or side of the leg for support. A perfect score of 10 meant completing both movements without support or unsteadiness.\n <\/p>\n \n During a median follow-up of 12.3 years, adults who scored zero to four had nearly four times the risk of dying from natural causes and about six times the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease compared with those who scored a perfect 10.\n <\/p>\n How to start training functional up-and-down movements<\/p>\n \n Too often, aging adults accept mobility limitations<\/a>, including increasing difficulty getting up and down off the floor, and mistakenly assume they are an unavoidable reality of aging. But that doesn\u2019t have to be the case.\n <\/p>\n \n Moving between the floor and standing is a skill you can and should practice. Below are three ways you can start today.\n <\/p>\n \n Note: Before beginning this or any exercise program, consult your doctor or physical therapist.\n <\/p>\n 1. Sit-to-stand practice<\/p>\n \n Sit toward the front of a sturdy chair with your feet about hip-width apart. Lean forward slightly from your hips, press through your feet and stand without using your hands if you can do so safely. Pause at the top, then push your hips back and slowly lower yourself to the chair with control.\n <\/p>\n \n Modify: Have a chair back or counter in front of you that you can hold for support while rising and descending.\n <\/p>\n \n Progress: Stand with your weight on one leg only and lower to sitting and back up to standing with control and balance. As you train to do this, use a chair back or counter in front of you for support as needed.\n <\/p>\n \n Perform 5 to 10 repetitions of whichever variation is appropriate for you.\n <\/p>\n \n Why it works: Moving from sitting to standing and vice versa builds core and lower body strength and balance.\n <\/p>\n 2. Floor-to-stand beginner practice<\/p>\n \n If simply getting down onto the floor and getting back up presents a challenge, practice this supported sequence.\n <\/p>\n \n Place a sturdy chair nearby. Rest your left hand on the chair seat as you come down into a kneeling lunge on your right knee. Then lower your left knee and both hands, bringing yourself to hands and knees. Shift your weight to your right hip and find a seated position on the floor.\n <\/p>\n \n Reverse the sequence to come back up: Shift to hands and knees, tall kneeling and then a supported kneeling lunge. Next, use your hand on the chair to help push back up to standing.\n <\/p>\n \n Practice 3 to 5 repetitions on each side.\n <\/p>\n \n Why it works: Moving from the floor requires hip and leg strength, joint mobility, balance, and coordination through multiple positions. Using support lets you practice the movement safely while gradually reducing assistance as your ability improves.\n <\/p>\n 3. Floor-to-stand progressive practice<\/p>\n \n Sit cross-legged on the floor. Lift both knees and slide your feet toward each other to place the soles of your feet down with your legs still crossed. Exhale as you push through your feet and use core and glute strength<\/a> \u2014 without using your hands \u2014 to lift yourself to standing. Lower back down with crossed legs and repeat for 3 to 5 repetitions.\n <\/p>\n \n Modify: Wrap a band<\/a> around a solid support, such as a training rack or support pole, and place a pad or folded blanket on the floor to provide soft elevation. Repeat the same steps as above but hold the band for assistance and sit on the pad or blanket.\n <\/p>\n \n Progress: Do the same exercise as noted above, with or without the modification, with your feet together and uncrossed.\n <\/p>\n \n Perform 5 to 10 repetitions of whichever variation is appropriate for you.\n <\/p>\n \n Why it works: Sitting on the floor and rising without support, as outlined above, represents a 10 out of 10 score on the sitting-rising test.\n <\/p>\n Train for life outside the gym and into old age<\/p>\n \n Your fitness program should focus on more than simply how much weight you can lift<\/a> or how far you can walk. An exercise regimen is also about having enough strength, mobility, balance and control to meet the demands of everyday life.\n <\/p>\n \n If getting out of a chair, lowering toward the floor or standing back up has become noticeably harder, don\u2019t simply stop doing it.\n <\/p>\n \n The movements that help you navigate daily life are worth training. Safely practice these skills at levels you can control and build from there.\n <\/p>\n \n Dana Santas, known as the \u201cMobility Maker<\/a>,\u201d is a certified strength and conditioning specialist and mind-body coach in professional sports, and is the author of the book \u201cPractical Solutions for Back Pain Relief.\u201d\n<\/p>\n