What Is the Sitting-Rising Test, and How Do You Score It?

The sitting-rising test asks you to sit down on the floor and stand up again using as little support as you can. It takes a minute, needs no equipment, and scores strength, flexibility, balance, and coordination together on a scale from 0 to 10. In middle-aged and older adults, low scores have been linked to a higher risk of dying in the following years.

This article is general information, not medical advice. Don’t take the test if you have trouble with balance, joint replacements, or pain that makes getting to the floor unsafe.

How to Do It

1. Stand barefoot in comfortable clothes, with clear floor space and something sturdy nearby in case you need it.
2. Without leaning on anything, lower yourself to sit cross-legged on the floor.
3. Then stand up again, without support if you can.
4. Ask someone to watch and count the supports you use.

How It’s Scored

You start with 5 points for sitting and 5 for rising, and lose points for help:

• −1 for each support used: a hand, a forearm, a knee, or the side of a leg on the floor, or a hand on your own knee or thigh.
• −0.5 for a noticeable loss of balance or an unsteady, clumsy movement.

The sitting and rising scores add up to a total from 0 to 10. A perfect 10 means down and up with no hands, knees, or wobbles.

What the Scores Predict

• The first study. Araújo’s group in Rio de Janeiro tested 2,002 adults aged 51 to 80 and followed them for a median of 6.3 years (Brito and colleagues, published online in 2012). Compared with those scoring 8 to 10, people scoring 0 to 3 had about 5 times the risk of death, after accounting for age, sex, and body mass index.
• A longer follow-up. In 2025, the same group reported on 4,282 adults aged 46 to 75, followed for a median of 12.3 years. The lowest scorers had about 4 times the risk of natural death and 6 times the risk of cardiovascular death of the highest scorers, after accounting for clinical factors.

Both studies come from one clinic’s patients, and people with low scores were more likely to have heart disease and diabetes already, so the test may partly reflect existing illness. What it shows is association; it isn’t proof that improving your score extends life.

How to Improve It

Since the test draws on several abilities, so does training for it: leg strength (squats and lunges), hip and ankle flexibility, and balance. Practise getting down to the floor and up again, with support at first. The World Health Organization’s guidelines recommend muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week, and balance training for older adults.

Following It in Kaizora

Sitting-Rising Test Score is on the Fitness page. Log each test with Log, and its page shows your personal best. A habit such as “at least once in 90 days” keeps you testing regularly; see Habits. Put it beside your grip strength to follow strength and mobility together.

The Short Version

• Sit down on the floor and stand up again; start at 10 and lose a point for each support.
• In studies of adults over about 50, scores of 0 to 3 went with 4 to 6 times the risk of death.
• The link is observational; leg strength, flexibility, and balance training improve the score.

Sources

• Brito LBB et al., “Ability to sit and rise from the floor as a predictor of all-cause mortality,” European Journal of Preventive Cardiology 21, no. 7 (2014): 892–898. doi:10.1177/2047487312471759
• Araújo CGS et al., “Sitting–rising test scores predict natural and cardiovascular causes of deaths in middle-aged and older men and women,” European Journal of Preventive Cardiology 33, no. 12 (2025): 2170–2178. doi:10.1093/eurjpc/zwaf325
• World Health Organization, WHO guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour (2020).