You have probably lifted a foot to slip on a sock or step over a puddle. Most of the time you barely notice.
But how long you can hold that position, unaided, turns out to be more revealing than it sounds.
A study of 1,702 middle-aged and older adults in the British Journal of Sports Medicine tracked participants for a median of seven years.
Those who could not balance on one leg for 10 seconds were 84 percent more likely to die from any cause during that window.
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The higher risk held after the researchers adjusted for age, sex, body weight and existing illnesses.
Balance was picking up something the usual checks miss.
Why a 10-second test can carry that much weight
Balance is not just about the feet. Staying upright on one leg pulls together muscle strength, joint health, vision, inner-ear function and the nervous system's split-second corrections.
When that system starts to slip, a person is more likely to fall.
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Falls are one of the leading causes of injury and death in older adults.
Anne Vanderbilt, a geriatric medicine clinical nurse specialist at Cleveland Clinic, puts it plainly.
"It sounds easy, but many people are surprised at how challenging it can be," she said.
She adds that balance is not something you master once and is worth working on at any age.
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The test itself is simple. Stand on a firm floor, without shoes, arms hanging at your sides, and rest one foot against the calf of the standing leg. Do not hold on to anything. If you can stay there for 10 seconds, you passed.
Failure rises steeply from the early 50s to the mid 70s
Failure was rare among adults in their early 50s and common by the mid 70s.
Around 1 in 5 participants across the whole age range could not complete the test.
Age Also read: Type 2 diabetes may soon be detectable from just 20 seconds of your voice | Unable to hold the pose for 10 seconds |
|---|---|
51-55 | About 5% |
56-60 Also read: A new weight-loss drug could cut your body weight by a quarter | About 8% |
61-65 | About 18% |
66-70 | About 37% |
71-75 | About 54% |
Among the adults who failed the test, 17.5 percent died during the follow-up.
Among those who passed, that figure was 4.6 percent.
The gap held after adjusting for other risk factors, which is what makes the test more than a proxy for age.
What to do if you cannot hold 10 seconds
Balance is trainable at any age. A meta-analysis of 21 randomized trials with 2,408 healthy older adults, published in Frontiers in Public Health, found that Tai Chi meaningfully improved balance and cut the fear of falling.
Participants who practiced Tai Chi could stand on one leg for roughly six seconds longer than those who did not.
Sessions of under an hour, five to seven times a week, over 10 to 26 weeks, gave the biggest gains.
Simple daily practice also helps. Standing on one leg while brushing your teeth is a common starting point clinicians suggest.
Water-based classes offer a safer setting for people who feel wobbly on land.
A physical therapist can tailor a program for anyone whose balance already feels shaky.
A failed 10-second test does not mean anything is imminent.
It is a signal that the systems keeping you upright are weakening, and those systems respond to training.
A few seconds of single-leg practice at the bathroom sink each morning, held a little longer each week, is enough to begin building the pose back up.
This article is made and published by Ida-Marie Palm Varbæk, who may have used AI in the preparation.