Mobility
Mobile lion
The definition of mobility according to the Oxford Dictionary is “The ability to move or be moved freely and easily.” If you follow health and fitness trends, you’ve no doubt heard this word get tossed around a lot more these days. And that’s because scientists now recognize that without mobility, a person’s life expectancy drops dramatically.
I mean, think about it, we’ve all heard about the importance of eating healthy and exercising for years now. And yes, that’s extremely important, but what if we boil it all down to the SINGLE most important nugget that makes all the difference? I’m talking about what affects a person’s quality of life, longevity, and personal freedom the most? I believe it’s mobility.
Humans were meant to be Mobile
The reason is that once a person stops moving freely and easily, everything else begins to deteriorate. When we can no longer move without discomfort, we start moving less. Once we start moving less, our movement diminishes every year until eventually we aren’t moving at all. We’ve all seen the person with joint problems, whether that be from sports, an accident or medical issue, that marks the beginning of a slow decline if they don’t take steps to stop it. It usually starts as a limp, then they move to a cane, and finally a motorized vehicle. And they may or may not have a joint replacement somewhere within that progression.
Self-Test to Measure Mobility
A simple self-test to measure mobility is the Sitting-Rising Test (SRT) developed by Brazilian physician Claudio Gil Araujo. This tests your ability to sit down cross-legged onto the floor from a standing position. This may sound simple, but the key is NOT to touch the floor with your hands, knees, forearms, side of leg, or placing your hand on your knee or thigh. 5 points is given for sitting perfectly and another 5 for standing, with one point deducted for each compensation:
1. Start from a standing position. You should take off your shoes and wear clothes that don’t restrict movement.
2. Without touching anything around you, lower yourself to a sitting position on the floor.
3. Now stand back up without using your hands, knees, forearms or sides of your legs.
The original study was published in the European Journal of Cardiology. People who scored fewer than 8 points on the test, Araujo found, were twice as likely to die within the next 6 years compared with those who scored higher. People that scored 3 or fewer points were more than 5 times as likely to die within the same period.
Melissa Allen, BS, CPT, CES
Interested in learning more about mobility? I recently started a new video series about it that you can find on You Tube. Give the test above a try, let me know how you do, and if you like my mobility videos please subscribe to my channel. Live life to the optimum!
Melissa
OptimumCondition.com
(619) 252-4993
Empowering people through fitness, education, and coaching
