How Old Are You? Stand on One Leg and I'll Tell You

[erronis]

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/how-old-are-you-stand-one-leg-and-ill-tell-you-2024a1000j8j
(This is probably pay-walled so I'll excerpt a few paragraphs. Totally makes sense to me.)

So I was lying in bed the other night, trying to read my phone, and started complaining to my wife about how my vision keeps getting worse, and then how stiff I feel when I wake up in the morning, and how a recent injury is taking too long to heal, and she said, “Well, yeah. You’re 44. That’s when things start to head downhill.”

And I was like, “Forty-four? That seems very specific. I thought 50 was what people complain about.” And she said, “No, it’s a thing — 44 years old and 60 years old. There’s a drop-off there.”

And you know what? She was right.

A study, “Nonlinear Dynamics of Multi-omics Profiles During Human Aging,” published in Nature Aging in August 2024, analyzed a ton of proteins and metabolites in people of various ages and found, when you put it all together, that there are some big changes in body chemistry over time — and those changes peak at age 44 and age 60. I should know better than to doubt my brilliant spouse.

The surprising results come from “Age-Related Changes in Gait, Balance, and Strength Parameters: A Cross-sectional Study," appearing in PLOS One, which analyzed 40 individuals — half under age 65 and half over age 65 — across a variety of domains of strength, balance, and gait. The conceit of the study? We all know that things like strength and balance worsen over time, but what worsens fastest? What might be the best metric to tell us how our bodies are aging?

But the strongest correlation between any of these metrics and age was a simple one: How long can you stand on one leg?

Particularly for the nondominant leg, what you see here is a pretty dramatic drop-off in balance time around age 65, with younger people able to do 10 seconds with ease and some older people barely being able to make it to 2.

[Skittles]

1. huh?

I am way past 60 and can easily stand on one leg for minutes.

[erronis]

5. Good for you. If I raise one leg off the floor, I'm likely to collapse.

It's scary. 70+ and have always been active (tennis, handball, hiking). It's like my sense of balance has been destroyed.

[Skittles]

8. wow

I honestly did not know that

[Walleye]

26. Mine too, but I've taken a few hard blows to the head over the years

[Scrivener7]

32. My family went through some stuff that lasted up to about a year ago. For about 3

years, I was busy taking care of others and massively neglecting my own health. When I got back around to paying attention to myself, I found I had deteriorated a lot. One thing that had gone very bad was my balance.

I started working on it beginning the day after Christmas, 2023. At the start, I could just about balance 5 or 6 seconds on either foot. The skill returned slowly, but it has returned. I can do the yoga pose where you hold one leg bent and stretch the other hand over your head and balance on one foot for 1 minute now.

I just worked on it each morning while the coffee was percolating. A couple of minutes. I also do a series of stretches and some planks, just about 10 minutes in total. It's made a huge difference.

[erronis]

33. Thank you - that gives me hope. I'll work on it slowly.

[Scrivener7]

34. I should add that I also started walking, building from 1 mile a day 5x a week up to 3 miles now.

[NotASurfer]

2. I guess if I have to ask if they mean the leg with the bum knee or the one with the bad ankle

that probably answers the age question in a different way

Good news is that it's hard to tell you're gimpy when you're limping on both sides I guess

[Walleye]

28. I was just telling my brother that it's hard to limp on both legs at once

[sinkingfeeling]

3. I'm almost 77 and made it 7 seconds.

[Lonestarblue]

30. I'm 77 and can do at least a full minute, sometimes more. I usually stop at 90 seconds.

For me, the secret is yoga several times a week. When I started yoga a few years ago, I could balance on one leg only a few seconds. I’ve never tried Tai Chi but I think it focuses on balance and flexibility also.

[sinkingfeeling]

35. I have severe vertigo and can't walk a straight line. Seeing my

doctor tomorrow to determine if my inner ear is damaged.

[Lonestarblue]

36. I hope everything turns out okay. Getting older is tough!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. I'm 77 and just did 15 seconds.

On my non dominant leg. Oddly enough the dominant one wouldn't co-operate.

I'm constantly horrified at how many people a lot younger than I am have problems like this.

And honestly, I'm among the least athletic people you'd want to know.

[chia]

6. Early 60s and can do 30 secs+ on each leg for 3 different poses, no wobble, after two knee replacements

I've been practicing for a while now, and my times are getting longer.

Use it or lose it, start with 2 seconds and work your way up, if you're mobile.

Understand there are those who cannot, but for those who can, even for 2 seconds, do it, do it now, and do it every day.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. 68 Here

My dominant leg is my left. (In basketball & track I innately jumped off that leg.) I got 8 seconds.
My right leg only between 3 & 4 seconds.
I didceach leg 3 times. Got pretty much the same each time, but not with a stop watch.

[Skittles]

9. I did a workout yesterday

which included hopping on one foot for a full minute, then hopping on the other foot for a full minute

[ProfessorGAC]

14. I Could Hop Longer Than I Could Stand Still

I've noticed a change in balance in my golf swing, so I'm not surprised.
Going up & down is easier for me than just standing there.
Like of fine balance is also a symptom of MS, which I've had since '95.
I don't know if I'm in good enough shape to hop for a full minute, though.

[Skittles]

22. heh

last night I was watching antenna TV I stood and lifted a foot when commercials started and it was so easy I just stayed in that position but after 20 minutes I had to answer the phone

there is one thing I do find hard to do though - I've been watching those "Karen" DUI arrest videos on youtube, it is amazing how people can act in public.....anyways, when they do the field sobriety tests I've tried them all sober - they're easy except for the walking heel-to-toe one - for whatever reason, I wobble all over and end up putting my hands out

wow, MS - that certainly is a challenge.....sounds like you are doing well

[ProfessorGAC]

23. For Me, It's Been No Big Deal

I'm one of the most fortunate of patients of that illness.
I went blind in my left eye from it, & my feet burn almost all the time.
But, there's no real dysfunction.
I got my diagnosis the day those 2 maniacs blew up the Murrah Building in OKC.

[Skittles]

25. oh I'll never forget that day

may years later I was in OKC and stopped by the memorial to pay my respects, it was very hard to do.....to this day it's hard to think about

[Iggo]

10. I'm 63 and I wish I was 60.

That’s how recent the change was where now I’d need a really super good reason to take off my socks while I’m standing up..

I can do it. But it takes three “test bounces” (quick knee-up, thigh perpendicular to the ground…3 reps in about a second) to see which way my body’s going to try to fall…lol.

Aging is winning, right?

[AllaN01Bear]

11. i can stand on one leg and imitate a crane bird wo falling.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

12. Well that's just goofy

Any 3 points define a plane. Lift one leg and you still have the other 3 to keep you stable.

[erronis]

16. Huh? Either your math skills are better than mine,

or your definition of a leg might be different.....

[Hermit-The-Prog]

21. Oops

Sorry, I forgot that most creatures using the Internet are appendage-challenged.

No offense intended. I'll just take my bone outside now.

[True Dough]

13. I'm 52

and I've been several hours on one leg since I spotted this thread. My wife asked me why I wasn't coming to bed. I'll wait for one of you to beg me to stop, I swear!



The problem is I don't have a baseline. This is it. So I'm not sure how much worse I am compared to 5 or 10 years ago. I'm sure my stamina, speed and strength have all tapered off, just couldn't tell you by how much. Maybe 30 or 40% since my physical peak?

I can say this: I had very little in the way of aches or pains up until age 50 or thereabouts. I saw a physiotherapist earlier this year for the first time in my life for something wear-and-tear related in my right hip, not due to trauma.

Nothing but fine times ahead, no doubt!

[quaint]

15. Isn't the sample size really small (20 each group) for the conclusions?

Mid-seventies and I can stand on either foot until I get bored, but try to leap like a gazelle with three feet of air and all I get are three inches. Why? I told my body to do exactly what I always have...

[Xavier Breath]

17. I'm 57 and was able to do 10 seconds on my left leg.

I'm not going to lie though, toward the end there I was trying to keep my balance and probably resembled a drunk member of the Wallenda family

[NNadir]

18. I made 18 seconds standing on one leg, albeit with wobbling. This N1 "study" is certainly not statistically valid.

It's been some time since I saw the age of 60.

[Prairie_Seagull]

19. Had ballance issues for a while now and noticed

That using a 4x4 post laid horizontally as a balance beam has helped me. I use a 2x4 or 4x4 to raise it on the ends to make it tougher.

Works great for me and good balance will definitely help to avoid injury.

Please check with your HCP to see if this would help you.

[erronis]

20. Thank you! I need to work on some exercises to increase stability and mobility.

My ability to move efficiently seemed to occur very quickly - about 3-4 years ago. I blamed it on ankle arthritis but that seems to have gone away. I love walking in the woods and uneven paths might be good - with walking poles.

[JoseBalow]

24. Arnold Palmer cheated

[Ocelot II]

27. Almost 76 and I just did 30 seconds.

So far, so good. I do a lot of walking, though, so maybe those muscles aren't all withered to hell yet.

[keithbvadu2]

29. And then we do the Karate Kid thing?

[ShepKat]

31. 2 minutes at age 65

I have ehlers danlos CL so that may be a factor