Do you know how to stand up from sitting without using your hands?
If you don’t, this is an important skill that is worth learning and way easier than you think.
Numerous studies have been done indicating that the ability to stand up from sitting without using your hands is an indicator for longevity.
If you can stand up and sit back down on the floor without using your hands, odds are you will live longer.
In this quick yoga video, I’ll show you simple steps for standing up and sitting back down without using your hands to help you.
Doing this will increase your hip mobility and leg strength.
You’ll also create more resilience in your body as you age.
Once you get a little bit more comfortable with this action, you can practice it anytime. Use this on your yoga mat or off to improve your health, wellness, and body awareness.
Thank You!
You are one of the best demonstrators on the web. The positive points: showing a maneuver from the side as well as face-on, demonstrating SLOWLY several times from more than one angle, and explaining why something should work.
My pleasure, Wendy! I am so thrilled this video helped you. And thank you for your feedback! I’m glad all of the different angles were useful and instructive!
Thank you Naomi. Well done.
This is my first instruction related to getting up. I am a 69 year old man with moderate fitness but little flexibility. I do not do yoga. Only stretches at the gym.
My question: what is it about getting up from a sit position that is so correlated with longevity? What is going on with that actual skill vs. what assumptions are being made about deeper health markers? What is the getting-up-ability actually measuring that is associated with living longer. It is such a powerful “trope(?)” that I want to be ability to do this so I won’t die too soon 🙂
Great question, Steven. The short answer is that this is an indicator or hip and core strength, both of which can help keep you more stable as you age and less likely to fall and break something. It’s certainly not the only indicator for longevity. Just one of them. There’s a great article in the Washington Post about this from earlier this year: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/this-anxiety-inducing-fitness-test-purports-to-tell-you-how-long-youll-live-we-investigated/2019/03/18/0a1d06fe-4035-11e9-9361-301ffb5bd5e6_story.html
I couldn’t really do any of these not using my hands. Do you have any suggestions for how I can strenghten my hips so I can eventually do it. I am 65.
Hey Amy, thanks for reaching out and asking. I have a few suggestions. First, you can use your hands! Get more familiar with the actions of getting up off the floor with the support you need. Then try doing it with one hand. Then try putting your hand (or hands) higher up, on a chair or couch.
This will help build strength simply by doing the actions.
I also have some other videos that focus on building hip strength and squatting, which will help.
Squatting is here: https://youtu.be/13gouG8RN3U
Hip Strength is here: https://youtu.be/HdcaB1gJN8U
Let me know if this helps!