I recently took a three-hour physical assessment at one of those longevity clinics. It was hard — the programming included a number of “max effort” fitness tests.
I had to push my thighs against a hip abduction machine with all my might, crank out pull-ups as trainers shouted in my ears and sprint up a treadmill while wearing a Bane-worthy oxygen mask. There were bone scans and blood pricks, plus lots of little gizmos I’d never seen before, all of which instantly uploaded my stats to the cloud.
And amidst all this tech, go figure, my handlers set aside time to watch me balance on either leg, for 30 seconds at a time. Why? Because the simple test is one of most underrated indicators of aging, and according to a Mayo Clinic study from October 2024, even more telling than changes in strength or gait.
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Out of context, good balance feels a bit like a party trick — like a flexible person putting their foot behind their head, or a strong one going undefeated in arm wrestling. But you can’t actually take balance out of context, because it’s at the core of our most important movement pattern.
If you were to videotape yourself walking, and pause at any point, there’s a good chance you’ll be in the exact one-leg stance I had to perform at my physical assessment. We spend an estimated 40% of our time walking with one foot in the air.
It’s usually later in life that we start associating walking with balance — as the risk of falls increasingly dictates one’s autonomy — but walk off the beaten path today, and certain features will sharpen the correlation, from stairs to uneven terrain.
Your capacity to walk strong and steady across various surfaces reflects a delicate orchestra: your joints, muscles, eyes and even ears work together to keep you on your feet and moving. Of course, each one of those systems has a nasty habit of devolving after your 40th birthday. Which is why it’s so crucial to monitor your sense of balance.
Take the Test
The easiest way to do so is to regularly line up the one-leg stand test. If it’s important enough to a longevity lab that’s receiving blank checks from a VC fund, it should be worth your time, too.
That lab, I should mention, had dedicated force plates (plus strategically-placed cameras), in order to assess my wobbly ankles from every angle. But you don’t need any expensive tech to get a decent read of your own balance. All you have to do is stand on one leg for 30 seconds at a time. Here are some ground rules:
- You can’t hold on to anything
- Make sure you’re standing up straight
- It’s okay to put your hands on your waist
- The lifted leg should be out in front of you, like this
How to Level Up
Hopefully you’re able to reach 30 seconds on each side. Don’t be surprised if one leg was more difficult than the other — people have preference legs and non-dominant legs. One thing I really like about this test is it can be deployed casually, and all the time. While cooking, brushing your teeth, working at a standing desk, whatever.
Looking for more of a challenge? Perhaps we all should be, because better balance doesn’t just prepare you for aging; it’s closely related to core strength and can make you a more explosive athlete right now. Try these additional tests and exercises:
- Perform the one-legged test with your eyes closed — starting with a modest goal of 10 seconds and aiming for 30 seconds with practice
- Balancing on one leg, lean forward to pick up (and return) a cone, three times per side
- With a resistance band around your ankles, sink into a quarter squat and push one leg out in three different directions: forward, to the side and back — repeating five times, before switching sides
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