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Have you noticed feeling slightly less stable on your feet than before? Perhaps you find yourself holding onto the handrail more frequently while descending stairs or reaching for support when putting on shoes. You’re not mistaken: balance tends to decline naturally with age, but it doesn’t have to dictate your future.
With years of experience working with clients over 50, I’ve learned that balance is a crucial indicator of one’s true biological age. Tests such as the Fukuda step test, the Romberg test, and the timed get up and go test serve as key benchmarks for those in their 50s to evaluate their balance concerning their chronological age. By mastering these three straightforward assessments, you’ll gain insight into your body’s current status—and discover ways to turn back the clock.
Why Your Balance Tells the Truth About Your Real Age
Why does balance deteriorate so significantly after age 50, and what does having good balance indicate about one’s overall health? By the time we’ve reached our 50s without engaging in preventative training, we typically lose a considerable amount of muscle mass, joint mobility, and sensory awareness. Each of these losses can have a substantial impact on our balance.
With the loss of muscle mass, we no longer have the strength to support our skeletal system to prevent falls or to catch ourselves if we do fall. A loss of function in our vestibular system (this is our inner ear system) leads to dizziness and an inability to correct ourselves when we fall out of balance, which again can lead to devastating falls. Losses in our visual acuity obviously make it harder to see where we’re going, increasing our likelihood of tripping and falling.
Another major contributor to the reduction in balance is our posture. An example would be someone with forward head posture tends to carry their head forward of their gravity line, which in turn causes a rounding of the shoulders and upper back again, making us much more likely to fall forward. Good balance is a whole-body performance indicator. Good balance means that your muscles, joints, nervous syste,m and brain are all communicating efficiently. Mounting research shows that good balance is linked to better mobility, independence, cognitive function, and even longevity. For all these above reasons, your balance can be a snapshot of your biological age.
What Makes These 3 Tests So Powerful
What makes these three balance tests such powerful indicators that someone’s body is younger than their age? I chose these three tests because they each represent a different component of balance skills.
The Fukuda step test reveals our vestibular function. Remember, the vestibular system is the inner ear system and a vital component in the tilting reflexes. A tilting reflex is when you’re on an unsteady surface, say riding on a bus or walking on an icy sidewalk. It’s the responsibility of the inner ear to maintain balance when the surface you’re walking on is unstable or in motion.
The Romberg test evaluates proprioception and sensory input for balance. Proprioception is all the information you get from the joints and ligaments as to where your body is in space and time. Proprioception is what allows us to feel the ground as opposed to having to look at the ground when we walk. And remember where the eyes go, the body follows. Simply meaning, if you’re looking down at the ground, you’re much more likely to be headed toward the ground.
The timed get-up-and-go test, also known as the tug test, measures functional mobility, fall risk, and dynamic balance. This test carries over to most daily day-to-day tasks, including getting up and out of a seated position.
The Fukuda Step Test: How Your Inner Ear Reveals Your Age
How to perform the Fukuda step test:
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, arms extended straight ahead.
- Close your eyes.
- March in place for 50 steps at a comfortable pace. A recommended pace is roughly two steps per second.
- Keep your arms extended in front of you at shoulder height and avoid turning intentionally, as the goal is to stay in the same place the entire 50 steps.
- This test is best done with someone supervising to avoid walking into any obstacles.
- To make it even more challenging, you can put on some noise-canceling headphones to eliminate another sensory perception.
Your results: For the Fukuda test, normal or even younger results would be a minimal rotation of 20° to the left or right and a minimal forward movement of less than 2 feet. Results for individuals older than 50 years would be rotation greater than 30° or forward movement of more than 3 feet. This would suggest a possible vestibular imbalance.
The Romberg Test: What Your Proprioception Says About You
How to perform the Romberg test:
- Stand with your feet together, arms at your sides.
- First, simply hold the position for 30 seconds with your eyes open.
- Then, in the same position, with your eyes closed for 30 seconds.
Again, not a bad idea to have a supervisor with you during this test, just in case you happen to lose your balance when you close your eyes.
Your results: Results for those younger than 50 would be minimal sway with your eyes closed, and absolutely no movement of the feet. Results for older than 50 would be significant sway or a general loss of balance when the eyes are closed. This indicates that you were relying on visual cues and have compromised proprioception input for balance.
The Timed Get Up and Go Test: Your Daily Function Scorecard
The timed get-up-and-go test, a.k.a. the tug test, measures functional mobility, fall risk, as well as dynamic balance.
How to perform the timed get-up-and-go test:
- Sit in a standard height chair with your back against the backrest.
- When you’re ready, start your stopwatch as you stand up, walk 10 feet, turn around, walk back, and sit back down.
- Check your time for the entire sequence.
Your results: A benchmark time for those younger than 50 would be eight seconds or less, typical for 50-year-olds is 9 to 12 seconds, anything over 12 seconds would be considered increased fall risk.
How Quickly You Can Turn Back Time
If someone can’t pass these tests now, how quickly can they improve? Generally speaking, any one of these components can be improved in 3 to 4 weeks by performing corrective exercises appropriate to the test 2 to 3 times per week.
To improve the Fukuda test: An exercise for improving the Fukuda test would be to hold onto something sturdy with your arms out in front of you and march in place. As you gain confidence, slowly take one hand off the supporting object and continue to march. When that step becomes easy, you can finally remove both hands, and now you’re practicing the actual Fukuda test. As always with any eyes-closed exercise, it’s a good idea to have someone there to spot you to avoid falls.
To improve the Romberg test: To improve the Romberg test, you simply practice the test. That means simply standing with your feet together, arms at your side, again holding onto a stable object if you need to, then close your eyes, continue to hold the object as needed. Generally, practice for about 30 seconds per set.
To improve the tug test: To improve performance in the tug test, simply break it down into its steps. First, just practice getting up and down out of a chair again, holding onto a sturdy object if you need to at first. Then you just quickly walk 10 feet forward, turn around, and walk 10 feet back before returning to the chair. Again, feel free to use supportive objects to help you get up and down out of the chair, and even consider some walking or trekking poles for the walking phase if your balance is that far diminished. Remember, the goal is always safety first as we improve these balance skills.
The Life-Changing Benefits You’ll Notice
What other benefits do people notice when their balance improves to better levels? A quick list of other things that can improve once balance is improved includes:
Fewer joint aches because the body is moving more efficiently. Better posture, therefore, results in less fatigue during daily activities. Faster reflexes help us avoid falling when we trip or slip. An increase in confidence, allowing us to go on more adventures in our lives, and of course, a boost in sports performance across the board.
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