If You Can Complete This 5-Minute Chair Test at 55, You’re in Peak Shape

After 55, you don’t need a treadmill stress test or a max bench press to know if you’re in peak shape. Sometimes, one of the most revealing fitness tests is also one of the simplest: standing up and sitting down from a chair.

The five-minute chair test, which involves repeated “sit-to-stands” performed continuously without using your hands, offers a surprisingly comprehensive snapshot of your functional fitness level. It challenges muscular endurance in your quads and glutes, requires core stability to maintain posture, and elevates your heart rate. Essentially, this test looks at your strength, coordination, and aerobic capacity simultaneously.

Research supports the crucial importance of being able to stand from a sitting position unassisted. Variations of the sit-to-stand test are widely used in clinical and research settings to assess lower-body streng...