Balancing on One Leg Can Reveal Important Insights About Your Health

Healthy aging is about balance. If you’re over 50 and can stand on one leg for 30 seconds, scientists say you’re aging well, even with a bit of swaying.

A recent study reveals that balance declines faster with age than muscle strength or walking speed. “To our knowledge, this is the first comparison of its kind in the elderly,” the research team, led by Mayo Clinic’s biomedical engineer Asghar Rezaei, notes. They believe this unipedal balance test could help track neuromuscular aging in older adults, regardless of sex, and aid in designing better training programs to support independence.

Balancing on one leg is often used to assess physical frailty and neurological health in seniors. A 1997 study even linked poor balance to twice the risk of injurious falls. This new study examined balance time in 40 healthy individuals over 50, finding a 2.2-second decrease in balance time per decade on the non-dominant leg, and a 1.7-second decrease on the dominant leg, with swaying unrelated to age.

Balance Test Reveals Age-Related Declines More Clearly Than Strength or Gait

Though based on a small group, this balance test revealed notable age-related declines, more so than muscle strength measures like grip or knee extension. Interestingly, gait speed showed no major changes with age.

Participants lifted their dominant leg and held the position as long as possible, first with eyes open and then closed. The non-dominant leg was also tested. A plate tracked their center of pressure to capture and analyze even minor sways.

“While all participants could easily balance in two-legged stance tests, sway movements increased significantly with age,” the team reported.

However, in one-legged standing, swaying didn’t indicate age decline. This suggests that sway during single-leg stance is normal, but in two-legged standing, it could signal an issue.

“Balance is crucial,” explains Mayo Clinic’s biomedical engineer Kenton Kaufman, “because it involves muscle strength as well as input from vision, the vestibular system, and sensory feedback. Poor balance raises fall risk, posing a serious health hazard.”

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