Back in day, you probably spent hours sitting cross-legged on the floor. Unless you’re a regular yogi, however, you probably don’t anymore – and even if you do, the chances are that you’ve got to spend a few minutes scrambling around to get back up again.

But being able to get up – hands free – from sitting down is more than just a party trick. In fact, it’s a test used by medical professionals as a quick way of evaluating overall health and fitness.

Commonly known as the ’sit-to-stand test’, it became popular with doctors during the pandemic as an easy way to measure exercise capacity, either at home or in small spaces. In fact, studies show that the sit-to-stand test could even predict how long you’ll live (although this has only been tested on older adults so far).

The 30-second sit-to-stand test is the easiest way to test just how fit you really are