GETTING OFF FLOOR WITH NO HANDS.

It’s easy for me to get up from 90 90 if using a kneeling position is permitted. You just lift up and push forward through your pelvis onto the front shin and onward from there. If the test is do it without using an interim kneeling position, you internally lift and rotate the front leg so the foot is flat, straightening and rotating the back leg so the toes now touch the floor. You’ll be in a low lunge and you can push to standing, using the front foot to lift and the back to balance. It takes some mobility in hip /femoral sockets and the capacity to fire up different muscles simultaneously. That’s how I do it anyway- I can do it at 60, couldn’t at 40 because I hadn’t practiced.

I am 76 and can still do this because of years of ballet training.

I think it's increasingly common that people don't retain anything like the range of mobility they should have as they age. It's use it or lose it, so in midlife people can normally still do activities that are part of their daily life, so I accept it doesn't really count as a disability then - but it is a sign of unnecessary disability ahead.

If you can't get up off the floor at 40 because it's not something you ever need to do, that may not seem a problem. But add another 20-30 years of not challenging your physical limits and you end up finding it difficult to do essential things like get up from the chair or toilet, and your life becomes genuinely and unnecessarily restricted. Loss of mobility is of course ultimately inevitable but its pace is drastically affected by how active you are - an active 90 year old can do things a sedentary 60 year old may struggle with.

(For context I'm nearly 50 and after a recent frozen shoulder very well aware of how much more challenging it becomes to stay active in mid life but am determined to keep my mobility as long as possible - and yes I can easily get up off the floor from crossed legs without using hands or knees.)

Having 'health problems' is not the same as being disabled. That is the point.

Your age was of interest to me as you sound like a young person with no understanding of how a body ages. It's very common for middle aged people to have knee/hip pain. Not all of course, but a huge percentage of over 45's have some degree of hip/knee pain.

it is not a disability.

flexibility, balance & mobility all decline at around 45 unless you take steps to maintain them. Most people over 45 would struggle to sit on the floor/stand up without using their hands unless they do a relevant form of exercise.

People live their lives, busy with daily life & unless it's brought to their attention just think they'll always be able to do xyz, why not?!?, without realising the body ages quietly & we unknowingly adapt as we go, only to be shocked when they realise that actually no they can't easily do xyz 'suddenly'. Except it's not suddenly. Just that they've had no cause to do xyz for a longtime & the ability to do it has quietly been lost.

You don't say how old you are or how flexible/active you are. Crucial points. Also your skeletal structure may not allow you to do this. Eg I have a bone spur on hip and cannot sit fully crossed leg.

I'm 56, but I'm not sure how thats relevant.

I still maintain if you have knee/hip pain so bad you can get up of the floor without using your hands and you're not really elderly then you are not very healthy/have health problems.

yeah, that's the point of the graphic, it shows the things a person can do that makes them "lose points" from the maximum possible. Anyone able to read this thread can google to try to find examples of doing it "correctly." I was trying to find a video myself from a most authoritative source and... struck out. I can find lots of examples but I don't know if any of them are truly definitive as being the same as the scientific test. Does seem like it's always the cross legged method, both down and up, in the most watched videos anyway.

I find cross-legged easy enough, down and up, but I can feel it's hard on my ankles as I get up and am worried I've ruined the cartilege in them so would prefer not to do that. I think the key thing is that you must do the getting down not just getting up parts without hands; you have to do it both ways to get full marks. Not just about getting up.

Words have meanings, you can't just alter them to fit what you want them to mean.

a bit of knee or hip pain, even extreme pain does not make you disabled.

I'd be curious to know how old you are.

I can't get into 90/90 because of a knee injury but I can get into kneeling on one knee/other foot flat on the floor, from sitting, and up from that, without hands. Only recently since the injury, and only after a lot of Pilates, but I'm pleased I can.

Back to the main point of the thread.

Agree that sit to stands and squats would help. And strengthening core exercises.

I’ve seen something else from physios about back chaining to be able to get up off the floor if fallen.

Disagree.

I have arthritis in my knee and as I said up thread v poor core strength. Yes due to an illness but not a disability.

Otherwise you could argue that being below par with flu is not able.

I disagree.

I didn't mean disabled in the full, usual sense of the word, rather I meant not 100% able bodied. If you've got chronic hip or knee pain there is something clearly wrong with you.

Warm up?

Nope. A bit of knee or hip pain that means you can't get up off the floor without using your hands does not make you disabled.

Tried this and I can Def get up by going from my knees then straight up but I have dodgy knees and hip and the cross legged way is a total fail.
I couldn't work out the 90/90 way from the picture so I had to Google a better one......at which point I realised I do this as part of my stretches after weight training, I've just never tried to stand up from that position!😆

I think squats and lunges would soon build the strength to get up from most positions.

Unfortunately I've known children that have struggled because their strength and fitness is so poor (especially after the prolonged Covid lockdowns and restrictions denied them regular access to PE, playgrounds, sports activities and playing with other children for over a year)

A lot of adults don't spend much time getting down to floor level or do much activity to preserve their strength and often struggle with this range of movement and strength by mid-life.

A benefit of working with children is that I often sit on the floor with them which keeps it as a regular functional movement for me.

My knees would dislocate doing that. They’re now screwed together! (Not to each other though at least!)

we are going off on a lot of tangents here

So just to clarify, the OP was originally asking about a movement from 90/90 - can you do that?

Also, are you saying you got up from the floor without using your hands but using your knees? Because a lot of of us are discussing the springing up without using your knees at all. So coming up using only core and leg strength. What are you described with your husband is I would say pretty normal? The challenge is not to put your knees down like that. (though I have slightly lost the plot what we're all discussing)

i'm not trying to catch anyone out. I'm just curious to know what we can do.

I did want to add Pilates into my exercise, but the issue is time - you'd been working out all day to achieve some of the things you want to achieve!

@HiZev , you’re right the important thing is that people can get themselves up somehow if they have fallen by whichever way needed but the technique linked to longevity is cross legged sitting to standing. I’ve only been able to do this since a lot of Pilates and funnily it’s much easier when my left leg is crossed in front of right. Last summer I had to come to the rescue of a man who had fallen and was stuck on his back and couldn’t get himself into a seated position he wasn’t old

I'm neither old nor infirm and cant seem to do it. I go to the gym and I'm a runner.

I can very easily get up without using my hands at all but I do need a knee or the side of my leg I can't do the proper raise up from cross legged.

Edited to add - just seen the quote history, the way you're doing it is not what people are taking about when they link it to longevity. You have to do also without putting your knee down.

As said above it is related to core strength and flexibility , people who are able bodied but do very little exercise may also struggle , I am much fitter now retired and can do things including this that I couldn’t have done 20 years ago

@lljkk I can't access your links, but that graphic on your post, to me, clearly has her using her hands!

Which was really my question, is the suggestion that many “well” people without a disability struggle with this or is it more designed as ladybug an appraisal for being disabled?

My husband’s in his fifties and I just asked him to try. Like I did, he sat up, tipped his knees to one side, swing around to kneeling and then put one foot forward and stood.

What have these to do with my question?

I’m asking it’s a test that only the old or infirm are expected to struggle with or whether it can be a problem even for people who are neither old nor infirm.