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Original poster

How many of you can get off the floor...

146 replies

BillieEilish · 08/10/2019 12:13

without using your hands/a hand?

Because I can't. You're supposed to be able to.

Ideally I'd like answers not from the super fit gym goers/marathon runners but ordinarily fairly active late 40's? Grin

What exercises would help does anyone know? (I'm not overweight), was very ill in bed for 5 months 4 years ago and just haven't been the same since and it's really depressing me.

OP posts:
Trooperslaneagain · 08/10/2019 14:06

Hypermobile.

Cannot do cross legged - have to push myself up with straightened legs. Absolutely zero leg strength - I am like a baby giraffe.

Lyingonthesofainthedark · 08/10/2019 14:07

People get muscles wastage as we age. It's common over 50. The only way to maintain even the muscle we have, and to slow age -related deterioration, is to exercise it and keep it in shape.

I wish it wasn't true as I'm not great fan of the gym, but it is.

bbciiu · 08/10/2019 14:08

Crossed legs to standing quite easily. I'm early 30s though.

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FurryDogMother · 08/10/2019 14:11

I'm 60, overweight and not at all fit - and yet, this is one thing I can do :) My favourite sitting position is cross-legged, even on chairs, so I wonder if that has anything to do with it? I'm lucky enough to have got to this age without having to groan before getting out of bed, or sigh before getting out of a chair - no aches or pains (yet!). It has to be genetic, because I really have never done anything to deserve this - have been a smoker (lapsed) and an over enthusiastic drinker since my teens, eat all the wrong things - althougn not a lot of sugar nor fast foods - and here I find myself more flexible than many of my contemporaries who've led much more sensible lives than I have. Luck of the draw!

InsertFunnyUsername · 08/10/2019 14:15

Ok so I'm not 40s. But I dislike sweating and am allergic to excercise. But yes i can, doesn't look great and not in a swift, elegant movement. Think more chucking myself around and sticking my arse out.

CallarMorvern · 08/10/2019 14:17

Yes, I can get off my bum without using my hands or resting on my knees. I can also do the cross legged thing, though I give a little hop backwards as I stand. I'm 50 and a bit unfit at the moment, but not overweight.
I frequently sit on the floor though, I'm sat on the kitchen floor now surfing on my phone, so I think it is just what you are used to doing (or not).

Fadedbeauty · 08/10/2019 14:19

Yes, easily from all positions - apart from cross-legged. That's impossible at the moment (I want to master that, because it upset me when I tried it and found out that I couldn't do it). I'm 57.

I saw Angela Rippon on TV, doing the cross-legged one really easily. I was dead impressed - she's 74.

RiftGibbon · 08/10/2019 14:20

I can get up from sitting without using my arms/hands, but I can't do it with my legs crossed because I've got some problems with my hips that I'm having physio for (the hip sockets are not rotating terribly well at the moment).
I'm not terribly active, but I do go to yoga, and I'm just over 50.

SwedishEdith · 08/10/2019 14:21

No way - my crunchy knees are crying looking at those squats.

They often link these things to longevity but they're not just simple markers of fitness. You can still be fit I'm not but have dodgy joints.

RainOrSun · 08/10/2019 14:22

No hands? I can do.
But I cant do it without rolling onto my knees. I can get down to crossed legs without hands or knees, but not back up again.
I can run 5km, and swim a mile, so not a complete excerise avoider.

BirthdayCakes · 08/10/2019 14:26

Are you allowed to go onto your knees?! I can do that fairly elegantly and I'm pretty fat, although I'm strong..

MustardScreams · 08/10/2019 14:26

I doubt it. I kneeled down in the shower to wash dd’s hair the other day and nearly ripped the shower unit off the wall trying to haul myself back up Confused

Early 30s and walk 3/4 miles a day, so reasonably fit. Need to do some strength training I think.

soulrunner · 08/10/2019 14:32

I can do it by getting onto a knee. No chance on the cross legged method- my hips and ankles are simply not mobile enough ( I need a heel support to squat to parallel.) I couldn’t even do it as a kid. Here’s the good news- I’m much fitter than an average mid40s woman ( Resting HR: 39, marathon time 3:45, can easily do 50 burpees without stopping) so it’s a correlation, not a definitive death sentence 😂

MrsPear · 08/10/2019 14:34

Since surgery nope I can’t unless I go forward onto my knees and even that really hurts.

shearwater · 08/10/2019 14:49

I tried and I can't do it without using one hand. I don't think it matters though - I don't have poor mobility or movement, I can get up and down very easily. I wouldn't have got up without using a hand even as a kid - why would you?

Sounds like a daft thing to obsess about, like whether you have a thigh gap.

soulrunner · 08/10/2019 14:54

Sounds like a daft thing to obsess about, like whether you have a thigh gap.

It was a big thing a few years ago as inability to do the cross legged stand correlated with early death and it’s s reasonably strong correlation.

YesQueen · 08/10/2019 15:01

I can get down crossed legged but could only get up using a hand to balance. Disclaimer that my carpets are incredibly slippery for some reason Grin

OmniversalsTapdancingTadpole · 08/10/2019 15:08

46 year old, can flip from lying/sitting down to standing, but am a martial arts bod.

steppemum · 08/10/2019 15:08

they had this on a thing about how old is your body a while ago, and theoretically the best indicator of something - I think it was health and long life, was this stand up from cross legged without using your hands.

I can't honestly say I have ever been able to! I frequently sit cross legged on the floor and always tip on to one knee (you lose points for every hand/knee/leg etc you have to use to help you)

By this measure, I would have been classed as dead by the time I was 20.

BarbedBloom · 08/10/2019 15:15

No. I am hyper mobile and have RA. I can bend and put my palms flat on the floor, but no chance standing up. I couldn't do it as a kid either though.

Northernsoullover · 08/10/2019 15:19

Yes I can. I have to launch myself forwards slightly for a bit of momentum though. I don't have to go onto my knees. I'm 47.

Spudlet · 08/10/2019 15:21

I can. Been practicing yoga daily all year (at least until about 6 weeks ago, I’ve been a bit unwell and struggling) and have just started running again. It isn’t graceful or elegant and I did lurch a bit when I got up, but no hands!

AdultFishcakes · 08/10/2019 15:22

I can but I need to watch it. If I’m lugging the baby in the front carrier and get up too many times it sets off my PGP

HepzibahGreen · 08/10/2019 15:25

inability to do the cross legged stand correlated with early death and it’s s reasonably strong correlation.

Oh FFS. I'll just say my goodbyes now then

KUGA · 08/10/2019 15:27

I can without hands and I am 59.
Never been to a gym,far too lazy for that but my job was cleaning since the age of 19.
Sadly had to stop work but I don`t sit on my bum all day either.