“Just One Thing” - Any evidence for benefits of balancing on one leg?

[BonifaceBonanza]

I wondered about this for a while.
The ability to balance on one leg for a certain period is the clearest predictor there is for all cause future mortality (I think this is a fact).

Sure, I can see that the ability to stay balanced on one leg (requiring unconscious neurological and muscular control) could be a proxy for general physical health ie a correlation.

I’m not convinced (I wish I was!) that training ourselves to have better balance can actually cause an improvement in all cause mortality.
But this is how it’s usually reported, that training in the one leads to benefits in the other.

Anyone got any thought on this? Or been able to dig out some useful scientific studies?

I can do it (in my 60's) for about 25 seconds on both legs but I can't last 2 seconds with my eyes closed

Doing it whilst you clean your teeth is one of the Just One Things

I thought the rationale was motivational. If you are keeping an eye on how well you can balance, you're more likely to take action if you find it's beginning to get harder

Grip strength is another one that will be important in our later years.

“Doing it whilst you clean your teeth is one of the Just One Things”

Yes, this is what’s prompted my question, as well as me being unable to do other normal types of exercise.

Why is it harder with your eyes closed!!!
I was being all smug with my ability to stand on one leg for ages. Closed my eyes and went mega wobbly!

This is very interesting. But, the Guardian article says it may be a useful indicator, not that it's the single-biggest factor. The BMJ says it is 'linked' with doubled mortality. Both say it could be a useful health test for older adults.

Sorry I assumed one of those would be “the” article. There’s certainly evidence from a larger scale study that the best indicator of all cause mortality of many tests done was the one leg thing.
If anyone finds it please do post

I do exercises every morning for strength and balance. As you age it is more likely that you’ll get osteoporosis and so falling is something to actively avoid.

One exercise I find a bit difficult is walking one foot in front of the other with the heel of leading foot to toe of the other. Take 8 steps, heel to toe, forward and stop in that position then rotate your head 8 times each way. Return backwards to the start and walk again so that the other leg is the standing one. I find is bit of a bit of a challenge but I’m getting better at it.

broken bones when you age isn’t fun… trust me. 😔

I used to go out with a fitness freak marine and he was all about the standing on one leg. I was interested in fitness so he suggested I try standing on each leg for a minute a few times a day. Even harder than that is standing on one leg with your eyes closed, which he recommended I try. It's almost bloody impossible, and I think once mastered is the sign of a true ninja (I still can't do it)! 😂

Eek- I was feeling quite good about my ability to do this as I’ve been doing a lot of yoga lately and can now stand on one leg for a long time while shifting between yoga poses. But I’ve just tried with my eyes shut and nearly fell over within seconds!
I assume for me it’s an inner ear thing- basically for balance you need proprioception (knowledge of where your body is), vision and vestibular system (in the ear). You should be ok if you take out 1 of those things but not 2. Time for more practice!

This is apparently “normal” durations. With eyes closed I’m quite far off mine.

I have a connective tissue disorder so I tear my ankle tendons a lot and have needed surgery many times. But not since doing this. I appreciate the benefits won’t be as extreme for everyone but for me such a simple thing has been genuinely life changing. If I miss a few days I notice the difference.

I can stand on one leg pretty much indefinitely with my eyes open - just tried with my eyes shut and I barely made it to 3 seconds!!

Well, I'm very overweight and can stand on one leg with eyes open for ages. Eyes closed, I'm still above average for that list, so I'm confident I'll live forever.

I think the "whilst cleaning your teeth" bit is important.

Because unless you've already allocated the time to pelvic floor exercises, then it's a frequent, regular time when you can do something that certainly isn't going to harm you. And may indeed help you if it motivates you to look at improvements to strength/co-ordination if it ever becomes harder.

Yes, it is a thing. Improving your balance helps with your health in later years. There are a number of benefits including that you are less likely to suffer from falls.

As PP have said the stand on one leg test will exclude people with obesity

I have a BMI of 50 and can stand on one leg. With my eyes shut

It's very satisfying to see those "normal" durations. I don't practice the standing on one leg very often, but do it now and then while brushing my teeth (which reminds me to give it a go) to time myself and compare how I'm going. What I do dp are foot and ankle strengthening and flexibility exercises and other balancing on one leg poses, so I guess it all adds up. It is much nicer to be able to catch yourself as you trip and start to fall than to fall flat on your face.

I’ve been doing it while I clean my teeth since the first time it was on the radio. The toothbrush buzzes after every 30 secs, so I do 30 secs on one leg, then swap, then swap back again, then again. When I started, I couldn’t do more than 10 secs. Now, I could easily do a minute or more on each leg.

It's harder with your eyes closed because you have nothing to focus your gaze on.

It's much easier when you focus on an unmoving object (or just a particular spot on the wall or something) because then your brain sorts of syncs up to the stillness of what you're looking at. You can only do that when your eyes are open.

It's hard to stay still when you're looking at something that's moving, because our eyes and therefore our heads naturally and subconsciously follow moving objects. (If you've ever played any kind of computer or arcade game that involves driving, you'll probably have found yourself leaning as you turn a corner on screen, for example, even though it's just a screen and you're not actually in a moving vehicle). And it's also hard to stay still when you're looking at nothing at all, because your line of vision doesn't have something to 'anchor' your gaze on and keep your head still. Keeping your head still is quite an important part of balancing for a long time.

I think the 'stand on one leg while you brush your teeth' thing is effectively partly because it's a good amount of time to practise balancing for, and partly because you're generally standing in front of mirror and you can focus your gaze on your reflection.

Maybe us tubby types are actually better at the one leg balancing because our legs are so strong from heaving us about.

I'm in my early 60s, am obese (but not morbidly) and have arthritis in one hip and both knees.

I've just checked and I can stand on either leg for over a minute with my eyes open. I can stand on my good leg for 8 seconds with my eyes closed but I've had 3 attempts on my bad leg and can't do more than 3!

It looks like the yoga and Pilates that I have been doing since I retired are paying off.

I

Early 60s, and managed 124 seconds until I felt a bit of cramp and stopped. Am I going to live forever

With eyes closed I managed 1 min 47 on the leg with an achilles weakness. I got a bit bored when the song ended on the radio so stopped.
My other leg managed 2 min 42 before a critical wobble.

I've already run 5mi today so my legs are already tired and it was interesting to feel how much it was using those tired muscles. More so on the weaker leg whose calf felt quite crampy as the muscles activated. There was also a lot of work going on in the supporting foot.

Despite regularly running including trail, I rarely fall over. If I catch my foot, I'm pretty good at doing a wonky arabesque and correcting without going down. The two heavy tumbles I've had were when doing C25k while recovering from the achilles injury after a couple of months of rest (rest including swimming, weights, cycling and walking so not sedentary, just low-impact). Both times I caught a root and slammed down on my side and wondered what the sky was doing over there. Once I got back up to 5k, I've had no issues since.

I'm pretty sure that it was not co-incidental that I tumbled when my ankle was weak and I was in a recovery phase.

Walking/ running on uneven ground is good for ankle strength/ stability as it activates the full structure of the foot and ankle.

It makes sense that balancing on one foot is a measure of functional health and strength. Similar patterns of mortality are found with grip strength. Getting up off the floor is another important basic functional fitness skill/ measure.

Aye, I'm nearly 39 weeks pregnant (and wasn't exactly a waif before) and managed 19 seconds with my eyes closed and got bored after 90 seconds with my eyes open. Must be my excellent chunky calves 😁