If you're over 60 can you

[springintoaction321]

Stand up from sitting on the floor without using hands/arms to push on anything else?

I've done it once ( not quite sure how ) but now can't do it again 😬

I'm 61 and trying to build a bit of strength

I’m 71 and yes I can.

Hmm, the option in your picture didn't occur to me.

As for the cross-legged people, well, I am in awe. I sat down cross-legged and just couldn't figure out what to do next - your feet are on their sides for a start, in totally the wrong position for standing. I had to look on youtube to see what actually happens.

I don't think I'd trust myself to get down like the woman in the video in the first place. Having suffered from "dodgy knees" since teenagehood, I don't want to risk doing something to one of them to find out.

Surely the point of this though is that you can get yourself up if you fall. Without hands is better in case you also break your arms but being able to get up at all is what we need to practise doing.

I’m 57 & I would have struggled a while ago. But having lost 30kg & been practicing yoga daily it’s comfortably possible for me now.

62 years old. Not a hope in hell of doing that. However, I play tennis or pickleball every day for two hours (or more), and do a dancing class once a week. I won medals for pickleball in an international competition a few weeks ago. But standing up without using my hands is not possible. Would not have been able to do this at any stage of my life. I am just not built that way.

Just tested myself getting up with no hands and did it! Used the get on one knee method.

Not a hope in hell.. but I am disabled and very resourceful so if I find myself on the floor I have to bum shuffle until I can find something to pull up on

or a baby 😁

Interesting thread. Is it to do with age or just anatomy? Everyone back home can do this regardless of age as we can easily squat. But some of my (young) british friends struggle

Where is "back home" ? That expression to me suggests the Carribean but do let us know ?

People can do the asian squat anywhere in asia (east/south/north/west asia). Not sure about other continents. It would be interesting to find out

Hi - yes I'm 61 too and generally fit - ie aim for 10k steps a day and have a physically active part time job.

Sorry only just saw your reply. The question is can you get up without using your hands. The technique doesn't matter really, using knees is fine, there are various ways, just choose which works best for you.

I’m rather older than 60, and realised quite a while after I started having showers instead of baths, that regularly getting myself out of the bath - so easily then - was very good core strength exercise I hadn’t even thought about. So it came as a bit of a shock when I eventually had a bath again and found it difficult.

A recommended exercise is standing up from an ordinary chair with arms folded, I.e. not using hands. 10 times daily.

No my knee and back stop me.

I think it depends what the purpose of the exercise is. I think two purposes have got mixed in this thread. Some people are answering as if the purpose of the task is just to get up from the floor safely - so maintaining a basic level of 'fitness' to be able to do this.

But there is another purpose, where the aim of the action is as a measure of overall fitness and that's the task where you get up and down without putting additional parts of your body on the ground ( hands, arms, legs, knees or elbows).

I'm not sure what purpose OP was interested in when she wrote this post. I assumed it was the measure of fitness one, which she seemed interested in in a later post. But it might not have been.

@sharpenedroof yes you're right. I have only ever seen the question asked in sense of being able to get up safely, and even that actually still does require a level of flexibility and some fitness (and minimal knee/ankle/hip problems). As the OP added 'over 60' in her title I assumed that.

I have never been able to do it cross legged, even in my younger days when I did sport at school and then aerobics, step, fitness classes.

Now at 62 I do a ballet class, tap class and Zumba class once a week, try and eat healthily and walk a bit as well. Bad knees run in the maternal line of my family and I also get sciatica and have to be careful of my lower back. I can get down and get up and down using the knee’ method and that is good for me.

I expect a lot of the answers depend on people's build more than their age. It's very difficult to bend your legs up under you when you have chunky thighs and a large belly. Far easier to bend the right way if you're more lean.

I'm not over 60, I'm just fat and speaking from experience! 😂

Ah, I can do it if I swing my legs to the side and come up from kneeling with arms outstretched for balance. It isn't easy and I feel I could pull something. It tells me that I really must get back to Pilates because it's all about the core.

Back to work.

I can’t do it at all. Need to check out some techniques. I’m 61 and fit and slim. Not sure if it’s relevant but I have a long body and shortish legs

What is the best exercise to increase thigh muscle strength?

I already do pilates, squats and cycle.

Squats I’d suggest , or where you hold a position like you are sitting down against a wall. I also hop if I’m pinging anything in the microwave.