Stand on one foot, eyes open and hands free, for at least 10 seconds, then switch sides. In adults aged 51 to 75, being unable to hold a 10-second one-leg stand was associated with about an 84 percent higher rate of death from any cause over roughly seven years. Leg strength helps, but balance is trained by practicing it.
You were halfway up the stairs with your hands full, and your toe clipped the edge of the next step. You caught yourself. Nothing happened. Your heart kept going for a minute afterward anyway, and you thought about it again that night.
Your legs were strong enough for that stair. What mattered was how fast your body worked out where your foot actually was, and how steady you stayed on the other leg while it sorted that out.
Single-leg balance is one of eight signals I track in people over 40: a weekly number you either hit or miss. Every step up a staircase puts all of you on one foot for a moment, and that moment is what this signal measures.
Why This Matters After 40
Standing on one leg asks three things of you at once. Your feet and ankles have to report where you are. Your inner ear has to report which way is up. The small muscles around your ankle, knee and hip have to correct faster than you could decide to correct.
Your strength work feeds that third piece. The first two get trained by standing on one leg, which rarely makes it into a program.
Balance also tends to fade quietly. There is usually no pain and no bad day to point to, so nothing prompts a check.
The first test most people get is a stair.
What Has To Happen Each Week
Once a week, stand on one foot for at least ten seconds. Then the other foot. Eyes open, hands free, phone timer running.
Both sides have to clear ten for the signal to fire. One good side does not cover a weak one.
Ten is the floor. Twenty is where I want you to get to, and the gap between those two numbers gets its own section below.
If you already do mobility work, keep it. It covers a different part of the assessment, and this adds under a minute to the same session.
You know it fired when both sides held ten seconds this week, eyes open, hands free, and you wrote both numbers down.
What the Research Shows
Researchers asked adults between 51 and 75 to stand on one leg for ten seconds, then followed them for roughly seven years. The people who could not do it died from any cause at a rate about 84 percent higher. That held after accounting for age, sex, body mass index and the health conditions people already had (Araujo et al., 2022).
The study measured and watched. It did not test whether practicing balance changes what the test predicts. So the ten-second test flags risk. Nobody has shown that improving your time changes that risk.
An older study followed people over 60, with an average age of 73, using a five-second version of the test. One-leg balance was the only factor in that study that independently predicted a fall serious enough to cause injury (Vellas et al., 1997). That group is older than most readers here, and the study does not support the ten-second number or the twenty-second target. It is part of why this test is used at all.
Ten Seconds Versus Twenty
Ten seconds is the tested number, and a screening number is set low on purpose. Its job is to catch people in real trouble. Clearing it tells you that you are out of that group. It does not tell you that you have any room to spare.
No study uses twenty seconds as a cutoff. I went looking for one and came up empty. Twenty is the target I build toward because ten leaves nothing to lose, and in my experience balance gets harder to hold with each decade. That number comes from 25 years of testing people over 40 and watching who keeps it.
Checking both sides every week is how I apply the test, because a missed stair does not let you pick your better leg.
If you hold fourteen seconds, you are well clear of the tested line and short of the target. That is a good place to work from, and no reason for alarm.
Where Balance Sits in FACE
FACE is how I assess someone at the start: Flexibility, Aerobic capacity, Carry a Load, Equilibrium. This signal is the E.
Flexibility and Equilibrium sit next to each other in the assessment and get mistaken for each other constantly. Flexibility is how far you can move. Equilibrium is how well you control where you are. Plenty of people touch their toes with ease and still wobble on one foot.
The loaded carry trains the hips and trunk that hold you on one leg. It never asks you to stay there. This signal does.
How It Gets Missed
Three ways.
It never gets tested. Nothing hurts, so nothing prompts a check, and the first test arrives on a staircase.
Only the good side gets tested. People stand on the leg that feels solid, get a respectable number, and stop. An old ankle sprain, or a knee that has been quietly favored for years, shows up on the other side. A clear gap between sides is worth knowing about on its own.
It gets tested once. You check, you pass, and you do not check again for three years. A single pass tells you about the day you took it.
How to Practice
Stand next to a kitchen counter. Lift one foot, let your hands hang, and start the timer. Stop when the foot touches down or a hand goes to the counter. Switch sides. Write down both numbers.
If either side is under ten, the counter becomes your practice partner. Rest your fingertips on the edge and stand on the short side for as long as it stays steady, a few times a day. Lighten the touch as it gets easier. The test only counts with your hands free, so once a week, let go and time it.
If both sides clear ten, build toward twenty. Practice anywhere you already stand still, like brushing your teeth or waiting on the coffee, with the counter in reach and your hands off it. Balance is one of the faster-moving things I program.
If standing on one foot does not feel safe yet, or a recent surgery, dizziness or a joint problem makes it a bad idea, keep a hand resting on the counter for the test too, and talk to your physician or whoever looks after that problem. Your number starts there.
Log both sides every week. The side that lags is the side you practice first.
Strong Legs, One Weak Ankle
A man came to me at 58, still lifting four days a week and proud of his deadlift, with good reason. His first assessment included the one-leg test. Right side, well past twenty. Left side, six seconds. He laughed, tried again, and got seven.
He had rolled that left ankle playing basketball in his thirties and had not thought about it since. His legs were strong. The left ankle had never been retrained after it healed, and nothing in his lifting asked it to hold him on its own.
He practiced at the bathroom sink every morning. After some time, the left side cleared twenty. The change he noticed first was stepping off a curb in the dark without thinking about it.
What to Do This Week
- Stand beside a kitchen counter, lift one foot with your hands hanging free, and time how long you hold. Switch sides and write down both numbers.
- If either side is under 10 seconds, practice on that side with fingertips resting on the counter a few times a day, lightening the touch as it gets easier. Once a week, let go and retest hands-free.
- If both sides clear 10, build toward 20: practice while you already stand still (brushing teeth, waiting on coffee) with the counter in reach, weaker side first.
Sources
- Araujo CG, de Souza E Silva CG, Laukkanen JA, Fiatarone Singh M, Kunutsor SK, Myers J, Franca JF, Castro CL. (2022). Successful 10-second one-legged stance performance predicts survival in middle-aged and older individuals. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 56(17), 975-980. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2021-105360 PMID 35728834.
- Vellas BJ, Wayne SJ, Romero L, Baumgartner RN, Rubenstein LZ, Garry PJ. (1997). One-leg balance is an important predictor of injurious falls in older persons. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 45(6), 735-738. doi:10.1111/j.1532-5415.1997.tb01479.x PMID 9180669.
Client stories may combine details from more than one person, with identifying details changed for privacy. This article is educational and is not medical advice.
Also published in Built to Endure, our free weekly publication.