S-R-T Test

Hi. We’re the Foolish Couple.  I am Andrew and Minna, Functional Nutrition Specialists and Success Coaches. We created Foco Academy to help people achieve whole life success by applying the Success Principles to the 3 areas of life that money can’t buy, that is, Health, Time, and Relationships.

Today, we like to talk about your health. How healthy are you today compared to a year ago?

Many of you may be working from home for more than a year now. You may have heard: ‘Sitting is the new smoking’. If you haven’t been moving much for the last 15 months, there’s a good chance that your health has probably declined and you didn’t even notice the change.

Because, after all, it’s the boiling frog analogy right. You lose your health and mobility a little bit every day and you didn’t notice until it is too late.

But today is your lucky day. The frog in the pot of boiling water can still jump out if it feels that the water is getting hot. Here’s how you can test your water.

This is a simple test that you can do in the comfort of your home to test your current state of health. You don’t need any equipment, and it will only take a minute.

The results will tell you how likely you are to die in the next 6 years because of bad health. 

But before we do that, let’s think back to the days pre-pandemic and how we used to keep our health in check.

Before the pandemic, an average person would do at least a yearly check up. Your doctor will take your height, weight, blood pressure, your heart rate, listen to your heart and your breathing and ask how you been feeling. Then they will probably run a panel of blood tests to get your A1C, cholesterol, triglycerides, creatine, GFR,TSH, CBC, ALT, potassium, sodium, and BUN. Pretty standard stuff.

Now that you have all this information about yourself, how do you figure out what state of health you are in? 

All these ABC’s sounds like Minions talk to me. I can’t tell you what BUN stands for for sure. But hey.

The test results will give you a pass or fail right? It’s like taking an exam in school. You either pass or you fail.

Or if you are borderline then your doctor would give you some simple recommendations like eat better and exercise more.

That is so true. Medical doctors are reactive not preventative. They’ll tell you when you fail your test, and since you only get tested once a year.

Sometimes you won’t catch your health problems until a year later.

But today, we’re going to show you a much simpler way to determine your current state of health.

I bet your doctor has never asked you to do this before. Heck. I bet your doctor don’t even know what it means.

By doing this one simple test, you can assess your functional movement. To see why this is important, we have to talk about our ancestors, the hunter gatherers.

Back in the day if you wanted to eat you had to hunt or  forage for it. You chase, dig and eventually carry your food home.

The hunting and foraging movements develop strong hips, back and limbs to be able to squat, run, climb, swim, throw, and lift heavy objects. This helped sculpt their bodies for strong muscles, joints and tendons.

This is all functional movement, it used to be part of our normal life.

Now? We drive, we eat out of cans and boxes. And since the pandemic we got everything delivered to our home, meaning even less walking and exercise.

Research has shown that everyday activity or functional movement stimulates our bodies, our organs and how our genes expresses themselves.

This of course will determine how long you will live.

Without functional movement, our bodies break down from lack of use which can lead to joint problems, hip and knee replacements, and degenerative diseases like diabetes, mental decline and even cancer.

Now let’s move on with the test. Science has proven that this test can predict your risk of dying in the next six years!

It is called the Sitting Rising Test, or S-R-T.

You give a score of 0-5 for sitting and 0-5 for rising, for a maximum score of 10. To get the perfect score of 10, you will be sitting down and then rising back up without any assistance from your hands or knees.

This test sounds extremely simple but it measures your muscle strength, core stability, flexibility, balance and motor coordination which is all important for optimal health.

To do this test, clear the space around you. Start in a standing position. Now sit down onto the floor cross legged. Now stand back up.

The challenge is to sit down and stand up without any assistance from your hands, knees or other parts of your body. For each body part you use to sit down or stand up, you lose 1 point. If you lose your balance, you deduct 1/2 a point.

Let me demonstrate, if you use your hand to sit down and then use your knee and hand to help you stand up, you will lose 3 points. That means your score is 7. 

Research shows your SRT score can predict your risk of death within the next six years.

If you score 0-3, you are more 6.5 times more likely  to die within 6 years than those score 8-10.

If you score 3.5-5.5, you are 3.8 times more likely to die within 6 years and

If you score 6-7.5, you are 1.8 times more likely to die within the six years.

This test take just a few minutes to do. Some of you may find that this is easy, and that is awesome.

If you have been glued to your desk and your couch for the last year, this test may be harder than you thought and you may have a disappointing number.

The good news is that no matter what you score, there is always room for improvement. For each 1 point increase in your SRT score, you gain a 21% improvement in survival!

So how can you improve your score? Start getting active again. Walk your dog. Park further away in the parking lot so that you have to walk more. Go out for a run or hike and join some recreational sports like tennis, badminton or baseball.

If you routinely run on a treadmill or elliptical trainer , you are doing repetitive movement that doesn’t give your body the variety of movement it needs to develop a healthy body.

Think about ways to increase the range of movement. You can also consult with a functional trainer like me to help you develop a full range of movement.

Until Next time Love What you Live and Live what you love

Make sure that you follow us on our Facebook page because as we work together, next year is going to be the best year of your life.

We believe that whole life success means a balance of work, health, relationship, finances and contributions. We help you achieve total success through nutrition, exercise, mindset and lifestyle. If you know someone who can benefit from this blog, share with them. Let them know that you care about them. And of course, leave us any comments below. We love to hear from you.

We are not medical doctors. This blog is not intended to diagnose medical condition, or replace your health care provider. The contents of this blog are for informational purposes only. Statements on this website have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration, and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Always consult your personal physician before starting any fitness or exercise program or changing dietary habits. The content of this site is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. It is not a substitute for a medical exam, nor does it replace the need for services or counsel provided by medical professionals. However, we do hope to inspire you to become healthier, more self sufficient, and more aware of options.