GETTING UP AND DOWN FROM THE GROUND

The first movement process undertaken by most human beings is the journey of transitioning from lying to standing. On average, this process takes developing children between 9 to 12 months to master. In this process, many movement milestones need to be accomplished before the end game of standing is attained. This undertaking is often referred to as the developmental sequence and is invaluable in the assessment and treatment of physical and cognitive development in children. As we age, this sequence continues to be useful as it assesses the movement skills we have lost.

GETTING UP AND DOWN FROM THE GROUND AND LONGEVITY

SITTING-TO-RISING FROM THE FLOOR AND LONGEVITY

  • A landmark study out of Brazil, published in the European Journal of Medicine, studied the association between participants’ ability to sit and rise from the floor and all-cause mortality.

  • The authors looked at a sitting-to-rising test, both to and from the floor, that involved attempting to sit cross-legged on the ground and then stand up using as few pillars of support as possible.

  • A 0-5 point scale was utilized for both rising and lowering to grade the amount of support each participant needed. A score of 5 was given to participants that needed no additional support, and one point was subtracted for each contact point (hand or knee) needed.

  • The results of this study concluded that in the over two thousand 51-80 years olds studied, the ability to rise from the ground with fewer points of contact was a significant predictor of longer life.

SITTING-TO-RISING FROM A LOW POSITION AND LONGEVITY

  • A 2014 study by Hawker et al., found that participants with hip and knee osteoarthritis had greater all-cause mortality when disability scores were higher.

  • These scores were calculated through the use of the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index, or the WOMAC. This questionnaire assesses the participants’ subjective physical function through the use of 17 factors, several of which include activities that involve lowering and rising to and from a low position. Specifically, these activities are getting in and out of a bathtub, getting in and out of a car, rising from sitting, and getting on and off the toilet.

FALLING AND LONGEVITY

  • The World Health Organization lists falls as the second leading cause of accidental injury deaths worldwide, with an estimated 646,000 deaths occurring from falls each year.

  • The nature of harmful falling is an uncontrolled version of transitioning to the ground.

  • Training and maintaining the ability to rise and lower skillfully will clearly reduce the risk of catastrophic falls

  • Multiple studies have concluded that falling using sideways martial arts techniques has significantly smaller hip impact forces and velocities compared to untrained falling strategies. Therefore, training individuals on how to fall can reduce the risk of catastrophic falling that may lead to accidental death.

    REFERENCES:

    • Weerdesteyn, V., Groen, B. E., van Lankveld, W., & Duysens, J. (2007). Martial arts fall techniques reduce hip impact forces in naive subjects after a brief period of training. Journal of Biomechanics, 39. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0021-9290(06)83249-5

    • Groen, B. E., Weerdesteyn, V., & Duysens, J. (2007). The relation between hip impact velocity and hip impact force differs between sideways fall techniques. Journal of Biomechanics, 39. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0021-9290(06)83247-1

    • Van der Zijden, A. M., Groen, B. E., Tanck, E., Nienhuis, B., Verdonschot, N., & Weerdesteyn, V. (2012). Can martial arts techniques reduce fall severity? an in vivo study of femoral loading configurations in sideways falls. Journal of Biomechanics, 45(9), 1650–1655. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2012.03.024