No, not cheating. But mobility is important and unless we work at it, we lose it as we age. So you should keep working at it, yo keep what you have. |
I was shocked that my DH had to use a knee. He runs 3-5 miles a day and is athletic. I think part of it is retraining your mind on which muscles to use. |
I am also athletic and active. I can do it one way, but not the other because my knees are shot from a lifetime of sports. I do think I should take up yoga but that won’t cure osteoarthritis. |
Agree, and I think it's about momentum, too. My DH is in great shape and works out more than I do, but he had to use a knee the first time because of balance. But then I showed him how far I leaned forward to start, in order to get my weight in front of me as I lifted my butt off the ground, and he tried it that way and had no problem the second time. So there is some strategy involved. But if you don't have the baseline strength and mobility, that strategy won't necessarily help. |
Yes it is cheating. You cannot use any part of your knee or thighs. Still even if you can’t get a perfect 10 (I saw a score based system), it’s still important to pass the test even if you use a hand/knee/thigh. An 8 or 9 is still passing. |
The test I was told was that you start from standing with one leg crossed in front of the other and go down (no knees, no hands), and then come back up the same way. So you legs are actually crossed the entire time. You definitely need to reach your arms out in front of you, especially when coming back up. Or at least I did, in order to maintain balance. |
I would argue that if you can get all the way down and all the way up, you "passed" in the sense that you have enough mobility to get down to the ground and back up, which is a functional skill that you really don't want to lose if you can help it. The less assistance you need in either direction, the better your core strength and flexibility, which are major markers of functional fitness. But especially if you are over the age of 55 or so, I'd give yourself props for being able to get down on the ground and get back up. I think a lot of people decide at some point that they *shouldn't* get down on the ground because it feels uncomfortable or they feel embarrassed about how slow they move, so they stop. And then it gets worse and before you know it, you can't do it at all. So I think the point is to just DO IT, however you need to, and then keep doing it with the intention of retaining mobility and maybe even regaining some. Shaming people for putting down a hand or a knee is counterproductive, IMO. The point is that we should be encouraging people to do stuff like this more, not making fun of them for failing to do it perfectly. |
And regain what you lost. This trick made the social media circle a few months ago. And I could barely get down and definitely couldn’t get up. I stretched and did mobility exercises literally everyday and now I can smoothly do both. |
| Easily. 52. Very overwight female. |
I’m you but have now aged another 20 years chronologically and everyone else catches up by this point 😜. |