Key numbers
eight
Tests in the Systematic Healthspan Assessment
What you will find here
Each of the eight tests has its own page explaining what it measures. Each test also has a standards page showing the applicable red, yellow and green bands and how age and sex are used where relevant. Red, yellow and green are Systematic standards, not published clinical cut-offs. Around those sit pages on the capacities the tests touch, such as balance and muscle loss with age, explainers for the key studies, and quick answers to the questions people actually ask.
How to read the evidence
Every cited source is labeled according to its role in supporting the claim on that page. Direct evidence means the study used the same or a substantially equivalent test or outcome. Much of the research here is different: it shows that a physical capacity, such as grip or leg strength, matters for health, without testing the exact Systematic protocol.
So a study linking a capacity to health outcomes does not, on its own, validate a Systematic test as a predictor of mortality. Each label says how that source supports the claim beside it.
Why measure what your body can do
Clinical risk assessment in older adults often emphasizes health conditions and can overlook what a person can physically do. Studies that measure capacity directly are part of the case for looking at it: a 1995 study in Japan used five strength tests, including grip strength and a vertical jump, and a 2026 study assessed fitness with seven tests across four areas.
What the assessment is, and is not
Systematic translates research into repeatable field standards. Your result is a physical baseline you can measure again. The Systematic Healthspan Assessment is not a medical diagnosis.
The eight tests
- What does the dead hang test measure?
- What does the farmer's carry test measure?
- What does the single-leg balance test measure?
- What does the sitting-rising test measure?
- What does the standing broad jump measure?
- What do tempo push-ups measure?
- What does the toe touch test measure?
- What does the wall sit test measure?
The standards for each test
- What is a good dead hang result for your age and sex?
- What is a good farmer's carry result for your age and sex?
- What is a good single-leg balance result for your age?
- What is a good sitting-rising test result for your age and sex?
- What is a good standing broad jump result for your age and sex?
- What is a good tempo push-up result for your age and sex?
- What is a good toe touch result?
- What is a good wall sit result for your age and sex?
Capacities
- Balance and falls: how does balance change with age?
- Physical fitness and longevity: which measures track with a longer life?
- Flexibility and mobility: what does reaching your toes tell you?
- Getting up off the floor: why does it matter for physical function?
- Grip and carrying: what does holding and carrying weight show?
- Isometric exercise and blood pressure: what does the evidence show?
- Muscle and aging: what changes, and what training research shows
- Muscular endurance: how long can your muscles keep working?
- Muscle power: what it is, and how it changes with age
- Strength and longevity: why does strength matter as you age?
- Walking and gait: what does walking speed say about health?
How this library works
The evidence
Each cited source is labeled according to how it supports the particular claim on this page. Direct test evidence, underlying-capacity findings and population reference values are distinguished from Systematic-defined protocols and standards. Historical development notes are retained internally rather than presented as public evidence. A study of an underlying capacity is never presented as validation of the Systematic test itself.
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Underlying-capacity evidence New source
Wu et al. (2026). Physical Fitness and All-Cause Mortality in Older Adults. JAMA network open.
What it found. Clinical risk stratification in older adults often overlooks functional capacity and the study assessed fitness across four domains using seven tests covering heart and lung fitness, strength, flexibility, and balance and agility.
What it does not show. An association between a capacity and outcomes in this study does not automatically validate the exact Systematic test as a mortality predictor.
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Underlying-capacity evidence New source
Fujita et al. (1995). Physical-strength tests and mortality among visitors to health-promotion centers in Japan. Journal of clinical epidemiology.
What it found. This was a follow-up study designed to clarify the relationship between physical-strength level and risk of death from all causes and from cancer and cardiovascular disease, using five tests at baseline including grip strength, side step, vertical jump, standing trunk flexion, and sit-ups.
What it does not show. The link it explored does not by itself validate the exact Systematic test as a mortality predictor.
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Underlying-capacity evidence New source
Guralnik et al. (1994). A short physical performance battery assessing lower extremity function: association with self-reported disability and prediction of mortality and nursing home admission. Journal of gerontology.
What it found. Performance and self-report measures may complement each other in providing useful information about functional status in adults age 71 years and older.
What it does not show. This complementarity does not mean one measure alone validates the exact Systematic test as a mortality predictor.
The Systematic Healthspan Assessment is a physical baseline. It is not a diagnosis, and it does not estimate a biological age, a disease risk or a lifespan.