Key numbers
410
Adults in the standing long jump validation study (Marin-Jimenez 2024)
What Systematic recommends
Where to start
- Bare feet on a firm surface, such as a wood floor or thin carpet
- Stand with your feet about hip-width apart. Stand tall. Keep the knees soft and active throughout the movement. Place your hands on your hips and keep them there throughout the exercise.
- Rise onto the balls of your feet with your heels elevated. Hop in place with both feet leaving the ground at the same time. Land softly on the balls of both feet. Keep the hops quick and continuous. Hop continuously for 10 seconds. Rest for 10 seconds. Repeat for 3 total rounds. Stop and reassess if you feel pain, discomfort, or instability, or if you are no longer able to land softly and maintain control of the hopping pattern.
Condensed from the published Development Pathway (Standing Broad Jump: Elastic Pogo-Prep). This is a starting point, not a training program or medical advice.
What it measures
Systematic calls this capacity rapid force production and landing control. The jump uses a standard dip and arm swing, so it tests how much force your legs can build quickly. The two-second stable landing then tests how well you slow down and control your body.
To jump forward at all, your nervous system and leg muscles have to build force fast enough to push your body horizontally. The broad jump is a practical field measure of that, not a laboratory measurement of how individual muscle fibers or nerves are working.
What the research shows, and what it does not
In a study of 410 adults, the standing long jump proved a practical measure of explosive leg strength. Jump distance tracked maximal horizontal power and force, sex, lean mass and body-fat percentage. Height did not add anything once those were taken into account.
Other studies look at the capacity rather than this test. In a Japanese study, men with lower vertical jump, side-step and grip results had a higher risk of death from any cause after adjustment for other health measures, and the same was not found in women. A vertical jump is not a broad jump, and that study did not test the Systematic protocol.
A single jump result does not diagnose anything, including a fall risk or a nerve or muscle disease.
How Systematic scores it
The jump is scored for age and sex. Height is recorded but does not decide the score, and Systematic will only add it to a future version if it clearly improves the fit. The standards for people over 60 are a Systematic extension of the reference data.
The current score is a provisional Systematic standard, versioned so it can be recalibrated once enough professionally observed jumps under the exact protocol have been collected.
See the standards for your age and sex
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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Direct test evidence
Marin‐Jimenez et al. (2024). Criterion‐related validity and reliability of the standing long jump test in adults: The Adult‐Fit project. European Journal of Sport Science.
What it found. Standing long jump was a practical adult measure of lower-body explosive muscular strength and distance was associated with maximal horizontal power, sex, body-fat percentage, maximal horizontal force, and lean mass, while height did not remain an independent predictor in the final model.
What it does not show. Does not show that height never matters, does not validate Systematic scoring, and does not predict individual disease risk or lifespan.
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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. After adjustment for skinfold thickness, blood sugar, total serum cholesterol, blood pressure, percent vital lung capacity and smoking status, men with a lower level of side step, vertical jump and grip had an excess risk of death from all causes, while the comparable association was not found in women.
What it does not show. Does not show that vertical jump causes mortality, does not show that every measured task was associated, and vertical jump is not standing broad jump.
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.