Why A 10-Second Balance Test Helps Predict Longevity

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Today’s Health Upgrade

Fitness
Number You Won’t Forget: 10 Seconds

Many tests — from strength to VO2 max — are designed to assess longevity. But one test in particular requires no equipment whatsoever, and could highlight areas needed for improvement. 

Researchers found that a simple 10-second balance test could be one signal of your long-term health and is linked to a higher risk of early death

Scientists studied more than 1,700 adults and found that poor balance was strongly associated with all-cause mortality over the next 7 years. The test was pass/fail: you either held it for the full 10 seconds or you didn't. 

To do it, fold your arms across your chest. Lift one leg until your thigh is parallel to the floor. Then hold the position. If you lose balance, sway, or step down, that’s when the test ends.

Even after adjusting for age, sex, weight, and health conditions, those who couldn't balance on one leg had about an 84% higher risk of dying. 

If you can’t stand on one leg for at least 10 seconds, that doesn't mean you should prepare for the end. Instead, balance reflects many of the attributes that truly matter for longevity.

Researchers believe a one-leg balance test is an effective test because it reflects a mix of strength, coordination, and nervous-system function that tend to decline together as we age, making it a useful snapshot of overall physical resilience.

Together With Babbel
What You Gain From a Language (That AI Can’t Offer)

Your phone can translate a menu, write an email in French, and turn a conversation into live subtitles. Earbuds can now interpret speech as someone talks. When technology handles so much of the work, spending months learning another language can feel like training for a job your phone already does better.

However, a research review suggests that translation was never the biggest payoff. 

Science has found that learning a language might change how you view yourself and strengthen relationships.

Researchers examined 105 studies published over five years and grouped the reported benefits of language learning into six areas. Some were expected: people improved their language skills, and students often performed better academically. Others reached beyond vocabulary and grammar. 

Learners reported changes in how they understood themselves, stronger relationships with people they otherwise struggled to communicate with, and new professional opportunities.

Language learning led to these positive results because it’s what scientists call a desirable difficulty: effortful, spread over time, and heavy on recall. The struggle isn't a bug. It's the part that leads to the rewards. 

And because you can feel the gap close as you learn and become more proficient, that steady proof you're improving does a lot for confidence. 

Language learning is also inherently social. A crossword keeps you in your own head. A language pushes you toward people, and toward seeing the efforts of your learning come to life. 

And you don’t need fluency to feel better. 

Choose a language connected to someone, or someplace you're interested in, and give it enough time to learn.

The trick is spending them somewhere that pushes you toward seeing real progress. 

A member of the village recommended Babbel to us, and we’ve been recommending it to Arnold’s Pump Club readers for three years. And for good reason: the feedback we’ve received is overwhelmingly positive.

Babbel helps you learn, even when you have only a little time. It's built to get you talking, starting with the first lesson. 

Short daily lessons made by actual linguists, podcasts voiced by native speakers, and speaking practice that has you saying real phrases out loud instead of just recognizing them on a screen.

Babbel won't do the reps for you. But it makes learning worth showing up for, and it gets you to a real conversation faster than you'd guess.

Everything you need to learn a language, at your fingertips, for less than the cost of your pumpkin-spiced latte habit. 

Start Babbel now and see the difference just 5 minutes a day makes. As a Pump Club reader, save 20% on a lifetime subscription.

Mindset
Weekly Wisdom

We all have setbacks. It could be a physical injury or a mental one. Or maybe you put your heart into something and the end result wasn’t what you wanted. 

Part of life is the hurt. But how you interpret that pain determines far more than the injury itself. 

Somewhere in your mind, when things don’t go your way, a thought enters your mind that you're damaged now and less than you were.

Look closer, and the story you started telling yourself does more damage than anything else.

Hemingway wasn't offering a pep talk. He was explaining a reality of resiliency: The break is where the new strength gets created.

Turn Wisdom Into Action

It’s easy to think that the goal after a setback is to get back to where you were before. You treat recovery like a round trip. And everything you do gets graded against that ghost.

But what if your goal after the break is a fresh start, built around a new reality and new version of yourself? Not better or worse, but different and evolved. 

Sport psychologists have a name for what Hemingway noticed. They call it sport injury-related growth. Scientists were able to identify and predict what changes in those who thrive after hardship. 

Some of it was temperament, like natural optimism. But two of the strongest predictors were things anyone can practice. 

One was positive reframing, treating the setback as information about how to train smarter. The other was leaning on knowledgeable people for guidance instead of white-knuckling the comeback alone.

The next time you face hardship, failure, or injury, recognize that while it's unfortunate, it’s also an opportunity to learn something new about yourself and grow. 

You can’t control when things go your way and when things will break.

But you can control how you think and react, and that’s often the difference between a low point becoming a new floor, or it becoming a trigger that raises the ceiling. 

And that’s it for this week. Thanks for being a part of the positive corner of the internet. And remember: don’t wait to make a change. Take action on any goal, don’t quit in the hard moments, and the results will come. Have a fantastic weekend!

-Arnold, Adam, and Daniel

The Positive Corner of The Internet
About Arnold’s Pump Club Editorial Standards

We do things a bit differently here, starting with transparency.

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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger​

Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell