The simple 3-minute test that could help predict how long you’re going to live

EXERCISE is key to living longer, with aerobic fitness, strength and good balance previously shown to lower mortality. 

But a new study has suggested even the simplest of movements could add years to your life expectancy. 

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Being more flexible was shown to increase life expectancy in men and women[/caption]

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The Flexindex involves 20 movements, one of which is flexing your wrist[/caption]

The importance of flexibility exercises was demonstrated by Brazilian researchers. 

Their study on 3,100 healthy middle-aged adults used something known as a ‘Flexindex’. 

It’s a tool used to evaluate body flexibility using a series of 20 movements. 

In the study, men and women with low scores on the test had a higher risk of dying, five times more in some cases than those who were more flexible. 

Corresponding study author Dr Caludio Gil D. Araújo, a sports medicine physician, said: “Being aerobically fit and strong and having good balance have been previously associated with low mortality. 

“We were able to show that reduced body flexibility is also related to poor survival in middle-aged men and women.”

Dr Araújo was the one who developed the test more than 40 years ago. The test measures the range of motion in seven sets of joints – the ankle, knee, hip, torso, wrist, elbow and shoulder. 

Women were found to be 35 percent more flexible than men. 

Female participants aged 61 to 65 years old were found to be, on average, 10 percent more flexible than men aged 46 to 50. 

The study’s researchers followed the participants, who were 46 to 65 years old, for around 13 years. 

During that time, nearly 10 percent of the study population (around 300 people) died. 

Flexibility scores were nearly 10 percent higher for the participants who survived compared to those who died. 

The study was published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports.

The researchers wrote in their findings: “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first cohort study to show that a reduced level of body flexibility…is related to higher mortality in a large middle-aged cohort of men and women.”

The 20 movements included in the Flexitest… 

1. Ankle dorsiflexion – moving your foot so your toes get closer to your knee. 

2. Ankle plantar flexion – moving the foot in a downward motion away from the body. 

3. Knee flexion – bending the knee.

4. Knee extension – straightening the knee joint by lowering the leg from a flexed position. 

5. Hip flexion – bending the hip or bringing the knee closer to the chest. 

6. Hip extension – opening your hip joint so the angle between your pelvis and thigh increases. 

7. Hip adduction – moving the legs towards the body’s midline.

8. Hip abduction – the movement of the leg away from the midline of the body. 

9. Torso flexion – bringing your torso towards your thigh. 

10. Torso extension – opposite of torso flexion, leaning the torso backwards. 

11. Torso lateral flexion – also known as sidebending, moving the torso and neck to the left or right.

12. Wrist flexion – bending your hand down at the wrist, so your palm faces in toward your arm. 

13. Wrist extension – raising the back of the hand towards the back of the forearm. 

14. Elbow flexion – moving the forearm towards the body by bending at the elbow joint. 

15. Elbow extension – the opposite movement to elbow flexion. 

16. Shoulder posterior adduction at 180 degrees of abduction – the movement of the upper limb towards the body’s midline. 

17. Shoulder extension and posterior adduction – movement of the upper limb toward the midline of the body.

18. Shoulder posterior extension – movement of the upper limb backwards. 

19. Shoulder lateral rotation at 90 degrees of abduction – shoulder movement that involves rotating the forearm and hand away from the body while the arm is abducted to 90 degrees and the elbow is bent to 90 degrees. 

20. Shoulder medial rotation at 90 degrees of abduction – movement that involves rotating the shoulder while the arm is abducted to the side of the body with the elbow at a 90 degree angle.

The Clinimex Clínica de Medicina do Exercício posted an example of the Flexitest on YouTube, and said less than three minutes were necessary to assess the passive range of motion in the 20 movements.

Another test, that takes just 10 seconds, could also reveal how long you’ll live for.