The DIY guide to checking how well you are ageing

'Ageing well' refers to both physical and psychological well-being, which includes feeling good and finding meaning and purpose.

- Marco Arkesteijn and Alexander Nigel William Taylor

A few years ago, a social media trend challenged people to see if they could stand up from the floor without using their hands. Now, it is all about how long you can balance on one leg while brushing your teeth. These quirky "tests" promise to tell us how well we are ageing — but do they really?

When we talk about "ageing well", we are usually referring to both physical and psychological well-being. That includes feeling good (hedonic well-being) and finding meaning and purpose (eudaemonic well-being). Engaging in activities and monitoring ourselves play a role in both.

But ageing well is not just about how strong your grip is or how fast you can walk. It is a complex mix of physical, cognitive, emotional and social changes — and no single test captures the whole picture.

Physically, one simple measure that gets a lot of attention is walking speed. According to one famous study, people who walk faster than 1.32m per second were less likely to die in the next three years — jokingly framed as "too fast for the Grim Reaper to catch".

On the flip side, a slower walking speed — below 0.8m per second — can be a sign of sarcopenia, a condition involving reduced muscle mass, muscle strength and physical function.

These are all important indicators of age-related decline.

But while these markers are useful, they are not easy to measure at home. Most research relies on specialist equipment, and your local general practitioners probably do not have a grip-strength dynamometer sitting in a drawer. But they could time how long it takes you to stand up and sit down five times from a chair.