The Chair Stand Test and Grip Strength: Two Simple Checks for Muscle Loss

Sarcopenia, the loss of muscle with age, is now defined by strength first. So the first checks are strength checks, and two of them need almost no equipment.

Why strength, not size

A US consortium pooled several large studies and found that weak grip and slow walking each predicted falls, trouble getting around, hip fractures and death in older adults living at home (Bhasin 2020, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society). Muscle mass measured by a body scan did not.

The European guideline made the same shift in 2019: low strength is the first sign doctors look for (Cruz-Jentoft 2019, Age and Ageing).

The chair stand test

We read the European guideline in full. Its version of the test is simple: time how long it takes to stand up from a chair and sit back down five times, without using your arms.

Its cut-off: more than 15 seconds for five rises points to low strength. The same cut-off applies to men and women.

The guideline describes it as a stand-in for the strength of the big muscles at the front of the thigh. Because it takes endurance as well as strength, it calls it a convenient but imperfect measure. There is also a 30-second version, which counts how many rises you can do in that time.

Grip strength

Grip is measured with a handheld device called a dynamometer, usually in a clinic. The European cut-offs are under 27 kg for men and under 16 kg for women.

If you don't have the device, the guideline offers the chair stand as the other option for checking strength.

The five-question screen, and what it misses

Many clinics start with SARC-F, five questions about strength, help with walking, rising from a chair, climbing stairs and falls. The European guideline recommends it, and says plainly that it mostly catches severe cases.

Two studies show how much it can miss:

• In 204 adults 65 and older at a US primary care clinic, the standard threshold missed many people with weak grip. A lower threshold caught 78% of them, but most people it flagged had normal grip (Propst 2025, JMIRx Med).
• In 73 older adults in Poland, the questionnaire caught only 35% of people who met the full definition of sarcopenia (Piotrowicz 2021, Aging Clinical and Experimental Research).

A good score on a questionnaire is not proof of good strength.

Walking tests and phone apps

The Timed Up and Go test times you standing up, walking 3 meters, turning and sitting back down. A review of 50 studies with 19,266 older adults found these walking and performance tests reliable, meaning they give similar results when repeated (Exter 2024, Age and Ageing). It also found they were weaker at telling how severe muscle loss is or whether someone has improved, and it urged caution.

A phone app that times the same test from your pocket matched a lab sensor closely in 52 older adults (Bottinger 2025, JMIR Aging). That is one small study.

What to do tonight, with a number

Time five chair rises. Use a sturdy chair without wheels, pushed against a wall. Sit with your arms crossed over your chest, stand all the way up, sit all the way down, five times, as fast as you safely can. The setup details are ours. The guideline specifies only five rises without using your arms.

Write the time down. Do it again in 30 days. The 30 days is ours. The point is to see your own trend.

If it takes more than 15 seconds, or you can't do it without your arms, tell your doctor. Do it with someone nearby if your balance is not steady, and stop if you feel pain or dizziness.

The honest part

A slow time is a reason to ask, not a diagnosis. The European guideline itself lists other reasons for low strength, including depression, stroke, balance disorders and poor circulation in the legs. A full assessment also measures muscle mass and physical performance.

The evidence for using these tests on their own is thinner than their popularity suggests. A review of primary care studies found none that set out to test grip or the chair stand as a screening tool (Du Rietz 2024, BMJ Open).

We read the European guideline in full. For the other studies we read the abstracts, not the full papers.

Where HealthBrew fits

One test is a snapshot. HealthBrew's nightly close takes about a minute and, after a few weeks, shows your pattern, including the strength sessions that move the number. Membership, cancel anytime.

Educational content, not medical advice. Sources, read on 11 November 2026: Cruz-Jentoft et al., Age and Ageing, 2019 (full text); and as PubMed abstracts, Bhasin et al., Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2020; Propst et al., JMIRx Med, 2025; Piotrowicz et al., Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, 2021; Exter et al., Age and Ageing, 2024; Böttinger et al., JMIR Aging, 2025; Du Rietz and Beischer, BMJ Open, 2024.