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Simple Daily Test to Improve Longevity | Jeff Cavaliere & Dr. Andrew Huberman

Huberman Lab Clips08:07Added Aug 31, 2026

Jeff Cavaliere and Dr. Andrew Huberman discuss the 'old man test' and other functional assessments for longevity, emphasizing how simple daily movements that...

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Contributed by 刘嘉琪

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  1. Longevity Test

  2. 00:00You have a post that really humbled me
  3. 00:04and people are going to laugh. They're
  4. 00:05going to be like, "I can't believe you
  5. 00:06can't do that." Well, now I can do it.
  6. 00:08I'll explain what it is in a moment. But
  7. 00:10a longevity test.
  8. 00:11Oh boy.
  9. 00:12That includes test of balance,
  10. 00:15strength, and um inner fortitude. And
  11. 00:19that's the put your shoes and socks on,
  12. 00:22standing on one foot, obviously one foot
  13. 00:24then the other, not sitting down, but
  14. 00:26doing that in the morning every day. And
  15. 00:29I'll tell you, if you're training hard,
  16. 00:31that lower back's going to ache a little
  17. 00:33bit when you first, you know, first
  18. 00:34thing in the morning. This is a very
  19. 00:36cool test. And I force myself to do it
  20. 00:38now. And I have to say, a lot of
  21. 00:40mornings, I'm like, I just want to sit
  22. 00:41down and put my shoes on, you know, and
  23. 00:43I got this puppy now and he's grabbing
  24. 00:44my shoelaces, which makes it even more
  25. 00:46dynamic.
  26. 00:47But in all seriousness, it's it's a very
  27. 00:49interesting, very simple test. If you
  28. 00:51could just explain what it is, folks,
  29. 00:53trust me, you want to do this every
  30. 00:55single day.
  31. 00:56So, they call it the old man test. is is
  32. 00:58gender neutral, though. It could be a
  33. 01:00woman test. Everybody is fair game. The

  34. How To Perform The Test

  35. 01:02goal here is to simply put your sock and
  36. 01:05your shoe on the floor on both sides.
  37. 01:07Lay them down in front of you. Um, untie
  38. 01:10your shoes. Make them sure they're
  39. 01:12they're loose enough that you can get
  40. 01:13them on your foot. Stand on one foot to
  41. 01:15begin the test. Lean over, pick up that
  42. 01:18shoe or pick pick up that sock, put the
  43. 01:20sock on, pick up that shoe, put it on,
  44. 01:23tie it, and then put the foot down. Only
  45. 01:25after you've tied the shoe can you put
  46. 01:27it down. and then go and do the other
  47. 01:28side. And it is difficult. It is very
  48. 01:32very difficult. It happens to be one of
  49. 01:33the tests that I do a little bit better
  50. 01:35than other tests. But um we were joking
  51. 01:38before I told you that I about twice a
  52. 01:41year I still get back pain every now and
  53. 01:42then and mine came from leaning over to
  54. 01:44put my sock on the other day and my
  55. 01:45whole back felt like it was going to
  56. 01:47blow up on me like that. So there's a
  57. 01:50lot going on inside the body when you're
  58. 01:52doing this, right? Why would my back all
  59. 01:54of a sudden seize up on me when I'm
  60. 01:56going to pick put on my sock? Because
  61. 01:58you don't realize the responsibility
  62. 02:00that those lumbar parispinal muscles
  63. 02:02have in trying to control even just
  64. 02:04leaning forward and they're trying to
  65. 02:05make sure that you're doing it at a pace
  66. 02:07that's safe for your spine. So doing
  67. 02:10this every day is a little mini workout
  68. 02:13for those muscles. And again, we we I I
  69. 02:15I think we tend to get so lazy as we get
  70. 02:19older and complacent and so that once
  71. 02:22you start sitting down, you're just
  72. 02:23going to sit down when you put on your
  73. 02:25socks and shoes. What's the need to get
  74. 02:28up and do this every day if I'm
  75. 02:30comfortable putting it my, you know,
  76. 02:31doing this sitting down or, wow, this
  77. 02:33was easier cuz I sat down today. You
  78. 02:36can't be seeking easy. If you seek easy,
  79. 02:39you're going to get old a lot faster.
  80. 02:40So, this test is testing your balance.
  81. 02:43It is testing against some of the mini
  82. 02:46dynamic control from those muscles in
  83. 02:48the low back. It's is testing your ankle
  84. 02:51mobility in a way because you're going
  85. 02:53to get a lot of this going on, the
  86. 02:54pertabbation through your ankles and
  87. 02:56your knees and it's testing your hip
  88. 02:57strength because again once you go on
  89. 02:59one leg, you're now talking about pelvic
  90. 03:01control the same way we did before. So,
  91. 03:03you have to have good strength there.
  92. 03:06But it's not uncommon for people to not
  93. 03:08be able to pass this test. But with
  94. 03:10practice, like anything else, you're
  95. 03:12training these muscles to get stronger,
  96. 03:14and you're training these your your
  97. 03:15balance, and you're these are all skills
  98. 03:17that can be learned and improved.
  99. 03:18They're all trainable. I actually put a
  100. 03:21a video out not long ago about um
  101. 03:24different measures of of longevity, and
  102. 03:28one of them was that test. Another one
  103. 03:30was pull-ups. Another one was the number
  104. 03:32of push-ups you could do. We we could

  105. Testing Your Glute Medius Strength

  106. 03:33talk about these after, but the number
  107. 03:34one was like going back to your glute
  108. 03:36media strengthening. Can you lay in a
  109. 03:39side lying plank position with the top
  110. 03:42leg up about 45°? You could keep it
  111. 03:45stacked. It's a lot easier to stay in a
  112. 03:47plank position. You raise that leg off
  113. 03:49of the other. Now, it's all relying on
  114. 03:52that lateral pillar strength of the
  115. 03:54underside hip, the one closest to the
  116. 03:55floor.
  117. 03:56So, one arm down,
  118. 03:57one or on the on the elbow.
  119. 03:59Okay. Heels stacked at first. Yeah. At
  120. 04:01first.
  121. 04:02Okay. On your side. So, side plank, not
  122. 04:04just lying on your side. Side plank.
  123. 04:06It's not the the uh the the picnic date
  124. 04:08uh stance. It's uh um you lying on your
  125. 04:12so side plank and then you're going to
  126. 04:14raise the top leg up to make a 45° and
  127. 04:18see if you could hold that even for just
  128. 04:1930 seconds
  129. 04:21and it's difficult. You'll feel a lot of
  130. 04:23shaking. You'll feel a lot of of um
  131. 04:26sagging of that bottom hip because
  132. 04:28you're you're asking your glute medius
  133. 04:30on that underside leg to hold you up
  134. 04:32into that position. So the beauty about
  135. 04:36that series of tests though is that
  136. 04:37they're all trainable. So if it's
  137. 04:39trainable, it's fixable. You can improve
  138. 04:42as you have, right? You've you're now
  139. 04:43much better at at the test.
  140. 04:46Oh yeah, old man test. Yeah, definitely.
  141. 04:49Um there are mornings when I want to
  142. 04:51cross one leg over the other kind of go
  143. 04:52into like what do they call it that like
  144. 04:54kind of pseudo crow pose they talk about
  145. 04:55in yoga like rest the ankle and the
  146. 04:57other like and sometimes it people are
  147. 05:01probably laughing at this. Go try it
  148. 05:02folks. Some people might do it just
  149. 05:04right away is very easy. Many people
  150. 05:06will find this difficult like to the
  151. 05:08point where like I don't think I can do
  152. 05:10this but quickly get good at it.
  153. 05:12Yeah, strength is not even like a
  154. 05:14determining factor or predictor here
  155. 05:16either. You could be very very strong
  156. 05:18and do incredibly poorly on this test
  157. 05:20because you're not strong in these
  158. 05:22areas. Or you could just have
  159. 05:24bad vestibular balance, right? You could
  160. 05:27it could be that alone. Once you start
  161. 05:28to lean forward or look down, you don't
  162. 05:30have good control. But there it is
  163. 05:32testing a variety of things. And if it
  164. 05:34if you do poorly on it, you can look a
  165. 05:37little deeper, investigate a little
  166. 05:38deeper through additional tests to try
  167. 05:39to find out exactly where your weakness
  168. 05:41is. But it but it's a good
  169. 05:43broadspectctrum test to see how how good
  170. 05:45your your functional balance is.
  171. 05:47Yeah. Some people people might wonder
  172. 05:49how do you work up to it? There's
  173. 05:50something called Velcro shoes. No, I'm
  174. 05:52just kidding. The uh or slippers like
  175. 05:54there it's easier, right? It's going to
  176. 05:55be quicker. Right. Right. Yeah. I think
  177. 05:58um it's definitely worth trying and uh I

  178. Practical Tips For Daily Implementation

  179. 06:01think identifying these weak points um I
  180. 06:03think is just so critical and I'm
  181. 06:05probably going to say this 20 times
  182. 06:07during today's um recording but for the
  183. 06:09young guys and gals who are thinking oh
  184. 06:11like that thing is so easy trust me with
  185. 06:13time it's the gradual creep of little
  186. 06:16things that you stop doing. I'm going to
  187. 06:18add the side plank uh in cuz I'm I just
  188. 06:20haven't been doing much planking. Not
  189. 06:21much isometric stuff. And I'm sure that
  190. 06:23I've got a weakness somewhere along the
  191. 06:26chain of muscles that's required to do
  192. 06:27that properly.
  193. 06:28Yeah.
  194. 06:28And what I love about these sorts of
  195. 06:30small things that support doing the big
  196. 06:32things for much much longer, hopefully
  197. 06:33forever, is that they don't have to be
  198. 06:36done as part of the standard workout.
  199. 06:38and they can be incorporated into like
  200. 06:40you're watching something on Netflix and
  201. 06:42you just kind of move some furniture out
  202. 06:44of the way and you just do these at that
  203. 06:46time which is really cool and important
  204. 06:48because it's not just about like an
  205. 06:50additional workout because people are
  206. 06:51slammed. They've got so much to do and
  207. 06:52like how am I supposed to do all this
  208. 06:54stuff and be with sunlight and this and
  209. 06:55that but it's it's straightforward.
  210. 06:57Yeah. Well, that it look I think the
  211. 06:59thing that you've done better than
  212. 07:00anybody is practical implementation of
  213. 07:05the things that are going to benefit
  214. 07:06people that are not time consuming or
  215. 07:08overly timeconuming. They're e easily
  216. 07:10implemented. A lot of what I focus on is
  217. 07:13when we're talking about these drills or
  218. 07:15exercises to do, a lot of them are body
  219. 07:16weight or a lot of them are done in
  220. 07:17minimal space because the more elaborate
  221. 07:20it becomes or the more timeconuming it
  222. 07:22is or whatever it is, there's just so
  223. 07:24many reasons for people not to do them
  224. 07:25and they are going to be viewed as the
  225. 07:27extra stuff until they become adopted
  226. 07:30and they realize how much they're
  227. 07:32helping them. It's always going to be
  228. 07:34viewed as the extra stuff originally. So
  229. 07:36to get someone to buy into the concept,
  230. 07:38open up the time frame where they can do
  231. 07:40them. Let them do it during watching
  232. 07:42Netflix. Let them do it while me while
  233. 07:45I'm on the floor doing some crunches
  234. 07:47after I've or done my workout. Like open
  235. 07:49up the restrictions so that you're still
  236. 07:51getting the effect, but you're you're
  237. 07:52you're minimizing the the uh
  238. 07:55prescription of it. So it's so demanding
  239. 07:58people don't want to do it.
Simple Daily Test to Improve Longevity | Jeff Cavaliere & Dr. Andrew Huberman — Transcriptly