Ensure Gold’s #Stand4Strength Challenge

Stand4Strength is an initiative by Abbott’s Ensure® Gold™ to encourage Malaysians, especially older adults to take better care of their muscle strength and overall health. Using the Muscle Age Calculator, Ensure® Gold™ provide an easy way to gauge the quality of muscle strength and performance by calculating the time required to sit and stand for five times.

As we grow older, muscle loss is inevitable. Here are some facts about muscle loss and the importance of muscle health:

• Our body starts to lose up to 33% of muscle mass between the age of 40 to 80 years old. Despite the role it plays in our physical strength and immunity, muscle health is rarely emphasised today.
• 4 in 5 older adults have low muscle mass and are at risk of malnutrition, which may impact their overall health and immunity.
• Research has also shown that immunity can be compromised if an older adult loses more than 10% of lean body mass, while a decrease of over 30% can make the body susceptible to pneumonia

MUSCLE AGE CALCULATOR

As part of its #Stand4Strength challenge, Abbott’s Ensure® Gold™ launched a Muscle Age Calculator, a simple tool that assesses muscle age.

Muscle age+ indicates muscles’ strength and performance in the lower limbs and is calculated based on the five-times-sit-to-stand test, which matches test time with specific biological age groups. Complete the challenge by following these steps:

STEP 1: CHOOSE A STATIONARY, STURDY CHAIR

The height of the chair should be approximately 43cm.

STEP 2: USE A TIMER TO TIME YOURSELF DOING THE #STAND4STRENGTH CHALLENGE

Sit-to-stand on both legs five times with arms folded as fast as you can.

STEP 3: ENTER YOUR DETAILS IN THE MUSCLE AGE CALCULATOR

Indicate your age, gender, and sit-to-stand time.

To try out the Muscle Age Calculator, go to here.