How well are you aging? Internal medicine physician Dr. Kyle McMillen of Novant Health New Riverside Primary Care in Bluffton, South Carolina, can help you find out.

Here’s why it matters:

• The average U.S. adult hopes to reach 91 years old, according to Pew Research Center.
• Most older adults want to live in their current home and community as long as possible.
• Yet roughly 1 in 6 U.S. adults age 50 and older reports difficulty with at least one activity of daily living — like getting out of bed, getting dressed or bathing.
  

“It’s important to figure out where you’re at now. And if your body isn’t working how you want it to today, we need to focus on improving it,” McMillen said.

These five tasks will give you a clear picture of what you’re doing well — and what you can work on.

You’ll need a watch or stopwatch app to perform them. And if you have physical limitations or health conditions, talk to your physician before trying them.

Task No. 1: Timed stair climbing

Instructions: Climb stairs for 2 minutes, counting steps as you go. If you don’t have access to stairs, step up and down on a block, or climb for 2 minutes on a Stairmaster machine.

Score yourself: You should be able to perform 65 steps or more in 2 minutes, and your heart rate should recover to between 60 and 100 beats per minute within a few minutes of when you stop. If you couldn’t perform 65 steps or more, or your heart rate stayed elevated or continued to climb once you stopped, tell your physician, McMillen said.

What this task measures: Balance, coordination, lower extremity strength and cardiovascular fitness.

How to get better: If this was hard for you, improve your cardiovascular fitness. McMillen recommends taking 10- to 15-minute walks a few times a week to start; as walking becomes easier, add time to your walks and increase the days walked.

If this was easy for you, challenge yourself to beat the number of steps you walked in 2 minutes. For example, if you took 75 steps, try to get to 85 next time while maintaining a manageable heart rate.

Task No. 2: Hands-free sit to stand

Instructions: Put a chair against the wall so it won’t slide. Sit on the chair with your feet flat on the floor in front of you, cross your arms to your chest, and keep them there. Then stand up — without using your arms at all — and sit down again. Repeat five times as quickly as you can without stopping.

Score yourself: You should be able to do five sit-to-stands in 14 seconds.

What this task measures: Coordination, balance, hip mobility.

How to get better: If this was hard for you, it makes sense: “We spend so much time sitting and not much time getting up,” McMillen said. Try getting up more often and moving more throughout the day.

If this was easy for you, try to do five sit-to-stands in a shorter amount of time, or try to do more in the time it took you to do five. You can also hold still in certain poses to increase your strength (called “isometric exercises”). For example, hold a wall sit for 60 seconds, or a squat for 120 seconds — and if that’s easy, hold the pose longer or hold weights while you do it. You could also try sit-to-stands from the ground.

Task No. 3: Timed ‘get up and go’ test

Instructions: Put a chair against the wall so it won’t slide. Measure a distance of 10 feet from the chair and put an object there — that’s your target. Sit in the chair. Then start the timer, stand up, walk to the target as quickly as you can, walk around it, walk back to your chair and take a seat.

Score yourself: You should be back in your seat within 10 seconds. “If it takes you 12 seconds or longer, you’re going too slow,” McMillen said. “You should be able to return very quickly.”

What this task measures: Coordination, balance, cognition.

How to get better: If this was hard for you, talk to your doctor; you may be at an increased risk for falls and cognitive issues.

If this was easy for you, try doing the task while wearing a weighted vest.

Task No. 4: Tandem stance

Instructions: Perform this one within arm’s length of a wall for safety. Stand with one foot directly in front of the other, like you’re walking on a tightrope, and hold it for 30 seconds without falling over.

Score yourself: If you can stand in this position for 30 seconds without falling over, you passed.

What this task measures: It screens for gait and balance problems.

How to get better: If this was hard for you, talk to your doctor; you may need additional evaluation.

If this was easy for you, try standing on one leg for 10 seconds with your eyes open. If that’s easy, try doing it with your eyes closed. “You probably won’t do as well,” McMillen laughed.

Task No. 5: Gait speed

Instructions: While timing yourself, walk 1 mile on a flat surface, such as a track, walking path or treadmill without an incline.

Score yourself: Divide 60 by the amount of time that it took you to walk a mile; this gives you your miles per hour (mph). For example, if it took you 20 minutes to walk a mile, you walk 3 mph. “If your ambulation speed is less than 1.5 mph, you’re going too slow,” McMillen said.

What this task measures: Neuromuscular connection, proprioception (your brain’s sense of where you are in space), and cognitive processing speed.

How to get better: If walking a mile was hard for you, or if your pace is less than 1.5 miles per hour, talk to your doctor; you may need additional evaluation.

If this was easy for you and your doctor has cleared you for all forms of exercise, try increasing your speed on a flat surface. Or try walking on an incline, uneven ground with hills and valleys or a surface like sand, while maintaining your same gait speed. You could also add resistance, like wearing a weighted vest or walking while holding weights. Or add in intervals where you’re marching with high knees.

Where to go from here

Assess yourself in other areas

Your ability to perform these tasks isn’t the only way to assess if you’re aging well.

“It needs to be multidimensional,” McMillen said. “How's your social environment? How’s your nutrition? Are you engaged with the right people in the healthcare system? Figure out where you’re at, and if you need help with something, seek advice from a doctor.”

Don’t give up

Physical changes and limitations are a part of the aging experience, but explore modifications before you give up on an activity.

“If something is hard or it’s hurting, ask somebody why it's hurting — talk to your doctor or a physical therapist,” McMillen said. “‘Can I do this?’ ‘Does it need a modification?’ are good questions to ask.”

And if you’ve hit a plateau despite your effort, turn your attention to another area.

“Maybe you’re not going to walk fast — fine, but can you stand up and get going quickly? Are you able to have really good balance? Can you improve in other domains?” McMillen said.

Include these activities in your weekly routine

An ideal week of exercise, outlined in these federal guidelines, for an adult age 65 and older includes:

• 150 minutes (2 and a half hours) every week of moderate-intensity activity, like swimming or walking
• Two days a week of resistance-training activities that strengthen muscles, like lifting weights or manual household activities like digging in the garden with a heavy shovel
• Balance activities like walking backward, standing on one leg or practicing the sit-to-stand move detailed above

“It doesn’t have to be doing squats and deadlifts in a weight room — but perform activities that send a stimulus to your muscles to grow and a stimulus to your bones to handle this workload,” McMillen said. “That combination of balance and resistance training is what helps prevent people from falling over.”

Another activity McMillen recommends to “pretty much anyone” interested in healthy aging: tai chi classes, which can improve coordination, strength, mobility and cardiovascular health, all in a social setting.

Remember: Where you are today isn’t where you have to be a year from now.

If performing these tasks was hard, here’s a pep talk from McMillen.

“There's no benefit to feeling defeated just because you can't keep up right now. You don't have to stay the same person that you are today — you can improve and feel better tomorrow. It's really not too late,” McMillen said.

“Sometimes I tell a patient to focus on losing a pound a week and they’ll say, ‘That’s not enough — I need to go bigger.’ Until I see you at your annual physical and you’ve lost 52 pounds. Slow, intentional consistent efforts over time are what make the biggest differences.”

And if these tasks were easy, keep challenging yourself to get even better — and “bring somebody along with you,” McMillen said. “Everybody’s got something to offer, and you helping somebody else will inevitably help you too.”