How many single leg heel raises can you do?
Whether you’re 20 years old or 80 years young, calf strength is important in all stages of life. The calf muscles are a work horse during walking and running, super important for for simple tasks like balance when standing and day to day activities like stair climbing and even getting up from a seated position.
Single leg heel raise test is used to assess the strength and endurance of the calf muscle.
How to do it
How did you go compared to the norms?
A study in 2017 assessed 600 healthy, active people aged between 20 and 80 years old for the single leg heel raise endurance and here are the averaged results.
Age. Males Females
Reps. Reps
20-29 yrs 37 31
30-39 yrs 33 27
40-49 yrs 28 25
50-59 yrs 24 22
60-69 yrs 19 19
70-79 yrs 15 17
80 + 10 14
Historically we like to see people being able to perform 25 to 30 reps on each leg in the clinic as an indicator of good calf muscle strength and endurance, although there is no research that confirms this number. However if there is a major difference in endurance between legs or a very poor result it could be a sign of an underlying condition that needs addressing
If in doubt get it checked out!
References
Updated reliability and normative values for the standing heel-rise test in healthy adults Herbert-Losier, Physiotherapy Dec 2017
Can the calf-raise senior test predict functional fitness in the elderly? A validation study usingelectromyogrpahy, kinematic and strength tests. Carbide H, Physical Therapy in Sport, July 2018
Single leg heel raise test is used to assess the strength and endurance of the calf muscle.
How to do it
- Stand on one leg near a wall
- Use fingertip against the wall for support at shoulder level
- Keep your knee and body straight
- Lift heel as high as possible
- Make sure to load across entire forefoot and avoid rolling onto the outside of your foot
- Aim for a solid tempo of one heel raise per second
- Continue until you can’t complete any more with good form
- Test both legs - were they the same?
How did you go compared to the norms?
A study in 2017 assessed 600 healthy, active people aged between 20 and 80 years old for the single leg heel raise endurance and here are the averaged results.
Age. Males Females
Reps. Reps
20-29 yrs 37 31
30-39 yrs 33 27
40-49 yrs 28 25
50-59 yrs 24 22
60-69 yrs 19 19
70-79 yrs 15 17
80 + 10 14
Historically we like to see people being able to perform 25 to 30 reps on each leg in the clinic as an indicator of good calf muscle strength and endurance, although there is no research that confirms this number. However if there is a major difference in endurance between legs or a very poor result it could be a sign of an underlying condition that needs addressing
If in doubt get it checked out!
References
Updated reliability and normative values for the standing heel-rise test in healthy adults Herbert-Losier, Physiotherapy Dec 2017
Can the calf-raise senior test predict functional fitness in the elderly? A validation study usingelectromyogrpahy, kinematic and strength tests. Carbide H, Physical Therapy in Sport, July 2018
