The ‘over 30 Test’ Claims To Determine Your Bio-age In Five Seconds: Here’s What Our Longevity Expert Says About It

Can a five-second squat jump really reveal your biological age?

TikTok thinks so, with a new ‘over 30′ challenge currently sweeping the globe.

It alleges that if you can perform the seemingly simple act of cleanly jumping to a standing squat starting from a kneeling position, your bio-age is under 30 years old.

The ‘test‘ has been demonstrated in multiple clips, including a viral video that showed colleagues of various ages trying to jump to their feet from kneeling. Some managed it successfully while others struggled mightily.

The latest challenge echoes other quickfire online bio-age fitness tests including one-leg balancing, toe-touching, or for women, performing 11 continuous push-ups.

But when the Daily Mail spoke with an Australian professor of medicine about the latest bio-age challenge, he swiftly branded it as ‘nonsense’ and ‘social media hype’.

‘There is absolutely no scientific evidence linking the ability to jump from a kneeling position to biological age,’ University of Sydney Professor Luigi Fontana said.

The esteemed medical expert said he’d recently observed a worrying ‘uptick’ in online videos claiming to ‘reveal’ biological age by the ability to perform a certain fitness stunt.

‘They’re catchy, but they do NOT measure biological age,’ Professor Fontana said.

‘They mostly reflect strength, flexibility, balance, and practice.’

The Sydney professor, whose area of interest is longevity, explained that tests of this nature ‘give a false sense of diagnostic power and trivialize a complex biological process into a party trick’.

The kneeling-to-squat-jump bio-age test also caught the attention of an Australian exercise physiotherapist – for all the wrong reasons.

Laith Cunneen from Peak Physio said rather than revealing any bio-age insight, the challenge simply illustrated ‘specific strength, coordination and power in the hips, thighs and core’.

Furthermore, the physiotherapist said this particular test posed a ‘real risk of injury’ – particularly to the ‘knees, hips or lower back’.

‘If you don’t already train regularly, it’s probably best not to experiment with this on a whim,’ Laith advised.

Why is everyone suddenly interested in bio-age?

Bio-age – short for biological age – has entered the health lexicon in recent years as a new marker for understanding the state of one’s health.

‘Biological age refers to a set of biological and molecular markers that aim to capture the pace of aging processes in the body: how well your organs, metabolism, and cells are functioning relative to your chronological ag,’ Professor Fontana explained.

The author of The Path to Longevity said the growing interest in knowing one’s bio-age is driven by ‘people who rightly want to extend health span, not just lifespan’.

The way biological age is currently determined is through a combination of complex research tools like epigenetic clocks, metabolomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics.

And it certainly can’t be reduced to a simple one-off physical test.

The interest in bio-age has also meant the area is rapidly expanding, with Professor Fontana noting that scientists are busily working on new and improved methods to accurately measure biomarkers.

‘While there are many interesting biomarkers of biological age under development, none are validated for personal or clinical use yet,’ he said.

What you can do to age healthily

Rather than risking a pulled muscle attempting a TikTok trend, Professor Fontana suggests putting your energy into proven, science-backed habits that can truly help you age well.

The four fundamental pillars of this are diet, movement, lifestyle and emotional regulation.

Food-wise, Professor Fontana suggests a ‘mostly plant-based, minimally processed diet with moderate calorie restriction via intermittent fasting or time-restricted eating’.

Then there’s his exercise recommendation, which is ‘regular physical activity, combining endurance and resistance work’.

This is an area Laith from Peak Physio is particularly passionate about, explaining that he was intrigued by a research study that revealed how ‘individuals who complete two to three exercise sessions per week have a biological age around five to seven years lower than those who are inactive’.

To achieve the cardio element, Laith recommends exercise such as walking, jogging, cycling or swimming.

This should be accompanied by resistance training that focuses on compound exercises targeting larger muscle groups.

‘Think, squats, lunges, rows, push ups and bridges,’ he said.

‘For healthy ageing in general, sprinkle some mobility and balance exercises into the mix.’

Other bio-age improving lifestyle recommendations Professor Fontana has are to avoid smoking, consume alcohol only in low to moderate amounts and prioritise sleep.

He further noted that ‘stress management’ and prioritising ‘social connection’ are also of importance.

‘All these habits modulate the same pathways reflected in experimental bio-age biomarkers,’ he said.

‘It’s a rapidly evolving field, but for now, the best evidence for healthy aging still points to these fundamentals – and not whether or not you can do a viral bio-age test.’