Rikli & Jones (SFT)
About this reference
The Senior Fitness Test (SFT) is a validated battery of six physical performance tests designed for older adults. The original study (Rikli & Jones 1999) collected data from 7,183 community-dwelling adults at 267 sites across 21 US states. Percentile curves (P5 through P95) by 5-year age group and sex were published in the Senior Fitness Test Manual, 2nd edition (Rikli & Jones 2013, Human Kinetics, ISBN 978-1-4504-1118-9), modelled from this same sample. The SFT battery comprises six tests: 30-second chair stand (lower-body strength), arm curl (upper-body strength), 2-minute step test (aerobic endurance), chair sit-and-reach (lower-body flexibility), back scratch (upper-body flexibility), and 8-foot up-and-go (agility/balance). See "Used for" below for the components currently available on this site.
Known limitations
- Based on a US sample — a German study (Albrecht et al. 2021, DOI: 10.1186/s12877-021-02188-9, n=1,657) found lower chair stand scores in comparable age groups, partly attributed to higher body weight
- No data for adults younger than 60
- Percentile curves (P5-P95) are from the 2013 manual's modelling of the original 1999 sample; individual age/sex cell sizes vary
- Sample was community-dwelling and ambulatory — institutionalised older adults are not represented