The StandUp Test score number is meant to give you an understanding of the general strength of your heart. It is based on well known family of Orthostatic Heart Rate tests that measure response of your body from sitting or supine position to standing position. There are two main factors considered in this calculation: your heart’s resting rate, and your heart’s response to the process of standing up.
First, as always, you want to have a low resting heart rate. A lower resting heart rate means your heart is more efficiently circulating blood through your body, which generally indicates that it is strong and healthy. A high StandUp Test score will indicate that you have a strong resting heart rate, given your age and gender.
Second, you want to have a strong heart rate response to standing up. This means a significant peak, which then quickly settles to your standing heart rate. The spike in heart rate caused by standing indicates how much additional stress your heart takes from this process. This helps us understand how much stress your heart is under on a day-to-day basis. For example, a large peak response generally indicates that the heart is under relatively little stress in comparison to that caused by standing up, which is a good sign that you are well rested and hydrated. However, a small response generally indicates that the heart is under significant stress to begin with, as the act of standing up caused little increase in heart rate. A high StandUp Test score will indicate that your response score is considered healthy, given your metrics and resting heart rate.
It’s important to note that if you have known heart conditions, or any ailments that affect your heart rate and your body’s physiological response to physical movement, this advice might not be accurate for you. Note that there are conditions which inhibit this peak response, particularly in people with diabetes (Ewing, Hume, Campbell, Murray, Neilson, & Clarke, 1980).
Everyone’s body is different. Measuring frequently and tagging results will help you understand what and how lifestyle changes affect your score: whether it’s stress due to overtraining, dehydration, lack of sleep or some other factors. Also, measuring at uniform times helps you establish a base line, which you can use as a reference for your other measurements. For example, taking daily measurements right when you get up sets a benchmark for the rest of the day, and allows you to track more long-term trends in your score.
Hopefully this has given you some insight into what the Standup Test score means. Our goal is to help you better understand how your lifestyle impacts your health, so that you can make the proper choices necessary to make the most of your life.
References:
Ewing, D., Hume, L., Campbell, I. W., Murray, A., Neilson, J. M., & Clarke, B. F. (1980). Autonomic mechanisms in the initial heart rate response to standing. Journal of Applied Physiology , 809-814.
Further recommendations on Stand-Up test and interpretation of the results http://myathleticlife.com/2011/12/tool-training-toolkit-orthostatic-heart-rate/
