Balance is a leading indicator. It declines measurably, predictably, and trackably long before it produces consequences. Most people never measure it. Stela makes it possible to.
Like VO₂ max or bone density age, BalanceAge™ translates your results into years — the age at which a typical person balances exactly the way you do.
Your balance age compares your results across all 8 tests against how people your age and sex typically perform. The result is a single number that places your balance system on a biological timeline.
It stabilizes after 3 sessions and updates with each new assessment, so you can track whether your training, your habits, or the passage of time is moving it in the right direction.
The accelerometer and gyroscope in a modern smartphone sample motion at 60–100 Hz. Sufficient to detect the postural micro-corrections that define balance stability. No wearables. No force plates. No appointment.
Hold your phone flat with one or both hands, arms comfortably against body. Screen faces up. No calibration required.
Eight stances, 20–30 seconds each. Each isolates a different subsystem: vestibular, proprioceptive, visual, reactive, and cognitive-motor. The app guides you through every position.
After each stance, you get a score from 0 to 100 showing how you performed at that position. When all 8 are done, your balance age computes, a single number telling you where your balance system sits relative to people your age.
Your balance age gives you the headline number. The per-test scores — 0 to 100 for each stance — tell you exactly where your balance system is strong and where it needs work.
Your baseline. Feet shoulder-width apart, eyes open. Establishes how much your balance depends on vision.
Visual systemSame stance, eyes closed. Without visual input, your inner ear and body position sensing carry the full load. The gap between this score and the previous one is diagnostically meaningful.
Inner ear · Body positionFeet together, eyes closed. A narrower base makes your body's position sensing work harder — the closest you can get to a balance challenge without any equipment.
Body positionRhythmic head rotation on cue. Measures how well your inner ear and vision coordinate to keep you stable while moving.
Inner ear · ReactiveFeet shoulder-width apart, eyes open. At an unexpected moment, an audio cue prompts you to close your eyes. Measures reactive postural control.
Reactive balanceHead pitched 30° forward. Measures how neck position affects your overall balance — relevant to anyone who spends time at a desk or screen.
Neck · DynamicSerial subtraction while standing. Measures how cognitive effort affects your stability — a well-established signal of fall risk.
Dual-task · CognitiveCategory word naming while standing. A second cognitive challenge that cross-checks the arithmetic result — two different types of thinking, same question about stability.
Dual-task · CognitiveMost health measurement is retrospective, a record of what already happened. Balance is different. It declines measurably years before consequences appear, and at predictable inflection points where the rate of change shifts sharply. Most people have no measurement of where they sit at any of them.
Muscle mass and proprioceptive sensitivity begin declining. Gradual, easy to miss — and the highest-leverage window for prevention.
Inner ear function declines and reflexes slow, compounding the losses that began at 40. Fall risk begins rising steeply.
Steep decline. Falls become the leading cause of injury-related mortality. Intervention shifts from performance to fall prevention.
All 8 tests and trend tracking are free. Clinical deployment, with per-test percentile ranks, raw sway data, and multi-patient management is available to organizations via provisioning.
Everything you need to measure and track your balance over time.
For physical therapists, coordinators, and research teams.
Your account details are stored securely and never shared. Session data syncs to encrypted cloud infrastructure for backup and cross-device access. Your anonymized sway measurements contribute to the population normative dataset that makes it meaningful. A longitudinal dataset that does not currently exist at this scale.
Your name, date of birth, and account information are stored securely. They are never shared with third parties, sold to advertisers, or used for purposes other than your account.
Sessions sync to encrypted, HIPAA-compliant cloud infrastructure. Your anonymized sway measurements contribute to the population normative dataset. They are never sold or licensed to third parties.
Five minutes. Your phone. No equipment. Free. Most people never measure this. Stela makes it possible.