Move With Balance: Healthy Aging Activities for Brain and Body - Softcover

Peterson MA, Karen Anne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0985993804 ISBN 13: 9780985993801

Publisher: Giving Back, 2013

Synopsis

Our intention is to improve the lives of elders, helping them stay mentally alert and sharp, and reducing their risk of falls and accidents. You can participate as a group leader, a caregiver, or on your own. Perhaps you are aging, you work with elders, or you are concerned about your aging parents. Here's how to bring confidence and joy into the aging years. This brightly illustrated book, which links to 60 on-line demonstration videos, is loaded with dozens of movements (not exercises) that anyone can do, even the frailest elder. The payoff: increased coordination, sharper cognitive skills, better vision, and enhanced self-confidence. Preventing falls means preventing disaster! Staying mentally alert and sharp is paramount. Please go to our website MoveWithBalance.org to learn about our award-winning program. Move With Balance® is the winner of the 2012 MetLife MindAlert Award from the American Society on Aging in the category for programs designed to enhance mental fitness for the general population of older adults. One independent study shows a 38% reduction in falls for the treatment group. This is not a "workout" program in the usual sense with muscle-strengthening and limbering exercises as the primary goal. The activities combine coordinated movement with cognitive skills. For example, we move, but while we move we read, or recognize shapes, or recite a poem. The underlying principle: challenge the brain and body simultaneously with some sensory-motor activity, repeat until the challenge becomes easier or even automatic, then up the stakes by repeating the activity at a higher level. Once you buy the book, you have access to the videos. Along with full color photos of the exercises, the book explains the movements in depth, the why and the how. The videos give you a quick visual, and in combination with the book, should make it easy for you to learn the movements. The program is user friendly, light-hearted and playful. Move With Balance®, based on the most current research in brain plasticity, vision training, and kinesiology, uses movement to help prevent falls and enhance cognitive functions. Our activities improve balance, sensory integration, spatial awareness, integration of the two hemispheres of the brain, brain timing and sequencing, reaction time, binocular teaming, and proprioception. Additionally, our mentoring system, of having active, mobile seniors "mentor" their more frail peers, reduces the isolation of elders by increasing socialization. Move with Balance® founder and director Karen Peterson has devoted the past 27 years to research into the brain-body connection, 18 of those years working with senior citizens, and the many ways that movement can correct neurological imbalance. "This program is based on cutting-edge science. It uses modified techniques that Olympic athletes employ with good success. I wholeheartedly endorse this work to make seniors safer and to help them lead more active and productive lives." - from the Introduction by Dr. Ed Manniko, OD

About this title

From the Author:

As children, we roll down hills, climb trees, hop and skip, all of which help us develop balance and coordination while firing up new neural pathways in our growing brains.
 
What happens when we grow "too old" for such games? 
 
We become less sure on our feet and more vulnerable to falls - which can be devastating for seniors and younger people with bone-density issues. And with little stimulating our cognitive function, our brains lose agility.
 
As a certified educational kinesiologist, vision improvement instructor, massage therapist, Touch for Health instructor, I worked with children, athletes, teachers and others for years, teaching them exercises designed to boost development in particular areas, such as focus and coordination. Twenty years ago, I started working with seniors, adapting the exercises but keeping the playful element, 
 
The activities, tested and clarified through innumerable sessions with thousands of senior citizens, evolved into the Move With Balance® program, for which I recently published an illustrated guide book, "Move With Balance®: Healthy Aging Activities for Brain and Body." The book and 60 online videos allow other organizations serving seniors to adopt the program. Great for group leaders, caregivers, and truthfully....anyone.
 
Move with Balance®: teams a fit and active elder with a frail elderly partner. The fit elder physically assists the frail elder, as needed, and provides a safety net of sorts. Knowing there's someone who is close by and can help if they should lose their balance, frailer participants have the confidence they need to try new moves.

From the Back Cover:

All the Move with Balance® movements help you grow new nerve cells and stay flexible, alert, and balanced. These are passionate, playful movements and rich sensory experiences that anchor thought, build mental agility, and encourage life-long learning. After all, our brain cells communicate in response to movement, sensory input, and a sense of safety.
Carla Hannaford, Ph.D., biologist, author, international consultant
 
 
I met Karen Peterson twenty-five years ago when she introduced me to her expertise in movement and perception. We worked together to help alleviate vision and balance issues. Her present concern is enhancing balance and thereby preventing falls. This program is based on cutting-edge science. She uses modified techniques that Olympic athletes employ with good success.
I wholeheartedly endorse her work to make seniors safer and to help them lead more active and productive lives.
Edvin Manniko OD, behavioral optometrist

About this edition

• Publisher: Giving Back
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0985993804
• ISBN 13: 9780985993801
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 114