Move With Balance® - The Book!
For elders, preventing falls means preventing disaster! For elders, staying mentally alert and sharp is paramount! Here's how—and 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 .
Our award-winning program, scientifically proven to reduce falls, is perfect for your needs, whether you are a group leader, a caregiver, or using the program for yourself.
Click here to buy the book. Those who buy the book will also gain access to a members-only section of this web site.The why and how are clearly explained in the book. The online videos give the visual demonstration for guaranteed success.
See the Book Cover…
Buy the Book…
Our Mission
Our mission is to enhance the lives of all older adults by pairing active seniors with frail elders in loving intergenerational relationships. We meet this challenge by offering learning opportunities that include integrated movements, vision training, focusing and balance exercises in our goal of preventing injuries from falls and enhancing cognitive skills.
More…
Models
The Move With Balance® Program provides three different application models. Whether you are looking for personal information for yourself, or in need of caregiver information to help someone, or are interested in facilitating a group, there is a model designed especially for you. We will be sharing materials appropriate for each model as we develop our online community.
More…
We Welcome Your Support!
Please make a tax-deductible donation to Giving Back, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. We would like to expand the program to reach more senior citizens and expand our community with social networking, videos, training material and community services.
We Deeply Appreciate the Support of the following Foundations, Individuals and Businesses:
- * Hawaii Community Foundation - Island Innovation Fund
- * Home Instead Foundation
- * Hawaii State Department of Health, Injury Prevention and Control
- * Mutual of America- Community Partnership Award
- * Maui County Office on Aging
- * Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation
- * Na Lei Aloha Foundation
- * Atherton Family Foundation
- * Foodland and First Data Western Union- Give Aloha Program
- * Central Pacific Bank
- * Aloha Care
- * Friends of Hawaii Charities partnering with Weinberg Foundation
Becoming Fully Present
Move With Balance® helps you become fully present with a strong body-brain connection. Our activities that integrate the visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile and vestibular systems have the effect of improving the proprioceptive processes that help to reduce injuries and improve performance. As neural capability and efficiency increases, a variety of other benefits are realized. Timing improves, vision improves, sense of balance improves, mental processing improves, reaction time improves, proprioception improves. This is obviously of great importance for seniors. Move With Balance® provides a system that improves cognitive functions and physical performance at the same time.
Welcome!
Welcome to Move With Balance®, a program that will improve your well- being and the well-being of the elders you serve. This book and the videos demonstrate activities that enhance any person's sense of balance and improve the cognitive functions of elders. Their effect is proven to be rejuvenating, even life-saving, for people in their late- life years.
This program is designed to enhance whole-brain integration and to develop a strong connection between the body and the brain. Its goal is to change the elder's physiology and nervous system on a very deep level. And to have fun doing so!
People take the sense of balance for granted—until the day comes when they slip, lose control, and fall. But each of us can prevent such an event by realizing that balance is a skill. With practice this skill can be developed and maintained.
The Move With Balance® activities facilitate eye-brain-body connections through specific movement experiences. They promote efficient communication among the many nerve cells and functional centers in sensory motor system.
Move With Balance® brings new ways of moving to the elders. At first, the movements may be slow and difficult for them. Their nervous systems feel a sense of chaos while they are learning. But after they have practiced and repeated the movements, new neural pathways are laid down. The now-improved brain puts those movements on automatic pilot. Change has taken place.
At any age we can still learn balance, how to be grounded, how to know where we are in space, how to stay centered and aware, how to feel the brain/ body connection.
Our movements, performed in the manner described, will strengthen the integration of the sensory-motor and the vestibular systems of all who perform them, no matter what the age. Elders become more present in their bodies. They know where they are in space. They are balanced from the inside out— from their nervous systems to their physical surroundings. Their whole brains are activated. They become more confident in their movements, moving with ease and comfort. Then they become willing to exercise beyond the program.
Awards
Move With Balance® has received prestigious awards for work with healthy aging for senior citizens.
More…
Independent Evaluations
"Elder fall rates declined by 38%. Our preliminary results look very, very promising. I think Move With Balance® has promise for those with cognitive shortcomings who fall a lot, whether they be in institutions or in homes." Dr. Lorrin Pang, MD,
The Move With Balance® program has been independently evaluated. Follow the "More…" link to see the details of three studies, including the June 4, 2012 study just quoted.
More…
Testimonials
Following a 10 week Move With Balance® Training program at Roselani Place, we talked to some of the participants and recorded their personal experiences using the program. In addition to these video testimonials, we have receiving written recommendations from professionals, and have included a few on the testimonials page.
More…
Already a Member?
If you've already joined, click here to go to members page. Sometimes we may need you to log in by re-entering your email address into the Join form, especially if you're using a different computer.
Members Only…
Facebook Community Page!
Please help us create an internet community! Go to our new Facebook page, click "Like", and add your comments, pictures, stories. Help make this a place to discuss the program, and to meet people who are finding ways to enhance the lives of all older adults.
Go To Move With Balance on Facebook…
Join Us
Once you buy the book, you have access to over 60 videos on the website. 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. Please fill out your name and email. You will also be asked for a password to get into the Members Only section.
Others who have not brought the book yet, can “Join Us”, too. Please fill out your name and email. You will then receive Move With Balance® news and updates. You can join us when you are ready.
As a member, you will also find how-to coaching for extending this work along one of three application models. For instance, there is a Group Leader Manual available at this time for the Group Leader Model. More will be coming.
Our intention is to create an online community of members who share and interact. This will organically develop. Once web community grows, we will give you access to a widespread and growing community through webinars, access to experts in the field, interactive blogs, and other forms of networking. We will include new activities, helpful supplies, and news from the world of elder care. As you get more involved with the program, you'll want to consider an online membership as this develops.
Join…
How 
Works
Our culture expects older people to decline, not move—to be "set in their ways" and not try new things. But research has shown that the brain learns and changes throughout our lives. We have to exercise our brains to keep them growing.
This is best done by coordinated movement—activities that combine movement with cognitive skills. For example, we move, but while we move we read, or recognize shapes, or recite a poem. Ideally, in a single activity we stimulate many senses—for example, visual, auditory, and kinesthetic at the same time. 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. We call this the “Progressive Challenge.”
More…
Healthy Aging
Move With Balance® is a unique, award-winning program that uses movement to help prevent falls and enhance cognitive functions. The program has developed over the years, integrating research in vision training, kinesiology, and brain plasticity.
Move With Balance® began in 2006 as a regional project on the island of Maui, Hawaii, a project focused on preventing falls and fall-related injuries in our growing population of frail elders. MWB is founded on two unique and innovative elements. Since 2005 Giving Back® has brought the MWB program to over 1,500 seniors at Maui congregate meal sites, nursing homes, and assisted-living facilities. About 500 mentors have been involved during that time.