Brains and Balance Class Participant with Multiple Sclerosis Improves Dynamic Balance by 4 seconds!!!

In my latest Brains and Balance Training session at the Woodland Community and Senior Center, a 78-year old class participant improved her dynamic balance and agility score by 4 seconds!  In other words, she was able to get up from a chair, walk around a cone that is eight feet away and return to her seat four seconds faster than she did on the first day of class!!!
 

This quick-on-your-feet skill can save your life if you're walking across the street and the light turns before you're all the way across the intersection.  Dynamic balance can help you get a pot of boiling water off the stove or answer the phone or front door in a hurry.   We need dynamic balance to get through life safely andbeing agile can save your life in an emergency.

Her exceptional improvement is amazing in several ways.

First, she is 78 years old!  Yay Kate!  On the first day, her scores were 12. 5 and 11.8 seconds to get up, walk eight feet around the cone and return to her chair.  On the last day of class, her scores were 8.8 and 7.8 seconds; both were consistently faster and her walking gait was stronger and more stable. It's never too late to improve your balance and mobility!!!

Second, the class is only four weeks long and Kate missed an entire week of training due to travel.  She kept doing her homework exercises while away and when she came back, she jumped right into the new material as if she was there the entire time.

I urge people to attend all eight sessions but Kate is proof that you get out of the class what you put into it; she did her homework drills as prescribed and her body was ready for more!

But the main reason her four second improvement was so awesome is because Kate has multiple sclerosis.  That's right; she has been living with multiple sclerosis since 1995.  For twenty-three years this woman has been exercising and trying to stay ahead of the disease process.  She came into class with a smile on her face and left with an even bigger smile!

When I told her the score improvement, she was thrilled and said, "I'm still improving!".  She improved her lower body strength by two chair stands and knocked four seconds off her Eight Foot Up and Go test.  Excellent job for 78 years old; OUTSTANDING performance for someone living with multiple sclerosis.

Next Brains and Balance Training session at Woodland Community and Senior Center is
August 7th-August 30th.  Tuesday and Thursdays.  1pm-2:30pm.  $125 for 8 sessions.