Geriatric Rehabilitation and Bones For Life:
In about a month’s time, I will have the honor of presenting the research that my colleagues—Cynthia M. Allen, Shereen D. Farber, and Mark O. Farber—and I have been putting together on the Bones for Life® program. The conference where we will be presenting our findings is Movement 2017: Brain, Body, Cognition, hosted at the University of Oxford from July 9 to July 11. To say the least, I am ecstatic that I get to share some of my ideas with others whose passion is human movement!
To give you a sneak peek at what we will be talking about regarding geriatric rehabilitation in merry old England, I want to outline briefly the work that we have been doing. With the objective of widening the pool of limited quantitative research in the field of somatic education, we studied 25 participants with a mean age of 73 as they attended a weekly 90-minute Bones for Life® session for six weeks. These sessions teach the participant many different exercises, including the “Bouncing on Heels” exercise, shown here. The results showed that following these sessions, the participants’ physical function, posture, and balance had improved.
Our interpretation of these results holds some exciting implications for geriatric rehabilitation for seniors with access to the Bones for Life® program. The evidence we gathered suggests that not only does the program improve stability in movements such as single-leg stands, walking, turning, reaching, and climbing, but also that participation in such a program has a positive influence on a person’s happiness, calmness, mental peace, and energy.
With consideration for the low cost of Bones for Life® compared to other physical therapy programs in mind, the results of our study also suggest that it may be a safe, inexpensive, and, most importantly, effective alternative for seniors who wish to improve their quality of life.
I am excited to help share our findings about geriatric rehabilitation with the Movement 2017 community.
If you are interested in learning more about Bones for Life®, or any of the other programs that I offer, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me.