Balance First: A Book That Puts Falls Prevention Before Strength
The Cochrane review of exercise for preventing falls in older people found that balance and functional exercise reduces the rate of falls at high certainty — and its authors were explicit that they were uncertain about the effect of programmes built primarily around resistance training. Most books in this space still lead with strength anyway. Balance First is built the other way round.
A Home Programme, Not a Gym Programme
Balance First: Balance and Strength Exercises to Stay Steady, Strong and Independent After 60 is a practical, home-based programme for adults over 60. Every balance exercise is specified with its support — the kitchen worktop, the back of a solid chair, the wall — because a support is not a caveat here, it is the method. The book runs to 134 pages across six parts.
What's Inside
Part I sets out why balance comes first, including what actually changes with age and what the evidence does and does not show. Part II is the gate before any exercise begins — a full medical disclaimer, a one-page self-screen, the conversation worth having with a GP, and simple self-tests a reader can repeat over time. Part III, the part the whole book is built around, is a genuine four-level balance progression from both hands on the worktop to standing unsupported. Part IV moves to strength — sit-to-stand, step-ups, carrying the shopping, and getting up off the floor. Part V covers home hazards, footwear and habit, and Part VI closes with straight answers: the programmes laid out in full, a claims table, and where to get real help.
Nine appendices back it up: an exercise library, a printable twelve-week log, a room-by-room home safety checklist, a tear-out sheet of questions for a GP, the national activity guidelines side by side, a glossary, an FAQ, a full checkable reference list, and a one-page fridge card.
Every Claim Graded, Nothing Overstated
Every claim in the book is labelled well established, preliminary, or contested, and several numbers that would have made it sound more authoritative were deliberately left out, with the reason given each time. There are no invented case studies and no reader testimonials — a two-persona Board of Critics review (a geriatric physiotherapist and an acquisitions editor) read the full manuscript and found zero quotation marks and zero fabricated quotes anywhere in it.