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Seniors get minds and bodies into balance

A Priddis man who watched his elderly friends struggle with the challenges of getting older is now offering seniors a better quality of life through brain-stimulating movement exercises.
Dana Luebke demonstrates one of the exercises he teaches seniors that helps improve balance through his Brain and Body Fitness sessions held at the Sheep River Library.
Dana Luebke demonstrates one of the exercises he teaches seniors that helps improve balance through his Brain and Body Fitness sessions held at the Sheep River Library.

A Priddis man who watched his elderly friends struggle with the challenges of getting older is now offering seniors a better quality of life through brain-stimulating movement exercises.

Licensed Brain Gym consultant/instructor Dana Luebke began teaching Foothills seniors how to improve their mobility and confidence through weekly Brain and Body Fitness sessions at the Sheep River Library in Turner Valley starting in 2013.

The Brain Gym program was designed to develop the brain’s neural pathways using a series of movements that integrate the body and mind to improve concentration, memory and coordination.

“I was really concerned because I have a number of friends who are getting elderly and in many cases they were less sure of their movements, less sure of their balance and they started falling,” he said. “Once they started falling their quality of life went really downhill.”

Luebke focuses his teachings on the ABCs of movement: awareness, balance and coordination.

“As people get older they expect their bodies to keep up with them the same way they used to,” he said. “The first step is to slow down and get their awareness going so they are actively aware of how they are moving. Over time that can speed up again if they keep the awareness at the level the muscles can work.”

When Luebke started offering Brain and Body Fitness to seniors, he was also offering the Brain Gym program to schools around the world as an artist in residence.

The school program was received in the first 20 years, but Luebke said it dwindled significantly when cuts were made to art programs.

“The curriculum is so heavily focused on math and science and reading literacy that they don’t have much time for movement,” he said. “I have a goal to get movement literacy as part of the education in Alberta, but the people who are most receptive are really childhood teachers.”

Luebke then realized the elderly could benefit from those same teachings and contacted the Sheep River Library to ask if he could teach seniors the movements.

“They help older people to heal some of their life stresses and help to increase their ease and surety of movement and quality of life as they age,” he said. “I notice people standing taller. I notice more coordination and ease in their walking. I notice less tense shoulders.”

One of the methods Luebke teaches is to active muscles in the feet and stimulate coordination using acupuncture points.

“That’s something they can do every time they put on their shoes or take off their socks,” he said. “You use your fingers to press against the toes and have the toes press against the fingers. It’s little isometric exercises.”

Luebke also teaches gentle stretching exercises to lengthen muscles, increase blood flow and reduce stress.

“One of the things that happens is our modern society with all of the technology and stimulation of the nervous system is our systems tend to get over stimulated and stressed,” he said. “It builds up tension in the body. That interferes with our posture and our ability to focus and concentrate.”

Luebke said these, and other movements he teaches, connects the brain to the body, he said.

“They are noticing the relationship between their brain and body - how they feel physically and how that relates to how they function mentally,” he said. “As a society in the west we do a lot of living out of the neck on up. If we try to do everything with our heads there is going to come a time when that’s not going to work at its best efficiency.”

Luebke gave an example that if a person uses one leg rather than two the muscles tire out quickly because there is no balance.

“If all the parts of your brain are working together with all parts of the body it relieves repetitive strain,” he said. “One woman who was with me for two years, when she started she could not stand on one leg. The last class she was at she was able to stand on one leg with her eyes closed for a few seconds. That’s a massive improvement for not even being able to stand on one leg with her eyes open.”

Barbara Zimmer, a woman in her 60s, who is often on the go and very active, also noticed a difference after attending Brain and Body Fitness for seniors.

“I have got new skills for balance in walking, but also energy and emotional balance,” said the Turner Valley area resident. “One of the biggest differences for me is body awareness. The head says, ‘Let’s do this’ and the body says, ‘Not so fast.’ It doesn’t have the energy level that I had when I was in my 20s and 30s, so I pace myself better.”

Since taking Luebke’s classes, Zimmer now integrates the stretches into her morning routine.

“It’s been an awareness to be more gentle with myself instead of try to push through when things are painful, to re-evaluate is there things I can do differently or stretches that will help move this out,” she said.

Luebke is looking to start another Brain and Body Fitness for seniors session this winter or spring.

Anyone interested in joining is asked to contact the Sheep River Library at 403-933-3278.

For more information go to languageofmovement.ca

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