Anne Peterson Quotations

You start to use your hands when you get out of a chair. Your legs just get weaker.

It's the community-dwelling seniors, people in their homes who have not fallen yet, who are, maybe, leaning toward a sedentary lifestyle. You tend to do less and less. It's this snowball effect.

You train your brain and your muscles to move accordingly if you should lose your balance. It's one thing to be active during the day. It's another thing to do specific exercises to strengthen your legs, and that's what we're encouraging people to do so that when they do their activities, they're easier to do and they're safe and they don't get as sore and hopefully don't get injured.

It's not as simple as exercise will prevent all falls, but it can prevent a lot of falls. There are people who have disease situations -- stroke, Parkinson's, inner ear problems, they've had a hip replacement or they've had joint issues. There are situations where it's a little more complicated, and we help those people as well. But there's this other whole large group of people.

Not everybody can go to a gym. They can do some simple leg strengthening exercises at home. It's a good start.

If you do fall once, the tendency is you have a fear of falling. Your body gets tense and you're really increasing your chances of falling by being more careful.