"Exercising https to piano music may help improve balance and prevent falls among the elderly. A new study shows older men and women who participated in a pianomusicbased exercise program https were less likely to suffer a fall than those who didnt. Those who exercised to piano music also showed improvements in balance and the manner or style of walking. Each year onethird of the population  years and older experiences at least one fall and half of those fall repeatedly write researcher Andrea Trombetti MD of University Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine of Geneva Switzerland and colleagues in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Exercise can counteract key risk factors for falls such as poor balance and consequently reduce risk of falling in elderly communitydwelling individuals. Researchers say a large proportion of falls in elderly people occur while walking so improving gait and balance can have a major impact on fall prevention. Benefits of Exercising to Music In the yearlong study researchers looked at the effect of a pianomusicbased exercise program https on gait balance and fall prevention in a group of  older adults living in a senior citizen community. Half of the participants took part in a musicbased exercise program during the first six months while the other half did only their normal activities. The exercise program consisted of a onehour weekly class with a wide range of balancechallenging movements set to piano music such as walking in time to the piano music and responding to the changes in the musics rhythm. During the second six months of the study the first group returned to their normal exercise routines while the second group participated in the musicbased exercise program. The results showed that after the first six months of musicbased exercise there were significant improvements in balance and overall function compared to the others in the normalactivity group. There were also far fewer falls in the first group  falls per  participants vs.  falls per  participants. In particular researchers found elderly people who took part in the musicbased exercise program increased their usual walking speed and stride length and improved their overall manner of walking. Those who took part in the piano musicbased program in the second half of the study also experienced similar benefits."