About Us

The internet is a big place, and often a very impersonal place. I made this page because I want to show you that I'm not a huge corporation or a nameless person hiding behind a computer, just a real person with a passion for helping people improve their balance and quality of life.

My name is Mike Ross, and this is my wife Deb.

We live in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, with our dog Madeline, a Belgian Sheepdog, probably one of the friendliest dogs in the world.

My Credentials

I spent four years at Elmhurst College earning a degree in Fitness Management, graduating Magna Cum Laude. Then I was then certified by the National Academy of Sports Medicine as a Performance Enhancement Specialist.

For the last 8 years, I have been working full time with older adults at the Gottlieb Center for Fitness, one of the premier hospital-based fitness centers in the greater Chicago area.

This Website

In 2008 I decided it would be great to share the things I have learned with the rest of the world, and that was the beginning of TheBalanceManual.com. Since then over 7,000 people have been through our Better Balance Ecourse.

Our Mission Statement:

To help people over 60 live actively and independently for
as long as possible by creating and providing helpful and
enjoyable exercises and exercise advice.

Every day we get many emails like the one below from people telling us how much they have benefitted from our emails and other content.

"I get so many emails that I'm unsubscribing from most of them,
BUT no way do I want to miss yours! They are so valuable
to me and some older friends who have also lost any balance
we once had. It is so gratifying to see someone who TRULY
thinks of others! Thank you from the bottom of my heart."
-Joan M., 79, California

We hope you, too, will benefit from our information. Thank you for visiting.