The best fall prevention programs in the research cut falls by about 42%, which means six in ten still happen. Defying Gravity teaches both halves of the job: lowering the risk of falls with the full list of factors most programs never touch, and training what the body does in the two seconds after balance is already gone.
14+ hours, filmed live with Dr. Cobb in the Z-Health studio.
One course, two distinct halves. The first takes more than 400 identified fall risk factors and narrows them to the fifteen that actually matter, with an assessment and a drill for each. The second teaches you 30+ techniques for falling forward, backward, and sideways, because “be careful” isn't a plan: it's what you say when you don't have one.
Most practitioners look at this and think they could piece it together with a balance course, some research, and a few specialty certifications. I spent years looking for that path before I built Defying Gravity because it doesn’t exist as one system.
The disciplines don’t talk to each other. The research is scattered across specialties that never cross-reference. Most importantly, almost none of it teaches what to do when prevention fails and someone actually falls. $21,000 is a conservative estimate of what it would cost just to gather the pieces elsewhere, and that still wouldn’t give you the system. If that sounds like a lot, I understand, but here’s some even more critical math.
What is one client worth to your practice over a year?
If the answer is $500 per month, that client represents $6,000 in annual revenue. If a fall leads to fear, less movement, and eventually the end of your training relationship, the cost of losing one client is already 14x the cost of the course. That fear-and-inactivity cycle is common: people fall, become afraid of falling again, move less, lose capacity, and become more vulnerable to the next fall.
Now multiply that by five.
That’s $30,000.
While that is not a prediction, or a guarantee, it’s based on average statistics which make it a math problem worth considering.
And then there is the far less comfortable question:
What does it cost if you fall?
If you can’t demonstrate, coach, travel, or work normally for several weeks, a fall doesn’t have to end your career to become expensive. It only has to interrupt it.
Defying Gravity is $424. Once.
The full Defying Gravity workshop, filmed live with Dr. Cobb in the Z-Health studio. Every module, every drill, every assessment is here.
A workshop-style deep dive into real client cases, covering the questions practitioners actually asked and Dr. Cobb's answers to them.
The full slide deck in color and printable black and white, a video reference guide, Dynamic Gait Index forms, a polypharmacy resource, and Defying Gravity assessment forms.
More than 120 open and restricted research articles, hand-picked to sharpen your practice and back up your recommendations.
Watch, re-watch, and reference the material whenever you need it, on any device through your browser or the Z-Health mobile app.
Over 400 fall risk factors have been identified. You'll learn the ones that matter most, and what to do about each one.
A prior fall is the strongest predictor of the next one. You'll learn how to take a real fall history, and why most intake forms never get one.
Nearly every balance correction starts at the ankle. If the foot can't feel the ground, nothing above it works properly. Simple sensory testing you can perform in minutes.
Train one and you get better at one. You'll assess and train all four.
Speed, variability, backward walking, and what happens when you add a second task. Risk usually shows up here before it shows up anywhere else.
Depth, contrast, peripheral field testing and why a new pair of glasses can put someone on the floor.
The inner ear has to answer two questions while the head is moving. That's exactly where most balance testing stops.
Nobody can tell you what eight drugs do to one specific person in combination. What to look for, what to flag, and who to refer to.
The specific losses of strength that show up first in falls, plus how to test them, and how to train them.
Without ankle dorsiflexion, the toe doesn't clear the obstacle. There's a number to hit, and you can measure it with the phone in your pocket.
As a reflex test and as a training tool, it's the closest thing to a free result I've found in twenty-five years of reading this literature.
How far a person can actually lean before their balance is gone is less than you'd guess. Four strategies to stop a fall before it's too far gone.
Where to land on the body and in what order.
Most older adults can't get up unassisted, and staying down is a risk of its own. How to check yourself over, then how to get up with an arm or a leg you can't use.
The assessments in an order you can actually perform, and enough structure to build eight to twelve weeks out of it.
My first teachers were Hawaiian jujitsu guys in the seventies, long before anyone worried about keeping kids safe. We'd roll around on mats for a while, then they'd take us outside and throw us on the concrete. I learned early that landing is a skill, and that almost nobody is ever taught it.
Since then I've watched serious head injuries come out of completely ordinary falls, and I've had people die from them. When I finally went into the research, I found a topic that should be a priority for everyone who teaches movement and is instead one of the most neglected areas in the movement sciences.
I build the courses I wish someone had taught me. This is one of those.
I was getting tires changed and I walked across the street to get something to eat. My foot caught on something and I went crashing to the ground. But my body moved automatically in such a way that I avoided hurting myself more than a skinned knee and a few bruises. I didn't break anything. I didn't hit my head. The good news is I managed to fall automatically after all the practice we did — in a way that didn't injure me very much at all. In the past I've fallen and done a lot more damage to myself. Just thought you'd like to know that it works.
Defying Gravity is a completely genius program and concept. I've started using it with my clients who've had serious falls and injuries and it's beautiful to watch how their frozen bodies start to loosen up a little bit and start to accept movement again. The deeper I dive into the preparation for falling, the more it strikes me that we should really be teaching this to people from a very young age — just like reading or counting.
As always, this course contained a wealth of innovative, evidence-based yet practical training. Your coursework always applies to a span of novice to expert practitioners, for their mix of elite down to very clinically-challenged clients. It brings reproducible, turnkey application of brain-based modalities to athletic training and modern rehab.
Every fall prevention course I took before I built this one was written for people in assisted living or after serious neural injury. There was nothing for athletes, nothing for children, and no progression that started with the most compromised person in the room and ran all the way up to somebody moving fast. That is the gap I built this to fill, because falling is not an aging problem. It is a biped problem, and all of your clients are bipeds.
If you don't see measurable improvements in how you assess, coach, and train movement, we'll issue a full refund. No forms. No arguments.
Physical therapists, occupational therapists, personal trainers, strength coaches, chiropractors, and any professional working with older adults, athletes, or post-injury clients. If your work involves helping people move confidently, this course applies to you.
Yes. Defying Gravity focuses specifically on fall-risk assessment, over 30 fear-free falling techniques, and the neuroscience of balance under pressure — content that doesn't appear in the core curriculum in this depth.
Instantly. Once you enroll, your course lives in Z-Health University. Log in from any browser or our mobile app and go at your own pace.
Lifetime access. Watch, re-watch, and reference the material whenever you need it.
Yes. Your purchase includes lifetime access and downloadable content.
30-day results guarantee. Try it for 30 days, and if it doesn't deliver, reach out to support@zhealth.net for a full refund.
Reach us anytime at support@zhealth.net.
14 hours of brain-based fall prevention. 30+ concrete falling techniques. Lifetime access.
Start Defying Gravity Today →By joining our email list, you will receive our weekly blog email and other relevant brain-based content. You can opt out at any time.
*By joining our email list, you will receive our weekly blog email and other relevant brain-based content. You can opt out at any time.
