How can someone maintain a consistent eye exercise routine?

8 Easy Eye Exercises to Improve Vision: Techniques and Tips 8 Easy Eye Exercises to Improve Vision: Techniques and Tips

Eye exercise

Traditionally known as vision therapy, eye exercise can help to ensure that both eyes function properly together. Eye strengthening exercises may be beneficial for a number of common symptoms. These include skipping lines or words while reading, closing an eye, eyestrain, and headache. Eye turn (strabismus), lazy eye (amblyopia), eye tracking (saccadic dysfunction), and eye teaming (convergence insufficiency) are all issues that can be addressed through vision therapy. Lazy eye exercises have been shown to be particularly helpful in correcting this condition, especially when it’s caught early.

           

           Best Eye Exercises

Palming

 Palming is an eye exercise from yogic practice that suggests relaxing the muscles around the eyes and reducing eye fatigue. To begin, warm your hands by rubbing them together. Close your eyes and place the palm of each hand over the corresponding cheekbone.  For five minutes, place one hand over each eye and inhale deeply.

Blinking

Our blink rate slows when we spend time on digital devices. The eyes may become dry as a result, resulting in a sand-like, gritty, and worn-out appearance. The tear film can be restored by blinking consciously for a while. The lubricating secretions produced by the oil glands in the eyelids are stimulated by blinking. It also helps to spread the tears over the eyes.

 A blinking exercise may involve closing the eyes, pausing for two seconds, then opening them again.  While the eyes are closed, the eyelids can be consciously squeezed tight for extra stimulation of the oil glands.

Pencil Push-Ups

To teach the eyes to move in closer to one another or to converge when looking at a close object, pencil push-ups are commonly used. Hold a pencil at arm's length while wearing your best near vision correction to perform a pencil push-up. Focus on the tip of the eraser.  If there is a letter on the eraser, get it in focus, so it’s legible.  Now slowly move the pencil towards your nose, keeping the eraser or letter single and focused.  Once it goes double, draw it away from the eyes again.  Several times, repeat. 

Near And Far Focus

 Training your focusing system to engage and relax in the appropriate manner is made easier by switching between near and far focus. Hold your thumb 10 inches from your face and focus on it for 15 seconds.  Alternately, to more effectively engage your focusing system, you can hold a letter-covered close object. Change your focus to a target 20 feet (6 meters) away after 15 seconds and keep it there for 15 seconds more. Return to your thumb.  Repeat several times. 

Figure Eight

Some people have trouble using the eyes to follow an object. One can work on this by practicing figure eights. Choose a spot on the floor that is ten feet away from you. With your eyes, trace an imaginary figure eight.  After thirty seconds, switch directions.

20-20-20 Rule

When we use our eyes for near work, our focusing system can become fatigued.  Our eyes can also dry out.  Scheduling regular breaks can help to alleviate some of this strain.

 The 20-20-20 rule is easy to remember.  Focus for 20 seconds on a target 20 feet away for every 20 minutes of near work. You can now return to your near activity.

Brock String

Frederick Brock of Switzerland, a pioneer in vision therapy, developed the Brock String. It can be used for a variety of exercises to train the visual system.

 

Tie a loop on each end of the Brock String to set it up. Put one of the loops on a doorknob. Place the three beads there. The distance bead should be placed closest to the doorknob in order to accomplish this. The middle bead should sit 2-5 feet from you.  Your nose should be six inches away from the near bead. Keep the string straight up in front of your face. A sequence of exercises can be performed with the Brock String to train the eyes in tracking, alignment, and focusing.

Barrel Card

The barrel card trains the eyes to turn in together, or converge, to view a near object.

To begin, hold the barrel card parallel to your nose so the circles are aligned horizontally, and the largest circles are furthest away from the nose. Close each eye. One eye will see red circles, while the other will see green ones. Adjust as necessary to ensure that each eye sees the same amount of the card and there is no tilt. Now, focus your eyes on the circles furthest away from you. The two images should overlap, producing a single red-green circle. After 5 seconds, shift your gaze to the middle circle. Finally, move your gaze to the smallest closest circle. It is important to note that the circles which you are not focused on will appear double; this is normal. Once you have completed one cycle, relax your eyes. You should work up to completing 10 cycles, holding for 10 seconds on each of the three circles.