Eye Gymnastics - Instructions and Benefits

Eye Gymnastics - Instructions and Benefits /

What is ophthalmic gymnastics and what does it help against?

If you find that your eyes tire faster than before, or you find it difficult to read letters up close, then it does not necessarily have to be because of your eyesight. Often just the eye muscle is out of shape.


contents

  • What is ophthalmic gymnastics and what does it help against?
  • Eye training
  • presbyopia
  • Seeing on the screen
  • Latent squint
  • training
  • Dry eyes
  • Tips
  • Special exercises
  • Training for better blood circulation in the eyes
  • eye massage
  • swell

Eye training

The American ophthalmologist William Bates (1860-1931) believed that people do not need glasses until old age when they train the eye muscle, get enough sunlight and heat and do not overexert their eyes. There is no scientific proof for this and many eye diseases can not be treated with eye training alone. However, eye exercises are useful to relax overloaded eyes (for example, from our work on the PC).

Our eyes are exposed to great stress every day. (Image: marinafrost / fotolia.com)

presbyopia

In old age the eye lens becomes immobile. However, in order to see objects close up, the lens must deform, causing the eye muscles to contract. However, as this ciliary muscle loses its elasticity in old age, an increasingly rigid lens now encounters an impotent muscle. The result: we are seeing things in the neighborhood getting worse and worse.

Eye training is also important for age-independent disorders of the eye muscles.

Seeing on the screen

Working on the laptop strains our eyes. We constantly change the view between keyboard, screen and templates. This can lead, among other things, to blurred vision, tight muscles, double vision, tired, achy, red, watery or dry eyes. Headaches are inevitable.

When the eyes are strained, the eye barely moves. The natural eyelid blow stops. Instead of 10 to 15 times per minute, we close and open our eyelids only once or twice. The result: The eyes dry out, redden, burn and itch.

Latent squint

Latent strabismus is a balance disorder of the eye muscles. The sufferers try to compensate for this disturbed coordination and this leads to fatigue, stress, headache and eye pain, double vision and concentration problems. Here orthopedic binocular therapy helps preventively (binocular means in both eyes).

training

It is one of the normal manifestations of aging that the muscles lose their strength and the eye lens their flexibility. The solution is not fatalism, but the same as with other muscle weaknesses: training. The eye muscle is actually a muscle and muscles can be strengthened by specific exercises. Although ophthalmic gymnastics can not prevent you from having to wear reading glasses at some point, it does extend the time until the time comes.

Dry eyes

Dry eyes show burning pain or the feeling of having a foreign body in the eyes. This pain occurs when the eye lens is not moistened with tear fluid. Cause can be an illness, dry air (for example, by air conditioners), looking at the computer screen or medication.

Ophthalmologists recognize that tears are running out because the sufferers are sick. They drop fluorescein into the eye and measure the time between the blink and the end of the tear film.

Simple exercises provide the affected person but already relief. These include frequent blinking, gazing into the distance and / or massaging the eyes.

Eye training and eye massage can strengthen tired eyes. (Image: sebra / fotolia.com)

Tips

Here are some tips to help prevent eye fatigue:

  1. Look into the distance and fix objects there. This will interrupt your fixed gaze and keep your muscles flexible.
  2. Make sure there is enough humidity in the home and at work. Set up humidifiers / nebulizers, spray their houseplants more often, and ventilate regularly. Also, water bowls over the heater help.
  3. Blink frequently and consciously. This will protect your eyes from drying out.
  4. Cover your eyes several times an hour with your palms. This gives the lens and muscle an important respite.
  5. Grimace your mouth. Rub the jawbones with your fingers, opening your mouth like a gasp. This is dumbbell training for the eye muscle.
  6. Go for walks as often as possible, preferably in the woods.
  7. Give your eyes a splash of cold water at least once a day.
  8. Drink enough.

Special exercises

In addition to these general eye aids, there are special eye exercises that keep the muscle moving:

  1. Hold one index finger a hand's breadth in front of your nose, the second index finger two hands wide. Then you also search for an object in the room. Now fix your gaze alternately on one of the fingers and the third point. Repeat this exercise daily for several minutes.
  2. Cover the left eye with your left hand, extend your arm and open your right palm in front of your right eye. Now focus on one point on the right palm and slowly move it towards the eye. Then pull your hand back to the starting point.
  3. Extend both arms halfway, open the palms towards the eye and look at it. Now carefully move your hands to the left and right. The eyes are looking for fixed points. They look at each other's hands until they disappear from view, then bring them back to their starting position.
  4. Lift your left hand with your arm at arm's length and look at the upward pointing finger. Now extend your right arm and lift your finger so that your right index finger is behind your left. You can now see three fingers when you look at your left index finger. Then fix your gaze on the right. First, the left finger is sharp, if you change your look the right one. At the end you look at another point in the room.
  5. To keep the eyelens flexible, stand up, spread your legs and press your arms into your hips. With the upper body you swing now several dozens of times back and forth. You wink every time. Let your gaze wander around the room.
  6. Keep your head straight, as well as your back. Now roll your eyes three times in a circle and fix your eyes, first to the right, then to the left.

Training for better blood circulation in the eyes

In order to better bleed your eyes and improve their performance, you can do simple exercises every day:

  1. For that, sit down first.
  2. Then look up, then forward, then down.
  3. Next, look to the right, then to the left.
  4. Now look to the top right, then to the bottom left.
  5. And vice versa: First to the top left, then to the bottom right.
  6. Let the eyes circle. First turn right, then turn left.
  7. Clench your eyelids and open them relaxed again.

eye massage

To relieve the eyes, hold hands to the back of the head and press the thumbs firmly against the depressions behind the earlobes under the bone. This pressure reduces the pressure on the eyes. Slowly release pressure and repeat until pressure is released.
Now imagine a recumbent eight in front of their eyes. They follow this Eight with their eyes without moving their eyes. Then close both eyes and follow this eight without opening your eyes. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)

swell

Wolfgang Hätscher-Rosenbauer: Little eye school. Compact guide: exercises and tips for healthy and lively vision. Mankau Verlag. ISBN: 3863743148