Workout for eyes: 3 minutes is all it takes

When we hear the word healthy, we all are inclined to think about food like vegetables and fruits, and also foods that are less in fat. Along with making sure we eat the right food, we all do a little bit of physical exercise or in some cases, we even hit the gym. This is because that is what being healthy means and the only way we can strengthen those muscles in our body is by doing all the above. Let me stop you there for a second… Think! Yes, I said muscles in our body… which includes the muscles in our eyes. 

I think we can all agree that at least 9 out of the 10 of you reading this haven’t exercised your eyes before. Now you might be wondering, how can you strengthen the muscles that hold our eyes together? Well I have a very simple answer, just like you would lift weights at the gym, but this is a tad bit less stressful and doesn’t require technical equipment nor does it need a personal trainer. Your eye muscles, just like all the other muscles in your body can weaken due to age, injury, prolonged near work or lack of use. This is why it is important to ensure you are “training” your eyes along with the rest of your body. Your eyes are held together in position by 12 muscles, 6 in each eye. These muscles are very flexible and help us look in all directions. 

However, the strength of these muscles weakens as we start doing increased amounts of near work. This includes activities like reading, using the computer and phone for long hours or even doing a lot of writing. Being engaged in close work means that your eye muscles need to work in coordination to converge (come together) so that a single image is seen. This causes an increased strain on the muscles.

So, due to an overhaul of work on these muscles, they weaken causing us to have blurry or double vision. At times, even a slight pain or discomfort around the eyes. Doing some simple exercises that can be incorporated into your daily habits could alleviate these symptoms. 

The simplest form of exercise is called “pen to nose”. But this can be performed with anything you have around the house (pen, pencil, crayon, toothbrush) or even just by using your finger as the point of focus. 

1. Hold your index finger out at arm’s length and focus on the tip of the finger. 

2. Starting at arm’s length, bring your finger closer to your nose. Make sure the tip is always in focus.

3. If the tip of your finger gets blurry, move your finger backwards till it’s in focus and try to come closer to the nose again. Repeat this step if needed

4. Do this 2-3 min every day or about 10 times a day with breaks in between

5. Your goal is to reach your nose and still be able to see a single clear image of the tip of your finger.

6. When you have achieved step 5, that means all the muscles in your eyes are now working together in sync.

And just like that you’ve now worked out your eyes and have done yourself a great favour! Now that you know how easy it is to exercise the muscles in your eyes, you can continue to do this at any time of the day and will have healthier and more active muscles even at a later age. Now more than ever, in this digitally fuelled age, it is very vital that we all continue to do this to improve the quality of our lives!

(The writer is a clinical orthoptist who works in the private sector in Melbourne, and also a lecturer at Vision Care Academy Sri Lanka. She previously worked in Sri Lanka and holds an MSc in Orthoptics and a BSc in Medical Science from the University of Technology, Sydney. You can reach the writer via email: [email protected] or LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikitha-prakash-3b3617123.)