Gymnastics for the eyes has been used for a long time. There are a large number of different exercises on the Internet now. People promise that if you do these exercises, you will completely restore vision with myopia. This is both true and false. Why? Sometimes vision deteriorates, but this is not myopia. It's just muscle spasm or weakness. In this situation, active regular eye exercises can really restore vision.
When does eye gymnastics help?
In true myopia, the eye is drawn out and the image is focused some distance in front of the retina rather than on it. Therefore, everything is blurry in the distance and the eye sees well up close. This is myopia or myopia - what every third student suffers from in the 11th grade. To prevent vision problems, exercise alone may not be enough. All children need to visit the eye protection room once a year.
Gymnastics for the eyes will improve cell nutrition, strengthen the muscles of the eye and subjectively improve your vision. But, of course, exercises will not make it round from an elongated eye. By working out the muscles, they can bring your image a little closer to the retina, that is, to the nerve cells.
From my point of view, eye gymnastics is necessary for modern people. It should become a useful habit for our children for life. Indeed, today we clearly understand that neither the phone, nor gadgets, nor the computer will disappear from our world. And they will only be introduced more into our lives.
If your child is faced with the problem of visual impairment, or you have suspicions that the child's vision has fallen -do not self-medicate, lost time can lead to irreversible consequences. In this case, contact immediatelypediatric ophthalmologist.
Where to start gymnastics for the eyes?
I recommend starting eye exercises with morning exercises to prepare our eyes for the day at work. It is never recommended to quickly get out of bed at the wake of the alarm.
Why? Because when we sleep we are relaxed. And in a new mode for the body, you need to enter gradually.
What should be done?
- 1. We open our eyes and close them tightly several times in order for the circular muscle of the eyes to work.
- 2. Forcefully raise our eyebrows as if we are surprised.
- 3. We often blink.
These exercises take 5-10 seconds. After that, our eyes are ready for a new day. You can also smile - it will be just wonderful!
Eye muscle training
What is it for?
Any muscle training improves nutrition and blood supply to cells, any cells. When a cell is properly nourished, its functions naturally improve. We train all the muscle groups that surround our eyeball.
The fact is that in ordinary life, when we need to look somewhere, for example, upstairs, we simply raise our heads. If we need to look to the left, we turn our head, but do not squint our eyes.
Therefore, our muscles weaken somewhat over time. What doesn't work doesn't work!
How to train eye muscles?
We do each exercise 6-8 times.
- 1. We keep our head straight and make eye movements up and down with a maximum amplitude to a slight tension. At the same time, it is imperative to maintain a smile, posture and good mood. We blink often.
- 2. We are trying to look at the left and right ear. The rest is the same - we do it to a slight muscle tension, remember about posture. We often blink at the end.
- 3. Draw a butterfly with a glance in the sequence: from top to bottom, diagonal, from top to bottom, diagonal. Then we change direction: from bottom to top, diagonal, etc. This is how our oblique eye muscles are trained. They blinked.
- 4. Draw a large vertical figure eight and change direction. Then we "put" this eight on its side and we get the sign of infinity. We also draw it in both directions. Blinked. We blink often.
- 5. Draw a big-big circle with the eyes. This exercise can be done at any time. It is undesirable to do it only when your eyes are tired. No extra eye strain required! We blink often.
During the exercises, we definitely connect the psycho-emotional state - we try to feel that we have love inside, care for our eyes. We must still have a very good mood inside, then the effectiveness of our training will only increase.
Exercise "Convergence"
This exercise is also very useful - here we train the internal muscles of the eye. They are very important for ensuring visual functions.
How do we do it?
Very simple. We look at the tip of the nose and look forward. Everything ahead of you will double, and that's okay. We also note that in front, with double vision, vision improves, sharpness increases. Blinked.
An analogue of this exercise can be such a home simulator: take a strip of cardboard (about 20 cm) and draw circles of different colors on it at a distance of 1. 5 cm. Connect them to each other.
How to work with such a simulator?
If you or your child wear glasses, then this exercise can be done without glasses, because nearsighted people can see well up close. You put it to your nose, look at the far circle, count to three, look at the circle closer, and so on until the last circle and back. You do this several times.
I draw your attention to the fact that in your eyes there will be a little double. We do to light tension. We often blink at the end.
Exercise "Palming"
Another very important exercise is Palming. You will find it in Chinese medicine, in many oriental directions. It's a little meditative. This is a relaxation exercise. It needs to be done more often.
You sit down at the table, rub your palms together to keep them warm, and cross them. Form a triangle between them. Make your palms boats and put them on your eyes, elbows on the table. We do not bend the cervical spine, we cover our eyes under the palms. Light must not pass through the hands.
Direct your attention to the center of the palm and imagine some color.
What is the best color to represent? The most perfect is black. You seem to paint over your entire field with black paint.
Why? Because at this moment you can see gray colors, some flashes and so on. You can also imagine blue and green colors. These are relaxing colors. You can represent the sea or the forest. Most importantly, at this moment your head should be empty. This is very difficult to do. To achieve this, bring your attention to your breath: inhale - cool, exhale - warm.
How often to do "Palming"?
It is ideal to do it every half hour for two minutes, with any visual load near. I'm not talking about TV. That is, you should do it often enough. Don't let your muscles get overextended. If you do it right, you will immediately see that your eyes have rested and the world around you has become brighter.
Good visual habits
What good habit to develop and be sure to instill it in your children?
In no case should you bend low when you read and write!
Each person has his own distance from the eyes to the written surface. This is the "jamon distance" - from the elbow to the tip of the fingers that touch the temporal region. This is the ideal distance for the eyes. As soon as you start to bend over, then your muscle is overloaded. Moreover, the speed of the load on this muscle increases exponentially.
I always give the children this example when I teach the "School of Insight": when you sit correctly, it's like you're just walking down the street. But if you lean even a little, it's like putting 50 kg on your shoulders, that is, a sack of potatoes. This is the load experienced by our ciliary muscle.
So, in no case, under no circumstances should you bend low while reading or writing. This is a basic visual habit!
If you are sitting at a computer, at a phone, at a tablet, at any gadget, please hang some picture somewhere far away. It should be small enough, but you should be able to see it well.
For example, it can be a calendar with numbers that you should see, or any emotional picture that you want to look at. Every 15-20 minutes of working at close range, you glance at this picture for 5-10 seconds.
Thus, if you study, read, write, sit at a computer for an hour, you should look into the distance 4 times and palming 2 times. These are the real visual habits.
When I ask, "When you do eye exercises, " most people say it's when they're sick and tired.
This is not entirely correct! You must be one step ahead, that is, do not let them get tired.
How to track the result of gymnastics for the eyes
I had an exemplary case in practice. I asked a teenager
-Have you done eye exercises?
-Yes I did, but I gave up
-Why?
-I didn't see the result.
This is very important - to see the result!
Why? Because short-sighted people, as they saw not very well, continue to see further not very well. But if your eyesight does not worsen, if it does not fall, is this not the result? I think this is a very good result.
How to understand - there is a result, or not a result? There is a very simple way to do this. It is called "determining a further point of clear vision. "It is measured once a month, it is not necessary to measure it every week. It is determined for each eye separately, without correction, that is, without glasses, under the same conditions. The result must be recorded somewhere.
You take small text. It can be an annotation to medicines, for example, or any other finely written text. And the text you use is always the same. Close one eye with your palm, move the text to the distance when you do not see it. And you begin to slowly approach.
When you bring the sheet just enough to see it, you need to fix the distance from the lower orbital bone (under the eye) to the text - this will be your further point of clear vision.
If your further point of clear vision remains in place from month to month, your vision does not deteriorate. If it increases by 1 or 2 centimeters, then your vision improves subjectively. But if your point of closest vision begins to rapidly approach, you are doing something wrong and you should definitely contact an ophthalmologist! This will be your signal to do so.
What does the result depend on?
If you master this gymnastics, what else will the result depend on?
The first is on your mood, on how you do this gymnastics. Be sure to do it in a good mood. Because at this moment, endorphins, or pleasure hormones, are released in our body, and they help put everything in your body in order.
The second, of course, is regularity. If you don't do it every day, then it will never become a habit. And, in the end, at some stage you just quit doing it.
On what else does our success depend? From desire and from knowledge. If you have a desire and you know what to do, then you will be doomed to the result!
Be healthy.