Aashi Dahiya
Apr 16, 20

Exercise is a crucial part of your life. Be it working out in the gym to pump up your body or solving crossword puzzles to increase your mental health and speed. Exercise as a term entails every aspect of your health - be it your mind or specific organs of your body. Your body’s most important and sensitive organs like your eyes need consistent caring too. But do you take care of your eyes? Again, eye exercises!

Eye exercises are not a new idea. Since ancient times, people have been putting the strength of their eyes to test and improve on it. Continuing on the same idea, we will teach you how to perform exercises for your eyes. Put your gear on, but first, let’s understand what eye exercises are?

What are eye exercises and why are they important?

Eye exercises are simple techniques aimed at improving your vision and the strength of your eye muscles. While it is important to take care of your body, eye exercises gain even more significance due to the type of lifestyle we are all living.

From little children to older adults, all of us spend a major part of the day staring into computers, phones, or other digital gadgets. Whether it is our moms playing candy crush, dads spamming our inbox with WhatsApp forwards, little ones with their games, or our addiction to Instagram reels (guilt) - the definition of family time has changed.

While they are fun and enjoyable activities, we tend to lose track of time scrolling through multiple apps. The added screen time put high pressure on our eye muscles and even negatively impacts our vision.

On top of that, the fact that we are more dependent on Zomato and Swiggy than ever, making poor nutritional choices. Lack of nutrient-dense meals again affects our eye health.

With all of this combined, we begin to experience - blurred vision, headaches, double vision, tired, dry or lazy eyes, and irritation.

That is where the role of eye exercises comes in.

Benefits of eye exercises include:

Less stress on the eyes
Better vision
Better focus
Easy eye movements
Improvement in blood circulation

5 eye exercises to improve vision

Don’t worry, you can still enjoy your day in the new digital device age and keep your eyes healthy with eye muscle exercises.

Here are some best exercises for eyes that can be done anywhere, anytime:

Palm on the eyes

One of the simplest eye exercises is palming. Palming is considered a yogic exercise and chances are that you may have performed it sometime in your life. Palming reduces eye strain and gives your eyes the relaxation they need.

How to do it:

Rub your hands together
Close your eyes
Place the palm of your hand onto your closed eyes & over the cheekbones
Breathe deeply
Repeat

One set of palming takes merely 40 seconds. We recommend you to do it at least for 5 minutes a day.

Blinking

Do you know you blink nearly 19,200 times in a day? And we bet you only notice the blinking roughly 10 times?

Blinking is among the top eye strengthening exercises. The catch is that you have to do it consciously and with concentration. Our eyes can dry out with the long hours of usage. Blinking helps in restoring the tear film by pumping up oil glands in your eyelids.

How to do it:

Sit back and relax
Be conscious of your blink
Close your eyes and concentrate
Pause for two seconds
Repeat

Though there’s not much to explain about this exercise. You should 10-15 times in one go and relax your eyes for 20 seconds. Repeat this 4-5 times. This will make your eyes feel refreshed!

Eye Roll

You are the main character in your story! You must eye rolled at something you dislike sometimes. But this is not the eye roll we are talking about.

Eye rolling is a very common eye exercise for double vision and relaxation. It helps your eyes relieve the strain they might be feeling.

How to do it:

Sit up straight
Keep your head still
Slowly roll your eyes up and down
Roll your eyes clockwise and anti-clockwise
Repeat

It is a fun exercise that you can do anywhere to throw some shade and to relax your eyes. Do 10 repetitions of each eye movement and you’re done!

Eye Press

Pressing eyes is exactly what it sounds to be. It is one of the most effective exercises for the eyes. Eye press not only helps in relaxing your eye muscles but also improves your vision.

How to do it:

Sit back straight
Close your eyes
Inhale deeply
Put all your fingers on your eyelids
Press gently and hold for 10 seconds
Repeat

A word of caution: Do not press your eyes harshly or you’ll end up hurting yourself. Eye press is a simple exercise but excessive pressure can hurt you. You should also be wary of how you again open your eyes - slowly and gently. Suddenly opening your eyes after an eye press can leave you with dizzy vision.

20-20-20 rule

This one is less of an eye exercise and more of a recommendation to keep your eyes healthy. You know how you need tea breaks right after finishing up a task. The same goes for your eyes. Except for a tea break, they need a relaxation break.

Your eyes can dry out during long hours of work, especially when you working on paper or a computer with added straining. 20-20-20 rule can actually help you to get relief, improve your vision and enhance your focus.

How to do it:

Take a break after every 20 minutes of work
Look at an object 20 feet away
Stare at it for 20 seconds
Resume your activity

You can do the 20-20-20 rule as many times as you want throughout the day. This time gap helps your eyes to retain their focus after required relaxation.

The Take Away

Eye exercises are essential for anyone and everyone. Whether you are a school-going student or retired personnel, the responsibility of keeping your eyes healthy is onto you - eye exercises are here to help.

To learn more about eye care and vision, look out for this space at Aqualens.in