How To Preserve Your Vision With Exercise

Physical exercises are great for toning down or building muscles. But did you know that they can also positively impact your eyes and vision?

There are plenty of exercises for preserving vision. Keep reading to understand the connection between healthy eyes and physical activity!

Learn how to improve your eyes and vision with exercise. #ophlalmogist #eyecare #vision #visioncare #goodvision #2020vision #exercise

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Exercise and Eye Health: What’s the Connection?

Although physical exercises won’t affect your eyes directly as they do with your body muscles, there’s still a connection between the two.

Through physical workouts, you can manage your diabetes and high blood pressure. It’s necessary to control these health conditions because your retina’s blood vessels are severely affected.

This can cause some eye disorders. With the help of regular exercise, you can tackle certain health-affected eye problems.

There are other reasons why staying healthy curbs eye risks:

• Regular 30 minutes of walking or running reduces the risk of cataracts. That’s an age-related eye condition.

• To save your eyes from glaucoma, you don’t even need to do high-intensity training! Moderate to low-impact exercises work fine for reducing pressure inside your eyes.

• Including physical exercises in your weekly routine (at least 3 to 4 times per week) is enough to lower wet age-related macular degeneration! This chronic eye condition causes a blind spot in your central vision or can cause blurry vision.

Apart from these above points, a study shows exercising as a means to promote healthy blood vessels! Continue reading to learn more.

Physical Exercise Promotes Healthy Eye Blood Vessels

According to a study by the American Academy of Ophthalmology in 2020, becoming physically active has boosted the eye’s resilience.

There are some eye problems like macular degeneration, neovascular glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy caused by the overgrowth of blood vessels in your eye. The study reported that exercising may protect your eyes from this excessive growth.

So, how much should you exercise for healthy eyes?

Regularly done, moderate-level exercises are enough to strengthen your eye health. Studies by WHO, AHA (American Health Association), and CDC recommend 150 minutes of aerobic exercise weekly. If you calculate it day-wise, it’s approximately 30 minutes daily and five days per week.

You don’t even have to join a gym or do something extraordinary. Dancing, swimming, cycling, walking, or even active gardening is fine. Staying physically active is what matters at the end of the day.

List of Aerobic Exercises to Improve Eyesight

Studies to understand the interrelation between exercise and eyesight are still in progress. But for now, it’s evident that exercising manages your health better and can prevent causing a few health-related eye conditions.

Aerobic exercises increase the body’s ability to use oxygen and increase your heart rate. These activities can lower your blood pressure and increase the good cholesterol in your body!

Here are some aerobic exercises to get you started:

• Swimming
• Running
• Cycling
• Walking
• Climbing Stairs
• Dancing
• Jogging

List of Eye Exercises for Better Eye Health

Apart from the regular physical exercises, there are many eye exercises to improve your visual health!

But before reading further, here’s what you should know. There are no effective eye exercises to treat conditions like astigmatism vision, hyperopia, or myopia.

Eye exercises can only help these refractive errors by optimizing your visual skills and delaying the need for glasses.

Let’s begin with five great eye exercises that you should do daily:

1.   Focus Change

In this exercise, you’ve got to shift your focus. Take a seat and move your finger slowly back and forth. Move it three times. While you do so, change your focus from the finger to something at a distance.

2.   Figure Eight

While you’re seated, pick a point on the floor about ten feet ahead of you. Focus on it while tracing an imaginary eight-figure for 30 seconds and switch directions.

3. The 20–20 rule

If you have a job that requires you to lock your eyes on a computer screen for hours, they are going to strain. Try this 20-20-20 rule: Look at something at a 20-foot feet distance for 20 seconds every 20 minutes.

4. Blinking

Continuous exposure to computer screens can lead to eye dryness. Blink your eyes 10 to 15 times. Close them for about 20 seconds. Keep your eyes lubricated by repeating this exercise a few times a day.

5. Palming

Rub your palms together. Place them on your eyelids gently and feel your eye muscles relax.

Bottom Line

It’s important to keep your body moving—not only for your physical health but also for your visual health.

Visit an eye doctor regularly. Keep checking your prescription glasses to avoid wearing the wrong numbers.

Author Bio: Aaron Barriga is the online marketing manager for Insight Vision Center. With a knack for understanding medical procedures and an interest in eye and vision health, Aaron loves to share what he knows and what he learns. He blogs to inform readers about the latest eye care technology and other topics related to eye care, especially LASIK. Aaron loves collecting coasters from the different bars and restaurants he visits during his travels.