Eye exercises help relax and strengthen your eye muscles and may help you maintain flexibility in the muscle that bends your lens to focus at different distances. Eye exercises can't prevent the effects of aging, disease or some medications, but they can help reduce eye strain. If your child suffers from lazy eye, eye muscle exercises may be part of her treatment plan.
External Muscles
Each of your eyes has six external muscles that hold the eyeball in place and move it around. The four rectus, or straight, muscles move your eyes up, down and laterally, while the two oblique muscles move your eyes in diagonal directions. These muscles control your eyes in tandem, so it is not possible to exercise these muscles in one eye without moving the other eye as well. Exercises that target the external eye muscles strengthen their ability to keep your eyes in alignment and help prevent eye strain and headaches.
Internal Muscle
The muscle inside your eye---the ciliary muscle---is circular and bends the lens to accommodate the distance you are viewing. When you focus on distant objects, the ciliary muscle is relaxed; it contracts to focus on close-up objects. Aging, poor health, constant close-up work and some medications degrade the ability of the ciliary muscle to bend the lens and focus in the near end of the visual range. Exercises for the ciliary muscle shift focus between near and distance vision to help this muscle maintain flexibility.
Lazy Eye
Lazy eye is a condition in which one eye is weaker than the other. Doctors may treat this condition by using a patch to cover the stronger eye to exercise the weaker one. Eye exercises, such as small print crossword puzzles, video games or similar visually challenging activities may be a part of the treatment to strengthen the weaker eye. If your child has this condition, he must receive treatment before age 9 or he may never achieve normal two-eye vision, according to experts at the University of Iowa.
External Muscle Exercises
Exercises to strengthen the your outside muscles involve simple, repeated movement. For example, the information website Eyesite recommends that you look up and hold your eyes in place for five seconds, then relax. Look down for five seconds and relax. Repeat this sequence five times and then blink for a few seconds. Or to exercise the lateral muscles, look left and hold for five seconds, then relax. Look right, hold for five seconds then relax. Repeat this sequence five times, then blink for a few seconds.
Ciliary Exercise
To exercise your ciliary muscle, Eyesite recommends the following. Focus on an object a few inches away, then shift your focus to an object in the distance. Repeat ten times and then blink your eyes. If you have a job or hobby that involves prolonged periods of close up work, you should shift your focus to an object across the room at least every 10 minutes. Hold this distance focus for at least 10 seconds before returning to your close-up work.
