Review of Eye Exercises

How do you choose the best Eye Exercise program?.

Here are the conclusions drawn from professionals, intensive research and examination, and personal experiences.

Rather than list the best and worst on the Net, I will provide you the information to help you choose wisely.

Here are the tools to draw your conclusions. I will review several key eye exercise techniques and methods, and then give you a list of exercise functions which should be included in a good Eye Exercise Program.

Any exercise program without these will have limited effect and be a waste of money.

There is a checklist at the end of this review.

First we look at the following:

Bates Method.  Palming.  Tromboning.  Edging.

Sunning.  Pirate Patches. and Pinhole Glasses.

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Bates Method

This is a popular system, highly promoted on the Net. There is much debate about its value. Many of the eye exercise techniques mentioned below originate with the Bates Method. The Bates method gets a mediocre grading because its exercises do not address the underlying causes of most vision problems. However, some of the techniques are good. As we note below, some we suggest you do not use. Many programs offered online use at least part, if not all, techniques from the Bates Method. If you read our review of the Bates Method, you will see this is reason for caution.

See our Review of The Bates Method

See also our “How Vision Therapy Works”

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Palming

(From Bates) Palming is the rubbing of the hands together to warm them up, and then placing them over the eyes for anywhere from a few moments to a minute or so. It is relaxing and beneficial. We recommend this in our program, but only as a way of relaxing the eyes after advanced workouts. It does not provide any benefit for issues to do with refractive error, accommodation and synchronization.

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Tromboning

A basic near/far eye movement exercise. For example, hold up a pencil at arms length and focus on the tip and then move it slowly in towards yourself, then slowly back out. Do this for several times, keeping your eyes fixed on the pencil. Tromboning is a good exercise because, for most of us, our lifestyles do not allow us the kind of near/far eye work that was part of everyday life in past generations. We do spend so much more time indoors, and doing close up work. So tromboning has an important role. However, the usual form of tromboning does not eliminate suppression.

We have a unique form of tromboning that does not allow suppression. If you do tromboning it is very important to address the issues of suppression. To our knowledge, no other exercise program does.

The general forms of tromboning cannot directly improve binocular (both eyes working together) synchronization. The exercise could in fact be done with one eye! In other words, if the vision in one eye is suppressed (turned off) you may not even know that one eye is doing all the work. I have seen someone with mild strabismus do tromboning, and they did not even know one eye was off line! This kind of suppression of vision in one eye contributes to deterioration in many refractive errors.

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Edging or Tracking

Edging is where you focus on the edges or lines around objects. Follow the lines to as much detail as you can. The more shapes and movement needed by your eyes to follow these edges, lines and shapes the better. Also vary the distances to objects you choose. Switch from close to far etc.

This exercise is good for the extra ocular muscles, and to a lesser degree the accommodation processes. However, as with tromboning it does not deal with suppression, so errors in accommodation remain hidden. The same is true for several other similar exercises: eg, swinging, tracking etc.

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Sunning

(From Bates) The recommendations for this exercise range from facing into sunlight with the eyes shut, to using a light of some kind. The idea is to close your eyes, while facing bright light, and gently moving the head from side to side, watching the light move in the opposite direction to your movement.

As noted, Bates introduced this technique, but it is also very important to keep in mind that electric lighting was not in use until over half way through his life. Even when it was introduced its brightness and quality were probably inferior to ours.

However, the exercise may have value, in improving pupil dilation/constriction. This process is called myosis, and is responsible for how much light is permitted to enter the eye. It is possible that weakness in this response may, in a small way, contribute to off axis light rays. ie too much light for the eye to focus clearly. (note below how pinhole glasses work ). The gentle movement and transition from dark to light and light to dark may benefit this response.

To gain this benefit we would only recommend “sunning” be done with a suitable lighting, not the sun. A great way to do it is to use a desk lamp or something similar in a darkened room. (With the eyes shut). This highlights the contrast between dark and light when moving the head slowly from side to side, or up and down. Again, great care should be taken to not look directly into the light.

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Pirate patches (or drops)

The Pirate Patch is a hallowed item in the treatment of ambylopia, (other methods may include surgery (depending on causes) and or glasses). The patch is usually worn over the “stronger” eye to force the weaker one to do more work. The down side of patches is that if they are worn too long they can weaken the strong eye. There is evidence that partial occlusion is more effective.

Importantly, the patch may also be detrimental to synchronization of focus and convergence. This is especially critical if strabismus (where one eye is out of line with the other, crossed or focused elsewhere) is associated with the problem. With strabismus there are two critical issues:

The first issue in strabismus is loss of vision perception due to the eye being “unused”. The second, is the synchronization and coordination of convergence and accommodation. Any treatment which undermines these should be carefully evaluated, if not avoided. Preferred treatment will work toward strengthening sight and vision in the affected eye. At the same time it should include comprehensive eye exercises and vision therapy to address the synchronization of both eyes.That is, the binocular vision.

A modern alternative to the eye patch is the use of drops to blur the vision in the good eye. These are seen by some as a great option because, unlike the pirate patch, they attract no attention from others. An important detail for children at school etc.

These drops are placed in the strong eye to suppress the vision in an attempt to force the other eye to work. Avoiding the “appearance” issues has its benefits. On the other hand, drops suggest a very unnatural way to deal with an issue. Anyone who has a strong emphasis on natural methods to rebuild or maintain our health should weigh up the issues. Introducing a chemical into the eye, when there are perfectly natural ways of achieving the same result, should perhaps be seriously questioned. We offer a simple, but effective alternative to the patch.

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Pinhole glasses

These are glasses with many small holes in the lenses. They work by reducing the amount of light entering the eye. In certain situations they do “improve” vision and the ability to read with less blur, but only while being worn. This apparent positive effect is because they cut down “off axis” rays of light. Or in other words excess or slightly out of focus light. It is important to note there is no evidence that they aid in improving the actual vision system. This is because they do not address the underlying problems; they just deal with a symptom.

Pinhole glasses may in fact contribute to weakening of vision because they can trigger suppression of vision in the weaker eye. This happens because, without being aware of doing so, there is a preference to use the stronger eye, and pinhole interference in the other eye may suppress or shut it down. If this happens, an already poor visual input is made worse by interference from the pinholes.

On the positive side, pinholes may be useful as a way of reducing dependence on glasses in conjunction with advanced eye exercises. However, it must be stressed that, at best they do not improve the ciliary muscles or lens function of the eye. They should not be seen as playing any part in improving the function of the visual system.

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Checklist for Eye Exercise Programs

Pirate Patches NO (You must have a method which allows binocular activity)

Pinhole glasses (OK as an aid, personal choice, but should not be used as an exercise)

Palming (good = harmless and slightly helpful)

Edging & tracking (good = harmless and slightly helpful)

Bead String (good, but with limited effect - there is now better on the market)

Tromboning/near far exercises (important)

Stereoscopic exercises (very important)

Binocular synchronization exercises (very important)

Scanning exercises (very important)

Convergence/Divergence/Accommodation exercises (very important)

And, of course, nutrition, positive attitudes, and emotional wellbeing are very important.

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Our Program and Kit

1. We have a unique bead string. It is very effective and deals fully with suppression - the traditional string does not. (Excellent for cross eye as well.)

2. We have an accommodation convergence device specifically for short sighted and far sighted vision issues. Most others don’t

3. Our charts incorporate a version of stereo-grams, stereoscopic vision techniques and orthoptic methods with great depth and detail.

4. We have a method which achieves the same effect as the pirate patch without the negatives.


Many people have transformed their eyesight though correct exercises and therapy. However, please be sure what vision issues you are dealing with, as there are some issues exercises cannot help. eg, serious astigmatism, macro degeneration, cataracts etc.

Copyright, Chris Barrett 2009

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