Thoughtful Thursday…Vision training for better performance...
Welcome to Thoughtful Thursday. This GreenNote Fitness newsletter mindfully gathers and distills useful information that is supportive to our journey. It is my mission to educate, inspire, and propel you into action that moves you towards your goals and life of purpose. Take control of your journey today.
Recently I’ve been doing research into eye health, vision, balance, speed, strength, performance and how those all correlate. Through the discovery process, I’ve found some fascinating things that I’m personally incorporating as well as with a few of my clients. Let’s first distinguish between eye sight and vision. Eye sight is tested through one’s ability to see things close and far away like what is tested for at an eye exam. Vision is more complicated than that. It includes four categories of skills that Dr. Eric Cobb, a chiropractic physician, author, speaker, and co-founder and CEO of Z Health Performance Solutions explains as:
Eye movement - Can I move my eyes with a great deal of accuracy? Control of your eyes should be precise.
Depth perception (depth judgement) - Know where things are in space, know where things are in relation to other things
Visual resolution - How clearly can I see things that I’m looking at? How clearly can I see things in different light?
Peripheral awareness - Ability to see things around you that you aren’t looking at
Our vision affects how we move and how we perform. Extraocular muscles surround the eyes and are inverted by small nerve endings. These endings provide proprioceptive input to various neuromotor sensors in the spine and brain. What this means is that what we observe through our eyes is being transmitted to our spine and brain. The brain obtains feedback from our eyes. Obvious, right? The cool thing here is if we can take care of our nervous system we can better control our health. We will get more in-depth on the nervous system later. For now, let’s look at a couple of simple exercises we can do to train our vision. Z Health has some great information and videos that can help train the vision system. There are programs that can be purchased. I’ve started with two of their free videos on what they have termed saving your vision as a nod to March being Save Your Vision month. These exercises are a two-part video that helps to train the category of skills that we mentioned, as defined by Dr. Cobb. I am finding these exercises useful and restorative to my vision and is a great counter balance to the wear and tear that the computer screens, phones, and tablets have on vision. Video #1 - "Eye Spirals" to work eye movements and depth judgement Video #2 - “Letter Ball” for visual resolution and peripheral awareness Like with any other muscle, what does not get used deteriorates. We can not expect to perform at our best if we neglect and forget to nurture ourselves. My eyes have felt great after performing those simple exercises. I’m using my “cheaters” less often. As discussed, the nervous system is a key driver in all of this. We will pick up there next time. Until then, check out the videos for the exercises. Enjoy your journey, Lisa Schaffer GreenNote Fitness You wouldn’t happen to know just one person that would benefit from this information? Please forward it to them! Did you miss last week’s newsletter on Natural ways to maximize eye health…? P.S. Check out my Facebook page for inspiration. P.P.S. Discover GreenNote Fitness recommendations for books, podcasts, and more on body, mind, and spirit.
