When we think of our visual system we can often be reduced to just thinking of the eyes, and when we focus on the eyes all we are taught to comprehend is whether or not our vision is 20/20. Well, Neuromoves is here to blow that idea out the water and give you tricks and tips to improve your vision, which of course (because it’s neuromove!) will help improve our movement. So let me welcome you to the Vision Gym.
First of all, how we see is actually in our brains not our eyes and due to neuroplasticity we can improve our eyesight and actually be better than 20/20. Why is this helpful for us? This is helpful because our vision is our dominant input for safety, it is what our brain relies on the most to assess what situations we are in. If there is a deficit in our visual system, our brain will give us reduce performance and possibly even give us pain to slow us down and keep us safe.
So our aim is firstly to reduce the perceived level of threat by improving the quality of visual inputs, this means exploring a variety of eye movements, drills and ways to rest them. I have listed these below so you can play with them in your movement practice. Secondly, there are specific eye movements that influence specific bodily movements, also listed below. Remember just as with any neuro drill we should apply the test/ retest concept to assess if the drill is helpful to us and gives us improvement. Sometimes a drill may actually feel threatening to the brain and decrease our movement capabilities.
Here is our Vision Gym.
Smooth pursuits. Track a target going left to right, up to down, and across diagnols. We used our thumb in Neuromoves as our target but you could use a pen or something else. Do not move your head and make sure your target stays clear and in focus.
Stabilised gaze. Also known as eye isometrics. Use a similar format as above with the compass coordinates but instead of moving your eyes and tracking the target your target is still and your eyes are fixed on.
Eye circles. Tracking a target with your head still, drawing a big circle, keeping the target in focus. Go clockwise a few times and anti clockwise.
Visual Reset. Close your eyes, palms seal the orbit of your eyes gentle, sealing out any light. Then let your eyes search out the darkness, with a slow and relaxed breath.
Eye push ups. Have your thumb or target at the tip of your nose and extend your arm out fully, then bring the target back into your nose or third eye space.
Accommodation drill. Accommodation is our ability to switch quickly to something close to us to look out at a target in the distance. Switching between the two to help our focus improve.
Swing. Extend arm out, fix your gaze on your thumb, and swing your arm left to right, but focus on periphery, the moving background behind your thumb.
Peripheral Awareness. Gazing forward with eyes still, stretch your arms out, wiggling your fingers. Draw a big circle out to yours side with both arms at the same time to notice your wiggling fingers in your peripheral.
For specific movement:
Convergence. Tracking a target inwards, helps with forward folds, with flexion in the body. Innervated by cranial nerve 3 and 4.
Divergence. Tracking a target out into the distance helps with extension in the body. Innervated by cranial nerve 6.
Ocular motor reflex. The direction our eyes go can help your body move in that direction. For example, look left can help improve left rotation. Looking up will help with back extension. Where the eyes go the body will following.
Pick perhaps 2-3 drills that worked really well with you and incorporate that into your movement practice. Remember we are trying to REDUCE THE LEVEL OF THREAT so to not overwhelm and stress our nervous system too much, avoid trying to tackle all of these drills at the same time.

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