Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/196551
BODY WORK FOR THE EYES SEEING IS BELIEVING Astigmatism predisposes our clients to issues ranging from migraine headaches and nearsightedness to tightness in the trapezius and sternocleidomastoid muscles, which can lead to cranial strain.3 Clients with conditions such as a "lazy eye" or macular degeneration often try to work around their visual difficulty by tilting or twisting the head and neck. Overuse, injuries, or other problems can create trigger points in the muscles that move the eyes, which can refer pain to the head and neck and play a part in tension and migraine headaches.4 The good news is that you can help clients deal with chronic back, neck, and shoulder tension, and help them reduce discomfort from eyestrain and vision-related headaches. The process of seeing involves various muscle actions: our eye muscles move the eyeballs in various directions, change the shape of the lens to focus on near or far objects, and keep the eyeballs lubricated by blinking. Even simple tasks require great coordination between these muscles and our skeletal muscles. As you read this article, eye muscles constantly adjust your eyeballs internally to focus on the words, and move them back and forth horizontally across the page and down to the next line. Meanwhile, the skeletal muscles position your head and hands to keep the text at the appropriate distance in front of the eyes. The ability to smoothly coordinate these muscles develops during childhood, and this development is strongly influenced by a child's physical and emotional state, environment, and culture.5 Healthy vision is efficient, relaxed, and comfortable for the viewer, while poor visual habits can interfere with free and easy movements and make the body chronically tense. 84 massage & bodywork One national health survey found that one in 12 Americans aged 12–17 had significant visual problems.7 Some common vision-related bad habits include stiffening the entire neck, spine, and pelvis every time you look up, squinting and moving the head forward, stiffening all the neck muscles each time you look directly at something, or staring. For example, people wearing glasses tend to move their entire head and neck to look at something, rather than letting their eyes move first while the head and neck follow the eye movement. november/december 2013 HOW DO WE ACQUIRE POOR VISUAL HABITS? There are many ways that we develop bad visual habits. From vision dysfunctions to lifestyle to injuries, many clients may be suffering the consequences of poor visual habits, without even knowing it.