Ever Wondered Why The World Around You Seems Blurry?

This might be due to an undertrained vestibular- ocular reflex (VOR).

Maintaining a clear perception of the environment we are in requires the careful automatic coordination of our eyes and head. When moving our head in one direction our eyes will move in the opposite direction at the same speed to adjust our perception of the landscape. The effects of daily posture can hinder the accuracy of this reflex and therefore we can make inaccurate assumptions of our environment and we may experience ourselves as feeling clumsy or prone to motion sickness.

Recently I attended a workshop to better my understanding of how the neural connections of the body are influenced by posture, be it neck, shoulders, low back or hips. Specifically we looked at how the vestibular ocular reflex is used to retrain our deep neck muscles.

A couple of basic exercises to try:

exercise 1. place your fingers at the base of the neck. Eyes look right, head turns right, then eyes back to middle, then head back to middle. Repeat in north, south, east, and west directions.

exercise 2. starting in all fours position turn eyes to the right 10 degrees, then turn head to the right. Eyes to the middle, then repeat both sides. Progress to 45 degrees.

There are many variations on VOR exercises that can be quite fun to do so if you're looking for some guidance come into Prime Sports & Remedial Massage where we'd be happy to guide you in the right direction.