The Surprising Body Part You Should Be Stretching
If you’ve played sports, you might remember a coach telling you to “keep your eye on the ball.” If you’ve ever swung a bat at a baseball or softball, you know how important it is to track the ball all the way in. Your eyes lead the way, telling your body when and where to move. When you catch that ball, too, your eyes lead the way, signaling your hands to move into place. In yoga and dance, your gaze similarly guides the rest of your body.
Your eyes aren’t just for seeing. They’re one of the most important tools your brain uses to figure out where your head is in space. And you should be stretching them! You can strengthen your eye muscles through simple exercises that may help lead to improvements in balance and muscle pain and stiffness.
I talk with patients all the time about how each part of the body is connected. Underutilizing one body part will cause other systems to overcompensate, leading to pain and increasing your odds of injury. In the case of balance, your body uses three main systems: vision, the vestibular system (tiny sensors in your inner ear), and proprioception (bodily awareness that comes from the muscles and joints in your neck, shoulders, and spine). When these three systems are working together, you feel steady and balanced.
But if your eyes, neck, and inner ear aren’t in sync, symptoms can include neck stiffness, eye strain, dizziness, headaches, and vertigo/balance issues.
One fascinating thing I see in my patients is how vision and neck posture are deeply connected. If a small muscle in your eye is tight, your neck may subtly shift to keep your vision clear, sometimes putting extra strain on your neck and leading to chronic neck pain. And when your neck proprioception is off, your eyes may not track smoothly, which can make reading, driving, or looking at screens uncomfortable.
The good news? You can train and “recalibrate” these systems. One simple way to stretch and retrain the connection between your eyes, head, and neck is this simple exercise:
Focus on a single point 3-5 feet in front of you, then slowly turn your head as far as you can to both sides, as well as up and down, while keeping your eyes focused on that point. Notice what your vision does. If it doesn’t seem smooth or your eyes have to “jump” to stay focused, your body may be telling you one of these systems needs a tune-up.
Incorporate this exercise into your daily routine to help improve your balance, reduce neck and shoulder tightness, and even help decrease headaches.
Your head, eyes, and neck are all part of an integrated system, so training them together helps your body work smarter, not harder.
Coming Soon: The Inner Ear
Another body part with a surprising role in your balance is your ear. In a future post, we’ll take a closer look at the vestibular system and why even a tiny dysfunction can affect your posture, your energy levels, and more.