Glasses During Eye Exercises: Yay or Nay?

The answer depends on the purpose of the exercise and the specific goals and needs of the client. Make sure you are crystal clear on what their goal is.

Glasses, whether they are for vision correction or specific conditions like astigmatism, can sometimes interfere with the brain’s ability to fully adapt and process the new sensory information being introduced during these exercises. When clients wear corrective lenses, their eyes rely on the lenses to assist with focus and movement, which can create a dependency and limit the brain’s natural learning and integration process.

For this reason, performing eye exercises without glasses may encourage the brain and visual system to work more independently, building stronger pathways for coordination, focus, and performance.

I am not saying every person should take their glasses off, I am saying if that is the goal, then yes, we have greed that we are working towards that goal.

When Should They Stay On?

That said, there are scenarios where glasses can and should remain on during eye exercises. For clients with significant visual impairments or conditions where seeing clearly is essential for proper feedback, removing glasses might create frustration or hinder progress. For example, if a client is unable to track or focus on a target due to extreme blurriness, they may struggle to perform smooth pursuits or near-far exercises effectively. In these cases, keeping glasses on allows the client to execute the exercise with confidence and precision while still reaping neurological benefits. The key is to assess whether the glasses are enhancing or hindering the process based on the client’s comfort and needs. There is no need to force them to keep them on.

Try It Both Ways

Ultimately, deciding whether or not to wear glasses during eye exercises comes down to the goals of the session and the client’s current visual capacity. Start by testing both scenarios—glasses on and off—and observe their performance, comfort, and any shifts in their movement or focus. If progress seems stalled with glasses on, try removing them for brief periods and reassess. THEIR response will tell you everything you need to know.

For some clients, removing glasses may unlock new levels of brain adaptation, while for others, the lenses may serve as a necessary tool for the exercise to be meaningful. The goal is always to meet the client where they are and provide the right amount of challenge for their brain and body to grow.

WWMD? What Would Missy Do?

Here is what I tell clients that come to be for improvement with vision. “Are you SURE that is what you want?” Because here is the thing, getting your eyes checked more often and changing your prescription every time we improve your vision can actually be expensive and time consuming. So for me, I try to make sure they THEY ARE SURE this is what they want. If they want vision improvement, less blurriness, less perscrption etc, then I can most likely make that happen. AND it is completely okay to NOT want that. If we want to use the visual system for better range of motion, better movement quality, less pain, better cognition, less frequent headaches etc, those are incredible goals. Not everyone wants to see better, and on the other side, not every one wants to use their eyes to “perform” better. So It’s best to get crystal clear on the goal, the metrics, the mental head space, where they are emotionally etc, even if that takes up a lot of time and is tedious to figure out, it’s worth it in the long run.