You must continue to exercise if you have glaucoma. Meditation and yoga are also helpful. However you must take some precautions. The following exercises and activities can cause increase in ocular pressure or eye pressure.
What Exercises Should You Avoid:
- All exercises in which your head is bent or below your heart level.
- All exercises that require you to be upside down such as hand/head stands, certain yoga poses*, various gymnastic or acrobatic moves.
- Isometric exercises like squatting, bench pressing, lifting heavy weights or Valsalva manouvre
- Holding of breath - so the breathing exercises like Kapalbhati must be done with caution3.
- Drinking large amounts of water (1 litre) in one go
- Outdoor adventure sports such as bungee jumping, sky diving, scuba diving.
- Playing woodwind or brass musical instruments.
- Using swimming goggles while swimming
*Studies have showed that certain yoga positions can increase the intraocular pressure when practicing such poses and staying in that pose for a long time. The four most common head-down yoga positions are shown below4:
The increase in the intraocular pressure (which may be two or three-fold) during such poses was found to be transient i.e. the eye pressure resumed to normal within minutes of ending the pose. Talk to your Ophthalmologist and Yoga instructor on modifying your yoga routine to avoid any damage to your ocular health and practice yoga safely3.
How did this man manage Glaucoma? To read more click on the image below
See our videos on Glaucoma below:
References:
- Physical exercise and glaucoma: a review on the roles of physical exercise on intraocular pressure control, ocular blood flow regulation, neuroprotection and glaucoma‐related mental health. Acta Ophthalmologica. Volume 96, Issue6. September 2018, Pages e676-e691.
- Exercises to Avoid With Glaucoma. https://eyebulletin.com.
- https://drshibalbhartiya.com/yoga-and-glaucoma/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4689525/figure/pone.014450…
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