Close Your Eyes For Improved Strength, Performance, and Muscle Function

Dr. Joel Seedman, Ph.D.

Author’s Note: Although eyes-closed training methods have been used for decades, if not centuries, primarily in the fields of martial arts and dance, more research is needed to fully explain the mechanisms and benefits. With that said the following article is based primarily on experiential data as well as theoretical concepts grounded in scientific principles of motor learning and neurophysiology.

When it comes to mastering one’s movement, optimizing motor control and body mechanics is the name of the game. What this often comes down to is responding to subtle and virtually imperceptible inputs deep within the nervous system that are not visible to the naked eye and can only be tuned into at the neuromuscular level by the individual themselves. It is also why, for reasons that will be discussed in later sections, individuals should rarely use the mirror when training. The better the athlete can become at tuning into this subtle yet critical feedback the more they will be able to master their mechanics. One way to enhance an individual’s ability to tune into their proprioceptive feedback and make the necessary adjustments is through the use of eyes-closed protocols.

In fact, eyes-closed training is something I frequently incorporate with all of my clients and athletes.  That’s because it improves movement mechanics and muscle function. I’ve seen it do wonders for my clients and athletes almost immediately particularly when combined with eccentric isometrics.  The reason for this is that closing your eyes on any exercise forces your muscle spindles and other proprioceptive mechanisms to work overtime in order to stabilize the movement and control the load.  In other words, it teaches the lifter to rely more on kinesthetic awareness rather than sight.  Instead of watching your way through the movement, feel your way through the movement. Read more about mastering movement here.

Before discussing in more detail the practical application as well as the science of eyes-closed training, here are some examples of applying eyes-closed training to eccentric isometric.

Although much of the eyes closed training I have my athletes perform involves eccentric isometric variations on squats, hinges, lunges, presses, pulls, and core stabilization drills I also employ eyes-closed training on explosive movements such as jumps and Olympic lifts.

Olympic Lifting

Here’s one of my NFL Combine athletes Ike Onike performing eyes closed hang cleans. 

You’ll also notice he uses a very controlled eccentric phase as he moves into the coiled power position with his hips.  Many athletes lack appropriate motor control on Olympic lifts and other explosive movements and often times rely more on pure brute force and aberrant movement patterns rather than sound technique and proper body alignment. 

One of the single most effective techniques I’ve found for cleaning up these issues is to incorporate eyes closed variations.  Wasted body motion, faulty alignment, and poor postural positioning is immediately punished as it disrupts the athlete’s equilibrium and state of balance.  In other words, they’re forced to control their power as anything less will result in the athlete feeling semi-disoriented and unstable. 

Once they’ve learned to harness their motor control on explosive movements such as jumps and Olympic lifts, taking them back to eyes-open variations almost always results in significantly higher PR’s and improved mechanics.  That’s because the use of proper mechanics required during the eyes closed variations re-educates their CNS on how to move properly and subsequently transfers into their movement patterns.  If an athlete is having trouble using their hips, keeping the bar close to their body, catching the bar in the proper racked position, or pulling with their upper body too early in the movement, eyes-closed training is a sure-fire way to improve their Olympic lifts.

 Here’s another one of my athletes Kyle Daniel’s performing eyes-closed snatches as we work on improving his motor control, power output, and body awareness.   

Unstable Movements with Eyes-Closed Technique

Performing unstable exercises such as bottoms up movements and hanging band drills with the eyes closed is an incredibly effective way to clean up your technique and movement patterns.  Combined with eccentric isometrics this kicks up the level of somatosensory feedback and kinesthetic awareness several notches.  In addition, it truly forces the lifter to master their body mechanics as anything but perfect technique will be immediately punished with uncontrollable levels of instability. Just be prepared physically and mentally, as these are some of the most challenging yet effective variations you’ll ever attempt. 

Jumps and Explosive Movements

Most athletes lack the ability to properly activate their feet and ankles when jumping and landing.  This can compromise force production and force absorption not to mention placing the athletes at greater risk for injury. Performing jumps, hops, depth drops, leaps, and skips with the eyes closed is a highly effective method for resolving this issue.  That’s because the feet and ankles must work overtime to lock the athlete in and control their body.   In other words, the visual feedback they’ve relied upon to compensate for their neuromuscular deficiencies is no longer something they can use as a crutch.  Instead, their somatosensory system must work overtime to provide feedback and motor control.

No Mirrors

Even when my athletes keep their eyes open, using the mirror is off limits except for very occasional glancing and coaching illustrations.  In fact, consistently relying on the mirror represents one of the more destructive training tools you could use when it comes to adhering to somatosensory feedback and proprioception.  Whenever you use the mirror, the image from the mirror reflects back to your retina and gets processed by your occipital lobe before the brain cognitively compares this image with the desired outcome, which requires further processing. 

Cerebellar coordination of movement modification in response to the visual and cognitive processing steps described above can take 200-500 milliseconds, which is roughly 8-10x longer than it takes proprioceptive mechanisms such as muscle spindles to respond (30-50ms).  If you use the mirror to make corrections, by the time you’ve made the adjustments, the error has already transpired whereas muscle sensory receptors can detect these potential errors before significant movement deviations occur.  The visual system can often act as a distraction keeping lifters from attending to other more important internal sensory information.   In other words lift by feel not by sight. 

Although eliminating the mirror can significantly reduce visual distractions, relying excessively on vision of any sort during training, even without the use of a mirror, can result in similar issues. In reality the fact that visual feedback is approximately 8-10x slower than somatosensory feedback indicates than any form of visual referencing during movement (with or without a mirror) is going to result in a significant delay in one’s ability to fine-tune movement not to mention produce a variety of distracting elements.

Yes, the mirror is more likely to result in the over-reliance of visual feedback, however, it likely also occurs to a lesser extent during typical eyes open training conditions without a mirror.  It’s for this reason eyes-closed training conditions should be employed on a semi-consistent basis to ensure the individual is not relying excessively on visual cues from their surroundings and is instead attending to their sense of feel to fine-tune their movement. This topic will be discussed in greater depth in later sections.

What About Loading?

You should be able to handle at least 80-90% of the load you typically handle with the eyes-open variation of that lift.  Because most athletes severely lack the proper motor control, stability, and sensory feedback from their muscles spindles, this can oftentimes overwhelm their nervous system making it feel impossible until they are properly trained. If you’re unable to handle this kind of load, then your proprioceptors may need to be re-sensitized or your form may need to be adjusted.  If this describes you then its time to start using properly executed eccentric isometrics and learn to control the load and most importantly your body.

Here’s an example with my awesome client Leslie showing eyes closed eccentric isometric Zercher lunges using a load equivalent to her bodyweight which is 80-90% of what she would typically handle with eyes opened.

Enhanced Proprioception: 2 Theoretical Models

Although research on this topic is limited, it appears as though eyes-closed training enhances kinesthetic awareness via 2 primary mechanisms: 1) increased proprioceptive feedback and 2) improved ability to tune into one’s pre-existing levels of proprioceptive feedback.

Humans rely on the integration of 3 primary sensory systems when it comes to balance. These include the visual/ocular system, the vestibular system in the inner ear that senses motion of the head in space and helps with equilibrium, and the neuromuscular or proprioceptive systems such as muscle spindles. Eliminating one of these, for example the visual system, forces the other systems, particularly the proprioceptive system, to work harder in order to maintain control of movement. In other words, there will be increased proprioceptive feedback to make up for the lack of feedback from the other mechanism(s). Over time this likely improves our ability to balance, stabilize, and control our movement as these proprioceptive systems have been trained to operate at a higher level.

The second mechanism whereby eyes-closed training improves proprioception is by forcing the individual to tune into and pay more attention to their proprioception and somatosensory feedback. Even without significant training, human beings receive large amounts of proprioceptive feedback from their neuromuscular system. Unfortunately, most individuals have a difficult time attending to these signals as they are essentially disconnected from their sense of feel. Eyes closed training teaches the athlete to focus more on their sense of feel and tune into their kinesthetic senses in order to control their movement.

10 Additional benefits of eyes closed training

1. Requires the lifter to correct their posture and alignment to maintain balance. Read more about the importance of posture, body alignment, and optimizing body mechanics here.

2. Produces greater levels of intramuscular tension similar to the hanging band technique due to the greater instability. Read more about the hanging band technique here.

3. Forces the lifter to slow the movements down and use eccentric isometrics as a means of maintaining control. Read more about eccentric isometrics here.

4. Increases core stability and trunk stiffness as a means of controlling one’s body. Read more about core stabilization training here.

5. Increases foot and ankle activation as a means of stabilizing and maintaining balance with their lower body. Read more about foot and ankle training here.

6. Produces greater grip and forearm activation as the lifter is required to grip the weights more forcefully to control the load.  This helps with joint packing and joint stability as well as concurrent activation potentiation (increased neural drive to the working extremities). Read more about building forearm and grip strength here.

7. Ensures the athlete doesn’t lift excessively heavy weights or select heavier loads than they can control as going too heavy under eyes closed conditions makes it nearly impossible to perform the movement correctly if at all.

8. Eliminates the ability to cheat, shift, or use excessive momentum to lift the weight thereby improving joint health and muscle growth.

9. Teaches the athlete to use an optimal range of motion (typically 90 degrees) rather than an excessive range of motion as collapsing and going too deep under eyes closed conditions feels very out of control. Read more about optimal range of motion (ROM) and 90 degree angles here.

10. Requires greater cognitive engagement and mental focus during lifting.  Research in motor learning has shown that the greater the level of mental engagement while performing a specific skill or task results in enhanced learning and the mastering of that skill.

Eyes Closed & Beyond with V.I.S.R.E. (Visual Imagery & Spatial referencing Elimination) Training

Although eyes-closed training is incredibly effective, I’ve noticed one primary issue over the years.  That is, individuals still rely on vision even when their eyes are closed.  Makes sense right?  Yeah, I didn’t think so.  Allow me to explain.

When an individual closes their eyes, whether they realize it or not, they end up taking a snapshot of their surroundings and storing it in their memory as a means of spatial referencing and visual imagery orientation. Throughout the set they continue to refer back to this mental spatial map as a means of controlling their body in space. So while they may not be directly using their sense of sight via the ocular system during the set they’re still relying on elements of visual feedback as a reference. Unfortunately this can be disadvantageous for several reasons each of which builds upon the next.

3 reasons why visual imagery & Spatial Referencing in Training can be disadvantageous

1. Most individuals have ocular dominance meaning they favor one eye over the other.  This tends to produce very subtle yet significant deviations and asymmetries in our movement as ocular dominance appears to be related to handedness.

2. Besides using vision to maintain balance during movement we also use it as a form of spatial geographic orientation. It is human nature to use straight lines as a spatial reference to determine what is aligned and what is not. In fact, when lifting it’s very common to rely excessively on our sense of sight and use the spatial orientation of the equipment, building, walls, and structures to create a visual reference map that lines up our body and limbs in relation to other objects in the room. However, due to issues related to ocular dominance, our reference point for what constitutes a perfectly straight line is rarely correct.  Therefore, attempting to use our surroundings as a means of aligning our body will be semi-accurate at best.

3. In addition to sensory input issues there is the matter of attention. The science on the topic of attention is quite complex, therefore, what I describe here is a very simplistic overview to help illustrate subsequent points. Science has shown that attention capacity is limited such that we can only attend to a handful of elements and, in many cases, only one element at a time before sacrificing how much attention we allocate to each element. Simply put, the more elements we try to attend to at once the more the total amount of attention directed towards each individual element suffers. This is particularly true for complex skills or tasks that require high levels of brain function and cognitive focus.

Most strength training movements can be categorized as complex skills that require high levels of cognitive engagement and mental focus in order to optimize the quality of the movement. Learning how to focus all of one’s attentional resources on a particular movement and its associated mechanics is, therefore, of the utmost importance if one is to master the movement.

Our ability to attend to body positioning, recruitment patterns, alignment, joint centration, symmetrical loading, and posture, can all be traced back to proprioceptive feedback and kinesthetic awareness. The better we can sense subtle proprioceptive feedback signals the more we can fine-tune our movement.  Visual feedback, being much less subtle, is frequently a distraction that vies for our attentional resources, oftentimes causing us to rely more on our sense of sight than our sense of feel. This is true whether we use a mirror to gauge our form or spatial referencing to gauge our alignment and overall body positioning. 

It also means that using sight to guide us through a set can be very misleading and distracting. Likewise, it suggests that even if our eyes are closed, relying on visual imagery and spatial orientation from a recent mental “snapshot” of our surroundings can produce perhaps more subtle yet similar issues as when training under eyes open conditions.  As previously discussed, adjusting our movement via our sense of sight is approximately 8-10x slower than making modifications based on our sense of feel and proprioception.  Eliminating vision, particularly the use of a mirror, to gauge our movement may reduce this latency, however, relying on visual imagery and spatial referencing of any sort is still likely orders of magnitude slower than relying exclusively on the sense of feel.

It follows, therefore, that eliminating all traces of vision and visual imagery by interfering with our ability to take an accurate snapshot of the surrounding environment would effectively deprive us of a spatial reference map thereby optimizing eyes-closed training conditions.  Under such conditions we would no longer use sight, visual imagery, or spatial referencing. Instead, we would be forced to rely 100% on our sense feel, kinesthetic awareness, and proprioceptive feedback to perform the movement.

Enter ‘Visual Imagery & Spatial Referencing Elimination Training’ or VISRE training (pronounced visor) - the epitome of eyes-closed or no-vision training.

 
How to perform VISRE protocols (visual Imagery Spatial Referencing Elimination Training)

Although the science underlying VISRE training is quite complex, the practical application could not be more straightforward - or crooked, depending on how you view it, eyes closed, of course (all puns intended).

VISRE training consists of simply turning one’s body slightly in one direction or another, just enough so that it is positioned at a slight angle relative to the various straight lines in one’s surroundings (walls, squat rack, platform, benches, other equipment etc.), then performing the movement with eyes closed. Yes, it’s that simple.

Essentially, this slight body adjustment creates a situation in which the individual’s body and field of vision are no longer aligned relative to the grid-like arrangement of their surroundings, making it difficult, if not impossible, to use their surroundings as a visual, or mental, reference map to gauge their alignment and body positioning. This is particularly true under eyes-closed conditions yet also applicable under eyes-open conditions.

Note about Symmetrical Misalignment

What I’ve found with VISRE training is that most individuals have a preference for turning in one direction over the other based on their ocular dominance. For instance, disrupting my spatial referencing by turning to the left feels more natural and comfortable in terms of positioning my body and tuning into my nervous system than turning to my right. Therefore, it’s important to mix it up every set, if possible, to ensure that the user doesn’t become adapted to one particular setup.

7 Levels of Visual Elimination Training

LEVEL 1: Eyes open, body aligned with the surroundings and using a mirror while performing the movement. This should rarely be used other than for an occasional glance and periodic checkup.

LEVEL 2: Eyes open, body aligned with the surroundings, no mirror.

LEVEL 3: Eyes open, body not aligned with the surroundings.

LEVEL 4: Eyes closed, body aligned with the surroundings, periodic opening of eyes between reps to regain spatial orientation.

LEVEL 5: Eyes closed, body aligned with the surroundings, eyes kept closed for the duration of the set.

LEVEL 6: Eyes closed AFTER body is turned and no longer aligned with the surroundings (i.e. step out of the rack, turn slightly to one direction, then close eyes and start the set). This is the form of VISRE training I would recommended be used in most cases.

LEVEL 7: Eyes closed BEFORE body is turned and no longer aligned with the surroundings (i.e. step out of the rack, close eyes, then turn slightly in one direction and start the set). This is a more advanced form of VISRE training and should only be performed if you have complete confidence in your ability to control the load and turn your body while keeping your eyes closed. With that said, movements that start from the floor, such as deadlifts or even Olympic lifts, can be performed by keeping your eyes closed while turning the load and positioning oneself out of alignment with the surroundings before lifting the weight. Ultimately, this allows for the highest level of VISRE training to occur without the safety issues associated with turning one’s body while keeping their eyes closed and holding heavy loads.

If VISRE is so effective, Why not Use it Exclusively?

Although VISRE is extremely effective, I don’t believe it should make up more than roughly 50% of one’s training. In reality, all of the 7 levels of visual elimination training should be implemented to some degree in an individual’s training. This includes the rare use of the mirror for occasional visual checkups.  Additionally, while the VISRE system may be one of the most effective ways to optimize movement mastery and enhance proprioceptive feedback, periodically including eyes-open protocols that involve positions that are perfectly centered or square with one’s environment is still very important.

That’s because the visual system needs to be periodically recalibrated in the context of both external and internal sensory inputs in order to adapt to the neurophysiological re-wiring produced by VISRE. Simply, VISRE may help address imbalances and asymmetries, including those associated with ocular dominance by, in essence, re-setting your neuromuscular system.  Once this occurs, however, it’s important to recalibrate and integrate external visual system signals with the enhanced somatosensory and neuromuscular system signals and motor functions of the brain. 

Best of Both Worlds for STRENGTH & SIZE

Although the eyes-closed protocols such as VISRE likely help maximize movement mastery and proprioceptive feedback, most folks will have to use slightly lighter loads. However, over time the load one can handle with eyes closed should approximate that handled with eyes open. With that said, keeping the eyes open while the body is out of alignment with one’s surroundings  (LEVEL 3) may represent the best of both worlds by maximizing overload while at the same time improving muscle function and proprioception.

That’s because misalignment with our surroundings removes the usual focal points used as a spatial reference to maintain alignment and body position, forcing the lifter to rely more on their sense of feel. However, keeping the eyes open minimizes the elements of instability introduced when one’s eyes are closed, therefore balance is minimally disrupted. 

So while it’s not exactly VISRE training because the individual is still relying on their sense of sight for the duration of the set, it could be considered SRE or Spatial Referencing Elimination. Simply, SRE may allow one to simultaneously maximize overload and sense of feel by providing enough visual feedback to maintain a high degree of balance and stability while at the same time eliminating one’s ability to rely on spatial referencing for body alignment.

References:

1. Cowan, N., et al., On the capacity of attention: its estimation and its role in working memory and cognitive aptitudes. Cogn Psychol, 2005. 51(1): p. 42-100.

2. Hutt, K. and E. Redding, The effect of an eyes-closed dance-specific training program on dynamic balance in elite pre-professional ballet dancers: a randomized controlled pilot study. J Dance Med Sci, 2014. 18(1): p. 3-11.

3. Hutt, K., Eyes-Closed Dance Training for Improving Balance of Dancers. International Association for Dance Medicine & Science, 2015.

4. Schmidt, R. and T. Lee, Motor Control and Learning: A Behavioral Emphasis. 2005.

5. Lopes-Ferreira, D., et al., Ocular dominance and visual function testing. Biomed Res Int, 2013. 2013: p. 238943.

6. Bronstein, A.M., A conceptual model of the visual control of posture. Progress in Brain Research, 2019. 248: p. 285-302.