wearing contacts while exercising
 

I currently wear glasses and have never worn contacts, but lately I've been thinking about getting them to wear while exercising. The glasses are a problem because I sweat A LOT (literally, rivlets of water running down my face) and it's hard to wipe the sweat with my glasses on. Also, they are always slipping down and if I run outside when it is cold they fog up.

But I have a friend who has contacts and she is always losing them (they move out of position in her eye and then she has to do this weird eye rolling thing to find them). So I'm worried that with contacts I'd just be trading one problem for another; I don't want to have to constantly stop my workouts to find my contact.

Does anyone wear contacts while exercising and do you find that they stay in place or are they just as much of a problem as my glasses are?

Your friend must have hard contact lenses. They do tend to slip off center easily (I wore hard lenses for over 25 years). Since switching to soft lenses, not only do I no longer have the problem of the lenses slipping off center, but they are so much more comfortable and you also don't have to worry about stuff getting under the lens (windy days here bring up a lot of sand in the air and sand in the eye with a hard lens is extremely painful). If you were to get contacts, I'd recommend getting soft lenses.

I wear contacts from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed. It's been about 10 years now since I started wearing them daily. I do everything in them including exercise. I feel that my vision is much improved with contacts. With glasses, things are blurry around the sides of the glasses. With contacts you see EVERYTHING clearly, and once you go to glasses, it's hard to go back! I had to wear my glasses for a week once due to an injury -- I will never go back to glasses!

BTW, I wear soft contacts.

What they said! :) Soft contacts are the way to go. I even wear mine swimming - under goggles, of course.

Ditto. I do everything in my contacts (also soft) - run 10K's, lift weights, play volleyball, swim... just about everything. So, so much easier than glasses.

Go for it!

cheers! :hat:
paula

I wear soft contact lenses while exercising, then change to glasses when I get home. My glasses would always fall off when I started to sweat so I never could exercise wearing glasses. The only time my contacts have moved in my eyes is when I take a shower and have gotten water directly in my eyes. The contacts always go back into place after a bit, though. It's no problem for me to go back and forth between contacts and glasses.

I wear hard contacts. (I cant wear soft due to an astigmatism.) They definetly get painful if something gets in your eye, but I still always do my workouts in them. Beats the sweaty/foggy glasses. I dont have problems with them moving around in my eye unless I get bumped or t rub my eye without squeezing shut pretty tight. I'd have to say try the soft first as most people are more comfortable in them but dont rule out hard if the soft wont work for you. They really are very comfortable once you get used to them. Good luck.

I wear soft contacts all day, every day. I have to wear glasses/contacts to see anything. I could not exercise in my glasses--I move too much, too high impact, WAY too much sweat. The contacts are completely unnoticeable to me. Although it has been years since I started wearing them, I vaguely recall it took me a week or two to get the hang of putting them in and such. DEFINITELY worth the switch (and not just for exercise!).

Blue -- You're friends contacts must not be fitted right, because they should not do that...

I wear hard gas permeable contacts because I have Kerateconus -- rare eye disease -- I have been wearing hard contacts for 32 years :fr: since I was 18 -- ok, just gave my age away :lol: -- I can't wear glasses because of my eye problem, glasses cannot correct my vision, I can see with them but I see ghostings around everything, I doubt anyone understands that :) ... But anyways, I wear my contacts for 15+ hours/day, I swim, run, weight train, bike outside , I do EVERYTHING with my contacts on... The only thing that really bothers me is dust, to help with this I have special biking goggles which I sometimes wear to run... Because of the KC I have, my eyes are extremely sensitive to dust and light, hence the goggles for certain sports. My DD has regular soft contact lenses and has no problems at all with them, not even with dust or light. She goes out with no sunglasses even.

So having said this, Blue, I highly recommend contact lenses... BUT be warned not everyone can wear contacts, there is a certain adjustment period. My DH is having a very hard time getting used to them, such a wuss :lol:, nah, just kidding ....

Anyways, hope this helps...

Ilene~my DH is kerataconic also. His sister is as well and has had to have cornea transplants due to it. I am scared that DH will have to have transplants (but in the long run, he'll have better vision if he does). He is legally blind without his contacts or glasses (can't see the big E on the chart).

I am also thinking about getting contacts. So do you need to wear googles when swimming? Also are they hard to put in. I have worn glasses for 23 years so this would be adjustment for me. I mostly want them because when I take my kids to the water park I have to take my glasses off and then it is hard to see the kids ( or anything for that matter).

Bev, I never wore goggles until I started going laps... When I am in the pool at home with friends or when the kids were young I would never wear goggles. Just a splash or a few drops in the face is ok , I take showers with my contacts on too......

I am legally blind too without the contacts and can't see the big E on the chart... Eventually I will need a transplant , but my eyes are pretty good lately, so :crossed: on no operation... It is genetic and I am thinking that my DD may have it, she is soooooooo much like me in so many ways it's uncanny... Poor child :lol:

Our optometrist is keeping tabs on our kids and so far they are not showing any tendencies toward kerataconus. It's weird, the only ones who have it are DH and is little sister.

One of the reasons that I'm not planning on having Lasik to correct my vision--DH can't have it and I'd feel guilty not wearing my contacts when he has to wear them.

There's a site I used to go to where there are a LOT of KC patients started with the eye problem AFTER they got lazik surgery. I try to discourage anyone who is contemplating that surgery. Think about it, they SHAVE a layer of your cornea off!! How safe or healthy is that? How long has your DH known about his KC, for me it's been 6 years... As far as I know I am the first one in my family ...