A workout for your face~
Facial exercises are not a new fad. They came into being as a way to help keep your face firm (in the days long before filler and Botox), and followed the same logic as, “if you want to firm up your thighs, derrière and belly, you exercise them.” Classic tomes like Miss Craig’s Face Saving Exercises and Face Lifting By Exercise by Senta Maria Rungé came out in the 1950s and 1960s, and the original fitness guru Jack LaLane demonstrated face exercises on his pioneering workout TV show.
It looks like Miss Craig and Jack LaLane and the gang were on to something. Today, Carol Maggio, creator of “Facercise,” points out that facial exercises, just like any form of viable exercise, will yield positive results when done consistently and correctly. Our muscles don’t stop at the neck (as Tal Reinhart, creator of “Facial Workout” aptly notes) so muscle strengthening and muscle building can happen in our faces as well as our bodies.
Strengthening and building our facial muscles to help to lift, firm and smooth our skin from the inside out has some scientific backing now. A study done by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2018 concluded that consistently practiced facial exercises from a viable program resulted in more youthful looking faces. While facial exercises alone can’t significantly improve the collagen production in our skin (we need retinol and other good skin care products for that) it can improve the muscle tone in our faces, which can compensate a bit for the fat loss in our faces as we age. (We have a layer of fat in the subcutaneous layer under our skin, which helps to keep our epidermis -the top layer of skin- looking smooth and plump. As we age, this layer of fat becomes less voluminous, which is one of the reasons why our skin starts to sag and wrinkle.)
How do Facial Exercises work?
You may find naysayers online surmising that facial exercises can cause or worsen wrinkles, but this is a misunderstanding of how facial exercises work. When done correctly and consistently, facial exercises help you to work your facial muscles to maximum capacity, then help you to allow your facial muscles to release and relax fully. This is the optimal type of movement for healthy muscle building (working to full capacity, then releasing fully). It’s the half-held muscle tension that never truly gets fully released (such as unconsciously pursing your upper lip or furrowing your brow or squinting your eyes while you work or drive or go about your day- unaware of the tension you are holding) that is the type of muscle use that, over time, is associated with degradation. Viable facial exercises can help us to release chronic, unconsciously held facial tension and help to build, strengthen and firm our facial muscles, and this can improve how we look.
Facial exercises can also help to stimulate circulation in our facial tissue, which brings more oxygen and nutrition to our skin. This often brings out healthier looking skin.
The upside of facial exercises:
*Low risk! Almost nothing can go wrong here.
*Inexpensive! You can buy one or two programs and do them for the rest of your life, and never have to pay for anything else.
*You do it yourself! You do them on your schedule, in the privacy of your own home.
The downside of facial exercises:
*There is a limit to how much facial exercises can accomplish. While they can achieve noticeable improvements, in general they most likely will not replicate something as dramatic as a surgical facelift.
*You have to do it yourself. Just like all forms of exercise, facial exercises must be done correctly and consistently to achieve and maintain results. Either this routine totally works with your schedule and your life, or it does not.
Good to know:
*Facial exercises can compliment a good AM and PM skin care regimen, but they cannot, alas, replace one.
*Facial exercises can be done by just about anyone. A totally au naturel face that has never undergone any kind of medical cosmetic treatment is a great candidate, and so is someone who has received cosmetic surgery. (Some plastic surgeons even recommend facial exercises to their patients.)
*The only cosmetic treatment that may not be complimentary is Botox (there is some data that suggests exercising your face after right receiving an injection may help the Botox to take effect more quickly, but once the Botox has taken effect it will diminish muscle movement…Which will make doing facial exercises tough (and probably pointless).
*Regarding facial filler, there is some concern that doing facial exercises could potentially help filler to break down more quickly, which is not the desired effect, so be forewarned.
*Some individuals with Bell’s palsy, and some recovering from a stroke or other condition the involves the weakening of facial muscles have found doing facial exercises helped to improve both facial movement and appearance.
How do I find a viable facial exercise program?
There are tons of programs out there, lots of free videos, cheap books, and an entire waste land of free garbage on Youtube and social media…and stay far away from all of it, please. This is the only kind of facial exercise program that deserve your consideration…
Here is what to look for:
*It provides exercises for your entire face and neck (and even your scalp, too). It provides help with learning how to do the exercises correctly, as well as info on how often to do the exercises;
*It will offer you the ability to connect via zoom or skype or email or phone with someone trained who can competently answer any questions you may have as well as offer personal guidance if you want it, or an online group class or chat, or some type of useful support so you feel confident that you are doing the exercises correctly.
*It will have a clear video you can follow (it may also offer written text, pictures, etc., for support materials but a video should be part of teaching you the program).
*The program should also be well established (has been around for years) and have a long line of satisfied customers behind it.
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Here are some examples:
Its nice (even empowering!) to know that simple, viable, affordable options for a more lovely face are right at our fingertips.
“To enjoy the glow of good health, you must exercise.”
~Gene Tunney
“The purpose of training is to tighten up the slack, toughen the body, and polish the spirit.”
~ Morihei Ueshiba
“Your current body is the only body that can take you to your new body — so be kind to it.”
~Elaine Moran
Blog written by Marna Herrington with Rich Earth Organic Skin Care Studio
Blog copy editing and polishing provided by Karen-Eileen Gordon (MsGordonLovesWriting@gmail.com)
This blog is not intended to take the place of in-person consultations with qualified skin care and health care practitioners.
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