It’s no secret that exercising keeps the appearance of your face and makes you feel at your best. However, can stretching your workouts for your face give similar results?
Possibly. This is the concept of face yoga, a growing movement that provides lifting effects on the skin without surgery, needles, or costly skincare products. Some people have taken to face yoga to help themselves to look younger and healthier.
What Is Face Yoga?
First, face yoga doesn’t require the traditional Savasana or Downward-Facing-Dog poses you’ve learned from your yoga class. “Yoga” is just a clever way of describing face exercises that force the muscles of your face in specific postures, similar to the yoga you do for your body. This is the idea behind these exercises: your face will maintain your appearance healthy and youthful, boosting floppy and droopy areas.
“The aim is to create a moment of self-care where you improve blood circulation for a healthy glow and reduce stress and tension in your face,” says Elsa Jungman, Ph.D., the founder of a skincare brand that focuses on the microbiome of the skin and an advocate of facial yoga, who is located within San Francisco.
Most people put tension on their faces through facial expressions or spend too long at a computer screen. “All these daily activities cause patterns in how we use our face and the specific muscles we recruit,” Dr. Jungman says. “This is why we want to focus more on releasing and softening our faces to let go of these patterns and any held facial tension.”
Touted Benefits of Face Yoga
Face yoga can combat these effects. According to two well-known programs, Happy Face Yoga and Face Yoga Method, facial yoga is said to help to:
- Release tension, which will reduce visible signs of tension lines
- Tone and strengthen facial muscles, eventually opening eyes, lifting cheeks, and tightening the jawline.
- Improve circulation and blood flow into the face, making the skin appear radiant.
- Smooth lines and wrinkles
- Stop the adverse effects of gravity
A few dermatologists believe there’s evidence to support these assertions. “The goal of face yoga is to increase the blood and oxygen supply to your skin, which improves the life of the cell,” claims Deborah Longwill, DO, an experienced dermatologist with board certification at the Miami Center for Dermatology in Florida and co-founder of Doctor’s Daughter Skincare. “This leads to glowing and rejuvenated skin.”
Lucy Chen, MD, an experienced dermatologist who is board certified and practices at Riverchase Dermatology in Miami, is also adamant that you can slow the signs of aging by strengthening the muscles with specific facial exercises.
It’s important to remember that there needs to be research into facial yoga or exercises for the face. The most promising and often-cited research is from research published in JAMA Dermatology. In the study, people aged 40 to 65 underwent facial exercise for thirty minutes daily for eight weeks. After that, for a further 12 weeks, they did the exercises between three and four times a week. After 20 weeks, study participants had improved cheek volume and fullness in the upper and lower cheeks. They also appeared younger by the end of the study. Two dermatologists estimate the mean age of the participants to be 50.8 years at the beginning of the study and 48.1 years after 20 weeks.
However, as the JAMA Dermatology study authors pointed out, the sample size of their participants was insignificant, so the results were only modest, and the study did not include the control group. Be aware that face exercises don’t alter the appearance of your skin, as per Harvard Health Publishing; however, stretching and moving scarred skin with face yoga can reduce the appearance of scars.
Potential Risks of Face Yoga
Using facial yoga for your preferred anti-aging routine could backfire also. Specific experts suggest that bending your face by doing this could lead to more wrinkles.
“Many facial wrinkles — for example, crow’s-feet, laugh lines, and forehead wrinkles — result from repetitive facial muscle activity such as frowning or smiling,” Dr. Chen says. “Some question whether routinely pulling your face and exercising those muscles could create wrinkles and fine lines.”
Consider botulinum toxins (Botox), which ” freeze” the facial muscles to diminish wrinkle appearance. When you practice face yoga, you’re doing precisely the opposite. If you do it too vigorously or improperly, Chen says facial yoga could speed up the signs of aging.
Additionally, sweaty hands transport dirt oils, bacteria, and dirt, which can block pores and trigger breakouts. The American Academy of Dermatology experts suggest not touching your face to avoid acne.
5 Face Yoga Exercises to Try at Home
Are you interested in giving this a shot? Here are five exercise routines used during the JAMA Dermatology study. Jungman suggests practicing for 5 to 10 minutes every day to begin and then gradually work your way to 15 to 20 minutes each day to incorporate into your routine for skin care and your self-care practice.
The Cheek Lifter
Make your mouth open and create an O. Place your upper lip on your teeth, and smile to lift your cheek muscles upwards. Place your index fingers gently over your cheek muscles. Place them directly below your eyes. Let your cheek muscles relax to reduce them. Next, smile and think about bringing the powers up toward your eyes. Repeat the process by lifting and lowering your cheeks ten times. When you reach the 10th repetition, lift your muscles to the highest point you can and hold them for 20 minutes. Repeat three times.
Happy Cheeks Sculpting
Smile with your mouth closed and then spread your lips like you are trying to display as much of your lip as you can. Try smiling with all the sides of your mouth until you feel a slight burn on your lips’ corners. Put your index fingers into those corners. Allow the fingers to slide up your cheekbones, pressing on the muscles. Lift the power upwards to your cheekbones and towards the corners of your eyes. Once you reach the upper cheekbones, please keep it for 20 seconds and notice the muscles contracting on your cheeks. Keep smiling at your lips’ corners as you go about this. Repeat three times.
The Eyebrow Lifter
Put three fingers beneath your eyebrows to push your eyes open. Smile as you attempt lower the eyebrows with your fingers. Hold. Close your eyes, then move your eyes toward the very top. Please keep it for 20 seconds, then continue to smile. Release and repeat the process three times.
Jaw and Neck Firmer
Open your mouth and make an “aah” sound. Fold your lower lip and the corners of your lips into your mouth and hold tightly as you extend your lower jaw forward. Using your lower jaw, scoop up slowly as you close your mouth, pulling your chin up about 1 inch each time you scoop and tilting your head backward. Open and close your lower jaw ten times. On the 10th scoop, your chin should be pointing to the ceiling. Hold this position for 20 seconds and think about the sides of your facelift. Repeat three times.
Temple Developer
Place your fingers into your temples while closing your jaw, pressing your teeth, and inclining your chin. Then, clench your teeth while focusing on the temple area and think about how to turn your ears backward. Ten seconds of concentration, and then clench your teeth behind and hold it for 10 seconds. The temple muscles should be flexing as you tighten. Release and repeat the exercise three times.