PHYSICAL

Saving Face

Face yoga combats the sagging effects of gravity, increases the appearance of volume, and acts as a natural alternative for fillers and Botox.

By Jennifer Casseday-Blair Illustration by Adrienne Martinez

There are 43 muscles in our face. Exercising these muscles can be an exercise in beauty. It’s called face yoga.

Women often complain about crow’s feet, frown lines, loss of fullness and contour in the cheeks, a sagging jawline and fullness between the neck and chin. Instead of opting for the needle or the scalpel, a series of isolated movements for a few minutes each morning could stimulate and build the muscles in the face to help maintain elasticity and lead to looking years younger.

While much of the aging process is out of our control and depends entirely on genetics, there is one contributing factor that can be combatted. Lauren Wessinger, Fort Worth mindfulness coach and yoga instructor, believes that untreated chronic stress is the major source of aging in our body. She has trained in many styles of yoga with her main focuses being strengthening the body and regulating the nervous system. Lauren has hundreds of members from all over the world, and her practice is now virtual due to the pandemic. “Face yoga is a great idea, especially an old-school yoga breathing technique called Lion’s Breath. It promotes relaxation in your facial and neck muscles. You open your mouth as wide as you can, stick your tongue way out, and exhale forcefully. This is useful in relaxing the muscles you’ve used for speaking or while concentrating,” she says.

According to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), facial exercises should be performed five days a week for 20 minutes. These five beginner face yoga exercises should each be held for six seconds and repeated up to 10 times for the greatest results.

Forehead

This exercise is meant to help with frown lines, those horizontal wrinkles in the forehead. Put your fingertips lightly just above the eyebrows. Then try to raise your eyebrows as high as possible while pressing downward with your fingertips to resist the movement.

Midface

This exercise may help with the lines that run from each side of the nose to the corners of your mouth, aka laugh lines. Open your mouth, purse your lips, and put your index fingers against the corners of your mouth. Protrude your lips while pulling the corners of your mouth outward with your fingers.

Jawline

This exercise may help with a sagging jawline and double chin. Place your elbow on a table with your fist under your chin. Press upward with your fist while trying to open your jaw.

This exercise helps with wrinkles above the upper lip. Place your thumbs, tucked up and close together, under your upper lip. Push your lip forward with your thumbs while trying to push against your thumbs with your upper lip.

Upper Lip

Lips

If you want the appearance of fuller lips, this exercise is supposed to help. Bring your lower lip forward to touch your upper lip in a pout. Then turn both your upper and lower lips inward and press them together, as if you are trying to hold something with your lips.