Discover 5 Face Yoga Exercises For Natural Anti Wrinkle Treatment At Home
These days, many women are unduly fixated on how their faces seem to be ageing. Today, women as young as 20 spend an excessive amount of time searching online, reading reviews, and trying out X, Y, and Z anti-wrinkle treatments in the hope of warding off the inevitable effects of time. Not so long ago, Botox, fillers, and other aesthetic treatments were high on the list of monthly expenses, but there's a new beauty trend hailing from Japan, which doesn’t require needles being pricked into stubborn forehead furrows and crows’ feet, in town – introducing face yoga.
Traditionally, yoga has been practised to improve out-of-sync limbs, stretch, and meditate. Downward facing dog and the lotus pose are common terms among the yogis. But there's a new type of yoga that falls under the ever-growing umbrella that goes by the name of face yoga - a type of 'yoga' that works wonders for furrowed brows and sunken cheeks.
The premise behind regular yoga exercise for face winkles is that face yoga may help thicken and strengthen facial muscles, giving your features a little more padding to achieve that healthy ‘plumped’ look that's reminiscent of youth.
When you do daily face yoga exercises for 20 minutes a day, six days a week, you help increase blood circulation in the face, which in turn allows more oxygen and nutrients to reach the skin’s cells.
The result – thanks to fewer toxins - a clearer, fresher-looking complexion with a happy healthy glow.
What Is Face Yoga?
Face yoga is a series of different facial exercises that help isolate and tone different facial muscles. These muscles are so tiny and delicate that you may not have even noticed them before. Who knew that the under-eye area alone has more than ten muscles?
Of course, your face moves all the time – when you smile, chat, laugh, and so on. But face yoga is different – like a regular body yoga flow it’s all about intention. This requires concentrating on isolating certain muscles and muscle groups and strengthening and toning them.
What Are The Benefits Of Face Yoga?
Face yoga exercises are lauded for their anti-ageing effects on the skin’s appearance. Face yoga tightens the skin and helps keep it lovely and plump-looking.
Stimulating the face’s blood flow, as mentioned before, not only improves blood circulation but also encourages collagen production, which means no more overpriced, unpalatable collagen supplement smoothies that promise firm and taut-looking skin. The natural increase of collagen through face yoga exercises delays the onset of fine lines and wrinkles with some studies suggesting that daily face yoga exercises could even reverse the effects of facial ageing.
If you’re questioning whether constant face movements are the cause of fine lines and wrinkles, you’re right – human emoting is an everyday natural and frequent inexorable phenomenon. Add sun exposure, lack of sleep, parties, and wearing makeup to the equation and it’s no wonder your face is susceptible to fine lines – and this is where intention comes into play.
The deliberate targeting and toning of those muscles promote blood circulation that tightens and brightens the skin. Once you begin to see results, which can be within as little as a couple of weeks, you’ll find yourself tensing these target areas at your office desk, driving, out walking – pretty much everywhere you go.
How To Do Yoga Exercises For Face Wrinkles
According to Fumiko Takatsu, the esteemed creator of the face yoga movement, you ideally need to practice yoga facial exercises twice daily – in the morning to stimulate and wake up the face’s muscles and before going to sleep to release any pent up tension from the day.
Like any exercise, a quick warm-up is needed – and face yoga is no exception. After this, you can then focus on the individual face yoga poses and specific target muscles.
Don’t be fooled though – yoga exercises for face wrinkles aren't easy. Facial muscles are tiny and incredibly delicate, which makes it challenging to isolate specific muscles. For this reason, start with targeting and toning your face’s more prominent muscles like the forehead and neck areas – and then move on to the more ‘fragile’ places, namely the eyes.
Before starting your face yoga exercises, apply face serum or face oil (something with a little slip) to your face. This will help avoid too much dragging and pulling of the skin.
As you do each facial yoga pose, maintain an upright position with an open chest – and don’t forget to breathe.
5 Easy Face Yoga Poses For Beginners
The Warm-Up
This will be your go-to facial yoga pose for improved all-over improved blood circulation.
- As if you’re yawning, drop your jaw – noticing the sensation in the cheek areas.
- Move your gaze, without moving your forehead, from eye level to past your forehead to the ceiling.
- Hold this beginner’s face yoga pose for 10 seconds – don’t forget to breathe.
- Repeat twice.
The Neck
This facial yoga pose for younger-looking skin helps release tension in the area while toning the neck. And because the neck is connected to the jaw, you’ll also hit your jawline area.
- Relax your shoulders.
- With a slight 45-degree, move your chin to one side.
- Pucker up your lips (as if kissing).
- Hold this face yoga pose for 10 seconds, breathing throughout.
- Switch to the other side and repeat.
- Repeat twice on each size.
The Forehead
Ageing is inevitable – fact! But this doesn’t mean our foreheads have to be an early tell-tale sign. This face yoga pose for the forehead is an instant pick-me-up. As well as an anti-wrinkle treatment at home, this movement also can be used for meditation purposes as it helps absorb energy from your environment.
- Relax your shoulders and keep your chin slightly up.
- Make a downward V-shape with your fingers and place them in the centre of your forehead while slightly pulling upwards.
- Hold the face yoga pose for 10 seconds, remembering to breathe.
- Close your eyes and run your palms slowly down the sides of your face.
- Repeat twice.
The Eyes
They say that eyes are the windows to the soul, but they’re also the area that’s most prone to ageing as the under-eye area is one of the most delicate places of your body. This face yoga pose for under the eyes isolates both the lower lid movement and forehead muscles. The challenge – don’t move your forehead!
- Relax your shoulders.
- Make your hand into a C-shape. While still in the C-shape, place your index finger just above your eyebrow on the bone and your thumb to the side of your nose, slightly above the nostril.
- Still in the C-shape, press your fingers and thumb downwards and to the side.
- While pulling your fingers slightly, open your eyes as wide as you can and keep this position for 5 seconds, making sure your forehead doesn’t move.
- Squint your eye a few times and then close and relax it.
- Repeat twice.
- Switch sides and repeat the steps.
The Mouth
Lips, however rosy, must be fed. It’s a well-known fact that as we get older, our lips become thinner because of the loss of collagen. This face yoga movement targets the mouth area and stimulates the natural lip barrier, resulting in more youthful-looking fuller lips.
- Place your index fingers at each corner of your mouth.
- With your fingers still in place, give a big smile, making sure to show your teeth.
- Roll your tongue slightly upward and ever so slowly move it to one side of your mouth, pause for a few seconds, and then slowly move it back to the other side.
- Repeat this move a few more times, remembering to always breathe.
Whether you’re doing it just as an anti-wrinkle treatment or doing it for the 'selfie', face yoga is a light workout for the face that will reap the rewards. If you’re looking for ways to get rid of your creases and double chins while sharpening your cheekbones, these no-sweat face yoga exercises are worth trying, even if it’s just for the stress and tension relief they bring.
