An Easy Guide To Face Yoga

There are ways to keep your face looking youthful and glowy without having to use a single skincare product — try face yoga.

What about having all the benefits we have from a physical yoga practice into our faces? Face yoga helps us to relax the facial muscles while working as a natural anti-aging method. 

If you're still a bit skeptical about what contorting and toning your face might benefit you, this study from 2018 with 20 women between ages 40 and 65 showed improvements in upper and lower cheek fullness after 20 weeks of facial exercise.

What's Face Yoga?

To simply put, face yoga is a series of facial exercises that isolates and tones the facial muscles. We might not think about the muscles we have in our faces the same way we feel about our bodies, but just in the eye area, we have 10 muscles!

When we practice a physical activity such as cardio, Pilates, or yoga, we're constantly working on them, stretching and toning so why not do the same with the facial muscles.

The Benefits of Face Yoga

By stimulating the blood flow in our faces, we're also stimulating the production of collagen (which is responsible for keeping our skin young and firm), and it may delay the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

Giving a try at facial exercises even if you aren't sure about the results is definitely worth it. After all, a bit of self-care doesn't hurt. 

How Can You Do Face Yoga?

Before starting, there are few things you should know. Fumiko Takatsu, the founder of the Face Yoga Method, recommends practicing it twice a day, four to five poses per session. Here are a few poses for beginners:

Warm-Up

1. Drop your jaw and feel the sensation that you're creating in the cheek area.
2. Then, without moving your forehead, stare at the ceiling without moving your forehead muscles.
3. Hold for 10 seconds and repeat it twice. 

Forehead

1. Keeping your shoulders and neck relaxed, bring your hands on the forehead, pulling up slightly.
2. Now, run the palms of your hands down the sides of the face, close your eyes, and be mindful of any sensation.
3. Repeat it two times more.

The Eye Area

1. Curl your hand into a "C" shape and place the index finger a few centimeters above the eyebrow.
2. Place your thumb on the side of your nose and press the fingers downwards and sideways
3. Open your eyes as much as you can for 5 seconds while squeezing your index finger into the eyebrow but don't move your head nor forehead. 
4. Squint your eye five times, and then relax for a few seconds.
5. Repeat on the other side and repeat two times on each side.