Facial Yoga - Your facial muscles will benefit from regular exercise just as much any other muscle in your body

It is a reflection of our modern culture that we are always in search of the ‘quick fix’, especially when it comes to our physical appearance. We can easily find evidence of this through the millions of cosmetic/facial enhancements performed each year in Canada and the USA alone. However, there are other options to consider rather than going directly for Botox, dermal fillers, thread lifts, and so on.

One option that seems to be catching on recently is facial yoga. What is facial yoga? It’s all about gravity. Gravity pulls things downwards, immediately, and over time, especially our muscles and our skin. But we can stretch and tone our muscles, we can lift and resist weight to get stronger, we can push and pull things to develop muscle memory, and we can keep on moving throughout our lives.

We need the dynamic tension of movement against the ever-present forces of gravity in order to grow and maintain the vitality and health of the body.

The face is no different. After all, look at what happens to astronauts who have been in the weightlessness of space for any amount of time. Despite doing hours of daily physical activity and cardiovascular training, astronauts have returned from sojourns on the ISS (International Space Station) with atrophy syndromes in all parts of their bodies – bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, vital organs, nerves, blood vessels. Why? A lack of resistance. A lack of tension. A lack of gravity!

Now, back to earth. Although you rarely hear about exercising your face, there’s a surprising amount of information about facial exercising, or “facial yoga,” as many refer to it. It makes perfect sense, of course, and many testify to the power of exercising their facial muscles to keep their face toned and youthful. After all, your face is made of bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves, blood vessels, fat, fluids, and yes, especially skin – a vital organ. The idea behind facial yoga is the same as for exercising the rest of your body, in that facial muscles will naturally begin to lose elasticity and flexibility with age due to lack of use, which leads to a droopy appearance. Your face consists of more than 50 different muscles, stretched like layered, elastic sheets on top of your cranium and facial tissues. These muscles can act singly and in combination, creating the many facets of facial expressions.

Aside from allowing you to express emotion, your facial muscles also play a key role in the contouring and shaping of your face, and this is how facial exercises can help you maintain a more youthful look as you age, by preventing drooping eyelids and sagging neckline, for example. By regularly exercising your various facial muscles, you can ensure they remain firm, which will support your skin and prevent sagging. Increasing blood flow and circulation through these muscles can also help counteract wrinkles.

Like everything else online, there are numerous resources and sources for facial yoga exercises available at your fingertips to get you started in this holistic approach to facial rejuvenation. As you do your research to find the exercises and content that will work best for you, I recommend these 5 things to look for:

1. The content is step-by-step and easy to follow.

2. The exercises require less than 15 minutes per day.

3. The instructor has an understanding of facial anatomy.

4. The instructor has an understanding of yoga

5. They’re not trying to sell you any lotions, creams, or add-ons.