Surgical face lifts aren’t the only solution to a droopy, sagging, unbalanced face. Face exercises are a legitimate alternative to firm and tone your face.
The firmness of your facial skin is governed by the underlying facial muscles.
Exercising these facial muscles can firm your tissues, eliminate wrinkles, nourish your skin, cleanse your pores and restore your appearance as well as many surgical procedures.
Facercise
Carole Maggio’s FACERCISE was named one of the top 100 beauty products in the world by Harpers & Queen magazine, listed in their prestigious Best of the Best section.
Known as The Dynamic Muscle-Toning Program for Renewed Vitality and a More Youthful Appearance, it is a set of facial exercises that firm and tone face and neck muscles. Exercises should be done twice a day. Practise in front of the mirror first, until you get it right, or until you fall over laughing.
New Women magazine published a selection of those exercises, available online, including the following:
- The Chin Lifter – to tighten chin muscles.
Tilt your chin up and put your lower lip over your top lip. Place your fingers flat just above your jawbone. Smile. Hold for six beats, release, then repeat. This one looks great when you do it in the car at the traffic lights. - The Brow Blaster – blasts brow frowns
Make a big C shape with your thumb and pointer fingers. Place your index finger just above and parallel to your eyebrows. Press your fingers downwards, while moving your brows up and eyes wide. Repeat 10 times, then once more, holding for 30 beats. Massage to finish. - The Eye De-Bagger – tightens muscles around your eyes.
Make a V with your pointer and middle fingers. Put your middle finger together between your eyebrows then apply pressure to the outer corners of your eyes with your index fingers. Look up, then lift your lower eyelids. Do this 10 times, then squeeze your eyes shut and count to 40. - The Face Firmer – give toxins the flick.
This uses your three middle fingers in a grab against your thumb. With your thumbs under your chin, use your three middle fingers to grab some skin along your jawbone, pinch and release. Move your hands along, and do it all along your jawbone. Then apply pressure just beneath your ear lobes for a few seconds. To this a few times a day and you’ll see a change in three months. - The Jowl Tightener – get rid of jelly jowls.
Rest an elbow on a firm surface. Cup your chin in your palm. Push your chin into your hand. Hold for five beats. Repeat five times.
I did a search on Facercise, and found a site about Mateo, a guy who been doing Facercise exercises, with amazing before and after photos. Utterly convincing.
Buy in Australia from SeekBooks or in the US from Amazon
FlexEffect
This is a program of facial resistance training developed by Deborah Crowley, who initially started teaching facial fitness in the late 1970s. After becoming a competitive bodybuilder, she needed an advanced program to counter the ageing effect of weight loss on her face. She succeeded in changing her face from a gaunt appearance to a firm one.
One reviewer who had used both programs was that FlexEffect is like a marathon for the face, while Facercise is like a 5k run. He retains elements of both in his program.
Deborah has excellent before and after photos on her website, www.flexeffect.com, where you can order her book and video.
Face Lifting by Exercise
Natural Facial Toning exercises by Senta Maria Runge.
It proclaims a 10 minute-a-day program that can tighten flabby throat muscles, remove jowels, firm lower cheeks, lift droppy upper eyelids, remove crows feet, remove lines and restore fullness to upper lips.
Her website has a sample exercise to correct flabbiness under the chin by following these steps:
- Lift chin slightly
- Press flat point of 2nd and 3rd fingers against the hollow where your chin meets your neck, treating the finger pressure as a form of resistance.
- Press back teeth firmly together. Press the tip of your tongue against the inside of the bottom of the lower front teeth, gradually increasing pressure while you count to ten.
- Hold final position of pressure for 6 seconds.
- Release pressure gradually while you count to ten.
- Remove finger resistance.
- Repeat 4 times.
Other Basic Facial Exercises
- Face Tapping – to improve circulationTap your face quickly and lightly with the pad of your middle fingers, working from the centre outwards. Tap 20 times in each spot before moving on. Start between your eyebrows and work along the top, around your eyes and along the top of your cheekbone. Then start at the sides of your mouth and work up along your nose. Then start at the bottom of your chin and work around to your ears.
- Cheek Exercises
- Pucker up your lips using the muscles in your cheers. Stay puckered for 10 seconds. Relax and repeat 10 times.
- With your lips closed, suck in your cheeks towards and onto your teeth. Hold for 10 seconds. Relax and repeat 10 times.
- Smile as wide as you can, with your lips closed and the corner of your mouth turned up. Try to make your mouth corners touch your ears. Then wrinkle your nose and feel your cheek muscles move up. Hold for 5 seconds. Relax and repeat 10 times.
- With your lips closed, puff up air under your top lip. Hold it for 10 seconds. Move the air to your left cheek. Hold for 10. To your lower lip. Hold for 10. To your right cheek. Hold for 10. Repeat all 5 times.
- Eye Exercises
- Press two fingers on each temple, while opening and closing your eyes quickly. Repeat 5 times.
- Keeping your eyes closed, slowly look up as far as you can, then look down as far as you can. Repeat 5 times.
- Looking straight ahead with your eyes open, look up, then look down, while keeping your head still. Repeat 10 times. Then look left and right, and repeat 10 times.
- Forehead Exercies
- Frown deeply, then lift your eyebrows as high as possible, while opening your eyes as far as possible. Repeat 5 times.
- Lie on your bed with your head hanging over the side. Lift your eyebrows as high as possible and open your eyes wide. Relax and repeat 10 times.