Yoga has been there since ancient times. However, over the past few decades, it has been adopted by many people worldwide due to its mental health benefits, along with physical health advantages. With different styles of yoga out there, face yoga is emerging as the trending one.
Face yoga is a natural and affordable technique for improving your appearance and feeling better. It comprises massage and exercises that relax your muscles and help you relieve stress and worries. Also, it helps you enhance your facial appearance and offers anti-ageing benefits.
If you wish to adopt face yoga in your routine, this article presents some of the best face yoga exercises you must practice.
What is Face Yoga?[Definition]
Face yoga involves a series of stretches, exercises, and massages targeting your face muscles. It promotes better blood circulation, strengthens your facial muscles, and helps you reduce the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines. It is a natural way of fighting off the signs of aging.
The founder of Danielle Collins’ Face Yoga, Danielle Collins, says that balanced face yoga involves massage, relaxation, exercises, and acupressure techniques.
Besides, facial exercises have proven effective in various health conditions, such as Bell’s Palsy, affecting facial muscles. Bell’s Palsy is a medical condition where one side’s facial muscles weaken suddenly.
When facial muscles start to deteriorate, you start noticing the signs of ageing or sagginess on your face. Facial exercises help strengthen and tone your facial muscles, helping you slow down the appearance of ageing skin.
Along with face yoga, good sleep, a balanced diet, and less stress are critical for healthy and radiant skin, explains Danielle Collins.
Whether you want to improve your facial appearance or reduce stress and tension, you can focus on the specific area of your face or concerns with proper exercises.
Benefits of Face Yoga
Though there is no evidence regarding the benefits of face yoga, many practitioners claim that it offers the following benefits:
- Improved blood circulation.
- Strengthens and tones facial muscles.
- Lifts the skin under the eyes and prevents eye sagging.
- Smoothes wrinkles and fine lines.
- Tightens the skin around the neck and jawline.
- Reduces dark underage circles.
- Relieves musculoskeletal pain
To back these benefits, a study conducted in 2018 found that 32 facial exercises effectively reduced the signs of ageing. The study surveyed women aged between 40 to 65 years with mild to moderate facial atrophy. The participants did those 32 facial exercises for 30 minutes for 8 weeks. Further, from 9 to 20 weeks, they continued exercising every alternate day.
Another study in 2018 found the benefits of facial exercises in improving older people’s mental health. Participants did exercises for 30 minutes twice a week for 12 weeks. This resulted in improved mental health, the strength of tongue muscles, and facial expressions.
These studies show that face yoga improves mental health and facial appearance.
11 Best Face Yoga Exercises To Improve Your Facial Appearance and Mental Health
You can target any area of your face with face exercises. For instance, the forehead, eyes, and mouth are areas where wrinkles form. You can focus on these areas to reduce the appearance of wrinkles. In addition, you can embrace exercises that alleviate various health issues – insomnia, headache, sinus, etc.
While exercising, it is essential to note that you must feel comfortable without pain and discomfort.
The following are different face yoga exercises that target different areas of your face:
1. Tension Relief
This is the best face yoga to reduce eye strain. It involves the acupressure technique to calm down your eyes when you work in front of your laptop throughout the day.
How to do?
- Press your index fingers against the inner corner of your eyes for 30 seconds.
- Smoothly circle in one direction for 30 seconds.
- Repeat the same in another direction for 30 seconds.
2. Eye Circles
If you want to reduce puffiness around your eyes, you must give this exercise a try. Also, it boosts blood circulation around the eyes. Ensure to use light and featherweight touches.
How to do?
- Place your ring fingers at the bridge of your nose or the inside of your eyebrows.
- Gently tap your fingers along your eyebrows in the outward direction.
- Now, press your temples for 30 seconds. This helps you get relief from tension and relaxes your mind.
- Gently tap your finger above your cheekbones to the inner corner of your eyes for 30 seconds or more.
3. Forehead Smoother
This face yoga exercise helps you tone, smooth, and relax the muscles in your forehead. It especially targets the frontalis muscle, which can become stiff and rigid. Also, this exercise helps reduce wrinkles and fine lines on your forehead.
How to do?
- Make fists with both hands.
- Place both fists at the centre of your forehand, facing each other or knuckles of both hands touching.
- Inhale and press your knuckles against your forehead gently.
- Exhale and move your fists toward your temples.
- Repeat this three times.
4. Neck Massage
You may experience tension and pain in your neck due to continuous working. Neck message is one of the best natural ways to alleviate this tension and help relax your neck muscles.
How to do?
- Tilt your head slightly back.
- Hold your fingers against the top of your neck.
- Gently press your finger against the neck and slide down to the collarbone.
- Press the collarbone for a few seconds and release your fingers.
- Repeat this three times.
5. Jaw Unlocker
This face yoga exercise helps you relax your neck and jaw muscles. You can do it while being seated or standing.
How to do?
- Take your left hand and make a fist.
- Place it on the left side of your jaw with your thumb facing down.
- Lean your head to the left side. This will create a stretch on the right side of your neck.
- Ensure not to move your hand.
- Press your hand against the jaw and wait for 30 seconds.
- Repeat the same on the right side.
6. Face Tapping
If you want to relax the muscles of the entire portion of your face and enhance blood circulation, face tapping can do wonders.
How to do?
- With your fingertips, gently tap your skin, starting with the forehead.
- Slightly move downward, doing the same till you reach your jaws.
- Also, tap your fingertips in front of your neck, across the shoulders, and slowly move to the back of your head.
- Then rub your palms together and generate heat.
- Place your palms on your face and take deep breaths.
7. Lion’s Breath
Also known as pranayama or yogic breathing, Lion’s breath helps relieve stress and revitalise your throat, vocal cords, and diaphragm. It relaxes your throat and neck muscles. Especially singers and people with speech impairment practice this exercise.
How to do?
- Seat down on the mat or floor and place your hands on your knees while leaning forward slightly.
- Inhale deeply with your nose.
- Open your mouth wide with the tongue stretching towards your chin.
- Exhale forcefully, throwing the breath outside along the tongue.
- Make a ‘ha’ sound while you exhale.
- Relax and breathe normally for a few seconds.
- Repeat this 6 to 7 times.
8. Cheek Lifter
The cheek lifter is an easy-to-do face exercise to strengthen and tone your cheek muscles. You can do it either by standing or sitting.
How to do?
- Keep your back straight and shoulders relaxed.
- Open your mouth wide and form the ‘O’ shape.
- Keep your upper lip over your teeth and smile to make a curve shape.
- Use your fingers to lift your cheeks under your eyes.
- Hold it for at least 20 seconds and relax.
- Do it 10 times.
9. Eyebrow Lifter
The eyebrow lifter or eyebrow press helps you strengthen and tone the muscles around your eyes and forehead.
How to do?
- Place your three fingers under your eyebrows.
- Gently lift your eyebrows or force your eyes to open up.
- Smile wide to lower your eyebrows against your fingers.
- Hold it for seconds.
- Close your eyes and put your fingers on them.
- Roll your eyeballs toward the top of your head.
- Hold this position for 20 seconds while smiling wide.
- Release and do it 3 times.
10. Temple Developer
This exercise assists you in building up the muscles in your temples and the jaw area.
How to do?
- Place your fingertips on the temples of both sides.
- Close your jaw and clench your teeth together.
- With your fingertips, press your temples as if you are moving your ears back.
- Hold it for 10 seconds and relax.
- Repeat it 3 times.
11. Neck and Jaw Stretch
Relax and strengthen your neck and jaw muscles with this face exercise.
How to do?
- Move your face slightly upward.
- Lift your chin up and forward, forming a 45-degree angle, to the side of one of your shoulders.
- Hold the position for 20 seconds and come back to the starting position.
- Repeat the same on the other side.
- Aim to perform this activity several times.
Risks and Side Effects of Face Yoga
Many experts say that doing inappropriate face yoga causes wrinkles.
Dr. Chen said that forehead wrinkles, crow’s-feet, and laugh lines are possible facial wrinkles resulting from repetitive and frequent facial muscle activity, such as frowning or smiling.
To avoid the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, it is essential to exercise without scrunching and squinting your face too much. Ensure to only stretch and firm facial muscles rather than squinting.
If you are a beginner, try with easy and less stretching exercises. Avoid putting too much pressure on your neck.
Conclusion
Face yoga is an affordable and easy self-care technique to strengthen your facial and neck muscles. The touted benefits of face yoga are manifold. Some of them include improved blood circulation and reduced appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, skin sagging, fine lines, headaches, and eye strain. Though you slowly experience anti-ageing benefits with face yoga, certain exercises help reduce stress and improve mental health.
Practice the above face yoga exercises and improve your facial appearance and mental health.
People are also reading:
