As you already know, exercise can help you look and feel your best. It helps us develop strong muscles and bones, allows us to manage our weight, and helps us reduce the risk of certain diseases. 

Is it possible, however, to achieve similar results by extending your workouts to your face?

This is the concept behind face yoga, a growing trend that claims to provide skin-lifting benefits without the use of surgery, needles, or even expensive skin-care products. While many people have opted out of traditional facials and procedures in favor of staying at home and reducing their risk of contracting COVID-19, some have turned to face yoga as a do-it-yourself method of achieving younger-looking skin.

What is Face Yoga?

Face yoga is a technique that targets your face, neck, and shoulders with a variety of massage and exercise methods. It’s a natural, alternative option that has the potential to produce long-lasting results on your face. 

Essentially, it uses the term “yoga” as a catchy way of saying facial exercises that make you move the muscles in your face in certain positions. The idea is that by doing these exercises, you can keep your face looking toned and youthful by lifting sagging and drooping areas — shaving years off your face.

What Research Says About the Benefits

According to a small study, face yoga has been shown to improve the structural appearance of your face by strengthening the muscles of the cheekbones and face. Practitioners have also reported a younger appearance. This research explored the effectiveness of 32 face workouts in minimizing the appearance of aging in middle-aged women as participants completed daily 30-minute face workouts for the first eight weeks and every other day for the next 12 weeks.

A different group of researchers has also found that face yoga can bring about improvements in mental health, facial expressiveness, and tongue muscle endurance.

Face Yoga Exercises to Try

Face Yoga expert Danielle Collins says you can use face yoga to target any area of your face, depending on your concerns and goals. For most people, tension builds in the brows, forehead, and jaw. If you are one of those, try to build your routine around these areas.

Here are some face yoga exercises you can try:

Sculpting for Happy Cheeks

Roll your lips out (as if you’re trying to reveal as much lip as possible) while smiling without showing your teeth. Try to smile in a way that you feel a slight burn in the corners of your mouth. As you press into the muscle, insert your index fingers into the corners of your mouth and slide them up to your cheekbones. 

Raise the muscle to the level of the cheekbones, toward the corners of your eyes. When you reach the top of your cheekbones, hold for 20 seconds and feel your cheek muscles contract. While you're doing this, maintain a smile at the corners of your mouth. Repeat three times.

Neck and Jaw Firmer

Make an "aah" sound with your mouth open. As you extend your lower jaw forward, fold your lower lip and the corners of your lips into your mouth and hold tightly. Slowly lift your chin about an inch each time and tilt your head backward.  

Do this 10 times, opening and closing your lower jaw all throughout. On the tenth scoop, your chin should be pointed upward. Maintain this position for 20 seconds and repeat the whole procedure three times.

Lifting the Eyebrows

To keep your eyes open, gently press three fingertips under each brow. As you lower your brows against your fingers, smile. Hold. Then close your eyes and roll your eyeballs up toward your brow. Hold for 20 seconds while continuing to smile. Release and repeat three times.

If you want to see good results, practice face yoga every day as part of your self-care and skincare routine. Experts recommend starting with five to 10 minutes per day and gradually increasing to 15 to 20 minutes each day.