Best Way to Do Facial Exercise

Like the idea of chiselled cheekbones, pouty lips and taut skin, with no sags, bags or jowls? Facial fitness is the key.

Facial aerobics make sense: anyone who exercises regularly will know that it is possible to improve your muscle tone and even resculpture your physique. The facial muscles are just like the body’s, yet most of us haven’t used them since we lay screaming in our cots.’ Her method uses a series of small, precise movements which work on shortening fourteen facial muscles.

Some sceptics believe that facial exercises can potentially cause lines created by habitual muscular overuse, but you often smile or frown a hundred times a day yet, when you are exercising your face, you only repeat a facial expression a few times.

Prevention is always better than cure, so the younger you start exercising your face the better. Even so, my mother didn’t discover facial exercises until she was fifty and looks better now than she did a decade ago. Exercising fights against gravitational pull, keeping the facial muscles taut and preventing the drooping that causes bags and sags. However, once the skin has become so slack that it has separated from the connective tissue, there is little that you can do to improve it. And, if the sagging is caused by fatty deposits in areas like jowls or under the chin, facial exercises cannot help that either.

Three best facial exercise

The upper-eyelid exercise: to lift the eye area

With age, the upper eye muscles become weak, allowing excess skin to droop over the eyes. This simple exercise puts the springiness back into the eye area by smoothing out folds in the upper eyelids, preventing the outer corners from sagging and keeping the eyebrows up.

• Look into a mirror throughout the exercise.
• Curve your index finger along your brow line, just under your eyebrow. Now gently push your finger up and hold it against your brow bone.
• Close eyes, stretching upper eyelids in a downward direction in five small steps.
• Hold the position for a count of six.
• Release the tension slowly in three counts. Repeat twice.

The ‘turkey-neck’ eliminator: for a firm neck and jaw line

Double chins, a slack jaw line and loose, turkey­like skin on the neck can look unattractive and incredibly ageing. The muscle which runs under the chin slackens over the years, but by doing this exercise once a day, you can train it to become taut again or, better still, prevent it from slackening in the first place.

• Look into a mirror throughout the exercise.
• Raise your chin up and, at the same time, draw the centre of your bottom lip up over your top lip. (Do not smile by lifting up the corners of your mouth – remember that you are bringing up the centre of your bottom lip.)
• Holding this position, press the tip of your tongue against the outside of lower teeth.
• Now thrust your chin and tongue forward as if you were taking off in Concorde.
• Hold the position for a count of six, then slowly release it. Repeat twice.

Kissing the mirror: for full lips and superb cheekbones

This simple little exercise works wonders, shaping your lower cheeks, helping to tighten your jowls and making your lips look fuller.

• Look into a mirror throughout the exercise.
• Place the flat parts of your index fingers on the corners of your mouth, then slide them back for an inch on each side and hold the position firmly.
• Bring your lips forward into a pout.
• Make an exaggerated kissing gesture as though you were kissing the mirror (take care not to pucker your top lip). Repeat ten times.