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Puckering, puffing, scrunching, stretching and stretching may seem stupid, but in some spaces it’s a serious business of facial yoga.
A trendy facial workout includes a series of exaggerated poses and repetitive movements to target facial muscles, swapping full-bodied yoga moves such as a “duck face” and “downward-facing dog” for other expressions.
Face Yoga’s testimony, popular for being cost-effective and productless, can be found throughout social media. Influencers and self-proclaimed masters promise a “natural facelift” effect that allows you to tone, slim and reduce the thin lines above your face.
But how much does these promised promises benefit the spread of truth? And how much is science supported?
This is what the author must say, a yoga instructor, dermatologist and one of the few Face Yoga studies.
The face is made up of layers of skin, fat and muscle sitting on top of the skull.
Below the top layer of skin or dermis is a layer of subcutaneous fat pads placed above the muscles, explained Dr. Anetta Lesco, a New York-based dermatologist and assistant professor of clinical dermatology. These muscles help us to smile, frown, bite and create other expressions.
“Fat and muscle work together and give you a facial volume,” says Reszko. “But over time, when we are ageing or without using those muscles for Botox, it can become atrophy (and) smaller.”
This atrophy can drop the fat pads above the muscles, giving the face a more saggy or hollow look, Reszko said.
“The idea behind facial yoga is for you to work below that level and grow the muscle layer below the fat,” said Dr. Murad Alam, vice-chairman of the Department of Dermatology at Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago. “When you grow your muscles, you’ll have some form of recovery in your face.”
Alam, who is also a dermatologist, conducted one of the few known studies in 2018 to test this facial yoga hypothesis in a small cohort of middle-aged adults.
After 20 weeks of 30 minutes of exercise daily, a panel of dermatologists observed improvements in facial bloating among 16 participants who completed the program, the study reported.
“The place we noticed the biggest change was in our cheeks,” Aram said. “This makes sense because the cheek muscles are one of the biggest facial muscles, so when you exercise them, their growth will be the most prominent.”
Due to limited sample sizes and lack of direct measurements, further clinical trials are needed to confirm this volume effect, Alam said. In general, medical research without drugs or devices is difficult to fund, he said.
“Is this an alternative to cosmetic procedures? It’s not. The amount of improvements wasn’t that important, so the (other cosmetics) aspects of aging were not studied,” Aram said. “However, it is potentially useful for people who absolutely do not want cosmetic surgery procedures because they are worried about safety, costs or inconvenience.”
Reszko’s dermatology practice recommends facial yoga exercises to increase facial blood and lymph circulation.
In our faces we have hundreds of lymph nodes that use liquids to drain waste and use liquids to combat infections, Reszko said. During sleep, lymph fluid accumulates on your face while lying down and can cause a “puffy” appearance as soon as you wake up.
Moving, stretching and massaging your face for 10-15 minutes each day helps to reduce swelling, and Reszko refers to other techniques like traditional Chinese gua sha stones that are intended to serve similar purposes. The drainage could be particularly useful for patients who have recently undergone cosmetic surgery or have chronic allergies, she said.
Increased blood flow to the face can make the skin flush and appear to be hydrated, Reszko said, but the effect is usually temporary.
If you tend to maintain tension anywhere on your neck, shoulders, chin, forehead or face, yoga can help relax your muscles, said Annies Hagen, a yoga instructor and self-proclaimed pioneer of techniques. Who wrote the book? “The face of yoga.”
“Tension is a big enemy for many of us. We always make these faces without realizing it,” Hagen said. “A lot of the job I do is try to teach people how to notice, be more mindful, relax and breathe.”
For Hagen, face yoga is more than just a workout or cosmetic biohack. This is more of a way to match your face.
In her class, she may encourage people to lift the corners of their mouths and lift the neutral “smile Buddha face.” Or, for her neck and chin, she gives a “lion’s breath,” her mouth wide open, her tongue sticks out, her eyes rolls and exhale.
“When you’re approaching your face from a yoga perspective, it’s about paying attention to what we’re doing with our face and acknowledging that it’s a manifestation of something inside,” Hagen said. “Some people may approach it differently, but anything that makes you feel more calm, calm and better about the face you’re in is legal.”
Face yoga exercises are generally harmless, Alam said. To cause wrinkles, frowned lines, bruises, or other trauma to the face, a person must apply painful forces.
On the other hand, if someone is serious about taking up a daily facial yoga routine, Reszko suggests avoiding the movement of rubbing and stretching the area under the delicate eye. The skin around the eyes tends to be thinner and more sensitive than the rest of the face.
We recommend seeking advice from a board-certified dermatologist for more dramatic interventions such as wrinkle firing and acne treatment.
