Facial exercises are being touted as a strategy to reverse the signs of aging. Exercise can't hurt and may help. But there's little evidence of profit.
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It was that girls's magazines only offered fitness advice to your body. But today, if you open the pages of many publications, you'll discover advice on methods to exercise not only your body, but your face as well. Articles tout facial muscle-strengthening exercises—and even facial yoga—as helping to slim and tone the facial structure and fight the signs of aging.
is nice. But is it true? Should your workout be prolonged to the highest and bottom of the neck? And will those exercises really do anything for those wrinkles, jowls, or double chins?
However, while a certain quantity of skepticism is definitely warranted in terms of some claims, that doesn't mean it is best to completely discount the concept of exercising in your face. At least in theory, it's possible that facial exercises can produce some advantages. Among them:
Reducing the looks of stretch marks. Facial exercises, including stretching and movement, will be used to loosen and reduce the looks of tight scars. “Massage and stretching exercises for the scarred skin can make the thick scar thinner and more flexible,” says Dr. Olbrecht. This is a transparent example of where facial exercises are beneficial and prone to be effective.
Fighting gravity. Dr. Olbrecht says facial exercises also can help improve facial muscle tone and theoretically help with gravity-related fat loss or redistribution on the face. Building muscle within the face can potentially help keep fat — which could otherwise slide down under the force of gravity — where it belongs. But now for the bad news: If exercise is in a position to produce an effect, she says any changes are prone to be very subtle and will be achieved with other cosmetic procedures, akin to dermal fillers.
“Honestly, it's hard to say whether facial exercises are helpful or not,” says Dr. Olbrecht. But in the event you're keen on giving it a shot, there's really no harm in trying. It is just not dangerous, and it would not cause any bad consequences. “While I'm not convinced,” she says, “there seems to be a bit of a downside.”