GlobalSpa
16-Jun-2020
Just like we work out our body muscles to stay fit and sculpted, it’s important to work the 41 muscles of our face as well. As we approach World Yoga Day, Vibhuti Arora, Face Tool and Face Yoga Practioner, tells us everything about Facial Yoga.
No matter what your age is, youthful, fresh and glowing skin is considered the holy grail of beauty. Everywhere you look, makeup and cosmetic brands, beauty experts, and dermatologists, everyone is offering us products and procedures to make our skin look young and fabulous. What we do need to remember in our quest for youthful-looking skin is that a lot of it depends on what lies beneath the surface! Diet and exercise have a huge impact on the way we look. So, just like we work out our body muscles to stay fit and sculpted, it’s important to work the 41 muscles of our face as well. Each of these muscles, when toggled and nudged in the right direction prevents sagging, increases blood flow to the face thus improving absorption of any cream or oils we may apply, nourishing and toning our face.
The right face yoga exercises help keep wrinkles away around our eye and lip areas. For example, the Lioness face yoga exercise (which we will learn as you scroll down) is the perfect fix to proportion our eyes, which tend to droop and become smaller as we grow older. Similarly, the face yoga Jaw Corrector pose helps in reducing the chin fat and keeping double chin at bay. Face yoga exercises need about 5-10 mins daily about 5 times a week and can be done as a quick add-on to your regular workout routine. As with everything in life, the more consistent you are the better results you will see. Some of the simpler exercises can be done anytime anywhere, like the Pout and Smile exercise (scroll below) that targets fine lines around the lip area and thinning of the lips as we age. This exercise can be done while watching a show or on your work desk. The benefit? Facial workouts reduce wrinkles, help fill in hollow cheeks, and minimize other signs of aging. These exercises focus on strengthening and building up underlying muscle in key areas such as cheeks, jawline, neck, eyelids, and eyebrows. The more often you work out your face, the more you will glow! How’s that for some glow-tivation ?
Exercises for Frown Lines Reduction
Get started by taking a few deep breaths. It's important to switch off from the hustle-bustle and calm yourself. Stretch your neck 2 to 3 times to either side to open and release the muscles.
Deep Breath: Breathing exercises don’t have to take a lot of time out of your day. It’s really just about setting aside some time to pay attention to your breathing. Here are a few ideas to get started Directions: Step 1. Relax your neck and shoulders. Step 2. Keeping your mouth closed, inhale slowly through your nose for 2 counts. Step3. Exhale slowly by blowing air through your pursed lips for a count of 4. Benefits: Deep breathing helps to relieve shortness of breath by preventing air from getting trapped in your lungs and helping you to breathe in the more fresh air. It may help you to feel more relaxed and centered.
Plump your Lip with Smile and Pout
[rev_slider alias="5 Essential Face Yoga Exercises-Exercise 2"]Repeat this exercise 3 to 5 times. This will help to make your cheeks firm and tighten the area around your lips. The pouting acts as a lip-plumper as well.
Direction: 1. Hold your lips together. 2. Smile and hold for five counts. 3. Change to pout and hold for eight counts. 4. Repeat ten times. Great for lifting droopy corners of the mouth and for toning cheeks. Benefits: This exercise helps in expression line reduction, fine lines removal around the lips and helps keep lips plumper.
Forehead Line Relaxation
Release your brow and temple muscles. Repeat this 2 to 3 times.
Directions: Step 1: Place both hands on the forehead facing inwards and spread all of the fingers out between the eyebrows and hairline. Step 2: Gently sweep the fingers outwards across the forehead, applying light pressure to tighten the skin. Step 3: Relax and repeat 10 times then switch to temple lift Step 4: Place both palms on your temples. Step 5: Push your palms up and back to lift the sides of your face. Step 6: Hold for 5 seconds and repeat two more times. Benefits: Drooping eyelids, crow’s feet, eye bags, and puffiness, and Alternative to face fillers and mid-face lifts.
Eye Balancer Face yoga
[rev_slider alias="5 Essential Face Yoga Exercises-Exercise 4 "]This exercise tones the upper and lower eyelids and helps with lymphatic drainage.
Directions: 1. Form a “V?? with your fingers and place them on your eyebrows. 2. Apply pressure and then, without tilting your head, look up to the ceiling. 3. Raise your lower eyelids to form a squint. 4. Relax, then repeat six more times. 5. Finish by squeezing your eyes shut for 10 seconds. Benefits: By “stretching” your eyes and applying pressure to the areas around it, you can help fill out the lines that come from the dreaded crow’s feet. This exercise can also give you a morning wake-up call by smoothing eye bags and calming puffy eyes.
Define Jaw Line with Face Yoga
[rev_slider alias="5 Essential Face Yoga Exercises-Exercise 5 "]If you want that streamlined jaw-line or reduce wrinkles, it is time to start pulling faces when you have the time. These exercises can be done while watching TV, you don’t need to fit into gym shorts or break into a sweat.
Direction: Step1. Hold your chin with both hands, apply firm pressure and by gently pressing move your hands towards your temple and nudge Step2. Repeate this exercise 10 times Step 3. This exercise helps in sharpening your jaw lines Benefits: The whole idea of this exercise is to provide an alternative to invasive, syringe-based procedures and provide us with natural ways to initiate similar anti-ageing results.
