Facial exercises are being touted as a method to reverse the signs of aging. Exercise can't hurt and may also help. But there’s little evidence of profit.
Photo: © Jasmina81/Getty Images
It was that ladies's magazines only offered fitness advice in your body. But today, once you open the pages of many publications, you can find advice on the way 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, may 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 really helpful and more likely to be effective.
Fighting gravity. Dr. Olbrecht says facial exercises may also 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 capable of produce an effect, she says any changes are more likely to be very subtle and may be achieved with other cosmetic procedures, equivalent 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 inquisitive about giving it a shot, there's really no harm in trying. It will not be dangerous, and it can not cause any bad consequences. “While I'm not convinced,” she says, “there seems to be a bit of a downside.”