Whether from the sun, pollution, stress or the normal aging process, your face can belie your age. As you age, your skin tends to lose its elasticity and begin to sag, resulting in unsightly wrinkles. Exercising the muscles of your face can help you slow down this process and retain your youthful appearance. With facial yoga, you may be able to strengthen your muscles, smooth your skin and increase the blood circulating through your face to allow vitamins and minerals to flow into the area.
Jowl Tightening Exercise
This exercise is designed to help lift your sagging skin, resulting in a natural face-lift. Begin by putting your fingertips on your cheekbones near the lines that form outside of your nostrils and run down to your mouth. Press down with your fingers and smile widely until you feel the muscles under your fingers tighten. Hold this position for about five seconds and then release. Repeat 30 times.
Tone Your Cheeks and Lips
This exercise can help tighten those loose folds of skin forming around your cheeks and lips, according to facial yoga instructor Annelise Hagen, author of "The Yoga Face: Eliminate Wrinkles with the Ultimate Natural Facelift." It is performed by smiling as wide as you can while simultaneously pursing your lips tightly together. Hold this position and suck in your cheeks into the hollows of your face. Hagen recommends performing at least five repetitions of this exercise.
Brow Smoothing Exercise
Begin by putting the palms of both hands on the ends of each eyebrow and pull them apart from one another. You should apply just enough pressure to allow your skin to move but not so much that you affect the muscles under your skin. Keep your eyes closed throughout this exercise and repeat as needed. This exercise can help smooth those unsightly wrinkles that form between your eyebrows.
Clenched Smile
This exercise is a way to help increase blood circulation in your face and relieve stress and tension. Close your mouth tightly until you are gritting your teeth. Hold this position and smile with your mouth as wide as possible until you feel your face stretch. Hold for several seconds and then release. Repeat as necessary.
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