Most exercise programs help you feel younger and healthier, but there are even a few exercises you can do to make yourself look younger. By exercising your facial muscles, you can prevent and possibly even reverse the skins of aging on your face. As your skin ages, it loses elasticity and starts to sag and become wrinkled. Certain facial exercises target the muscles under your skin and can prevent sagging and increase blood flow to your skin, reducing the signs of aging.
Face-Lift Exercise
The California Dental Specialty Group says that performing face-lift exercises can prevent sagging skin and give you a more youthful appearance. With your lips parted, flare your nostrils, then wrinkle your nose and relax your upper lip. Draw your upper lip upward as high as you can and hold for 10 seconds. Slowly bring your upper lip back down to its normal position and relax. With your lips slightly parted, press your index fingers on each of your cheekbones and relax your upper lip. Curl your upper lip up slowly and hold for 10 seconds. Bring your upper lip as far up as it will go and hold for another 10 seconds, still applying pressure to your cheekbones with your fingers. Slowly return to your starting position, remove your fingers and relax.
Facial Yoga
In the November 2007 issue of "Time," Annelise Hagen, author of "The Yoga Face: Eliminate Wrinkles with the Ultimate Natural Facelift," states that you can try facial yoga exercises to prevent wrinkles from forming. For smiling fish pose, purse your lips together tightly and hold them together while trying to smile. In the "Marilyn" pose, blow kisses while keeping your forehead smooth and relaxed. Perform the "Satchmo" pose by puffing your cheeks up with air, then working to move the air from one cheek to the other.
Smile Exercises
Practice smiling exercises in a mirror to work the muscles around your mouth. Begin by slowly smiling, stopping and holding a partial smile for 10 seconds before stretching your lips into a full smile. Hold the full smile for an additional 10 seconds, then relax your smile slowly, again pausing as you relax your lips to hold a partial smile for 10 seconds.
Place your fingertips at the corners of your mouth and stretch your lips into a wide smile. Hold for 10 seconds, then try to move your lips out of the smile while using your fingers as resistance, trying to push your lips back into a smile shape. Hold for 10 seconds, then relax. (See reference 1.)
Facial Relaxation
Use facial relaxation exercises to bring circulation to your skin and give your face a youthful glow. The Fitness Health Zone website recommends opening your mouth as wide as it will go and holding the position for several seconds, feeling your cheeks, chin and lips stretch. Relax and close your mouth, then repeat the stretch.
Try taking a deep breath, then forcing the breath out quickly through your mouth while sticking your tongue out as far as it can go. Open your eyes wide and look up toward the ceiling as you exhale. Relax. (See reference 3.)
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