Facial muscles, unlike skeletal muscles, are not attached to bones. Man are instead attached under the skin, allowing for the complex array of contractions that make the many facial expressions, such as raising your eyebrow, wiggling your nose or pursing your lips and moving your cheeks. People perform facial exercises for various reasons, and as with your skeletal muscles, your can target your facial muscles for better control, tightening and strengthening.
Strengthening
Facial strengthening exercises improve the range of motion of your lips, tongue, jaws and cheeks. You might find them helpful if you have a medical condition that causes muscle weakness or problems with speaking and swallowing. You doctor might recommend that you perform facial muscle strengthening exercises several times a day. One involves puckering your lips, as if for a kiss, and holding the pucker for five seconds; or pucker your lips and move the pucker from side to side while maintaining it for 10 seconds. Alternate between a broad smile, which shows your teeth and gums, and a pucker or inhale to fill your cheeks with air; hold for five seconds. You can also fill your cheeks one at a time or both at the same time.
Relaxation
Yoga practitioners perform facial exercises to help with relaxation. The surprise/sourpuss exercise requires you to perform the surprise portion by opening your mouth wide and bugging out your eyes, followed by the sourpuss portion in which you scrunch your face into a tight ball. Alternating between the surprise and sourpuss, or contracting and releasing your facial muscles, can help you relax and loosen stress-related tightness in your face.
Control
Exercises can improve your control and the performance of your facial muscles and acts such as smiling. The smile exercise, which targets the muscles that move your mouth, requires the use of a mirror as you slowly move your lips into a full smile, hold the position and slowly return your lips to a closed position. The next step of the smile exercise involves performing the same movements with your fingers placed at the corners of your mouth.
Firmness
Exercising your facial muscles can help maintain facial firmness as you age. You can perform a series of exercises in one session by moving the different parts of your face, starting with your eyebrows and moving through the lips, cheeks and nose. Perform the face-lift exercise by moving through a series of movements, which include forming a slightly open-mouthed smile, flaring your nostrils, wrinkling your nostrils and alternating between raising and relaxing your upper lip.
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