Face yoga is the skincare hack Meghan Markle and Gwenyth Paltrow love – an expert shares five easy moves for beginners
AGEING well is a priority for all of us, and having skin that’s as youthful looking as possible is a huge part of that.
A new favourite method among fresh-faced celebs is face yoga: exercises to help strengthen the facial muscles and prevent the drooping and sagging that causes wrinkles and the like.
Everyone from Meghan Markle to Gwenyth Paltrow in a fan, with some skincare gurus suggesting that if practised enough, the non-invasive treatment can get the same results as Botox.
Fabulous asked Angela Rosoff, a certified face yoga method teacher and digestive health counsellor on the app Luvly, to help compose a quick routine for newbies to the workout.
According to Angela, face yoga is a “wonderful self-care practice for anyone interested in toning the face to create symmetry”.
“At around age 35, some begin to see signs of ageing and loss of skin bounce and elasticity,” she added.
“This is the usual time people begin to add face yoga to their self-care routine.”
The workout whizz says face yoga can be used to target the “entire face, neck and décolleté”, and you can expect to see an “improvement in radiance, tone, and tension relief”.
She suggests to practise a routine, like below, twice daily for five to 10 minutes.
“You can see results sometimes after one session,” Angela says, “however take photos to monitor your progress.
“You will see great improvements within 14 to 28 days.”
PRE-WORKOUT
Before starting your routine, you want to begin by relaxing the body as you might at the beginning of a normal yoga class.
“Begin by rolling the shoulders up and back, and press the shoulder blades down,” Angela says. “Breathe in and out through the nose.”
You’ll want to make sure you have time to complete the three sets of each exercise twice a day, and after around 10 days the results should be clearly noticeable.
At this point, you might want to “slowly increase to three sets”.
“Continue for six weeks to see the full potential of an uplifted smile and radiance in your cheeks,” the skincare guru adds.
FOREHEAD FOCUS
The forehead is the most popular area where people opt for Botox, because it’s here where expressive lines from frowning and raising your eyebrows are often most ingrained.
To target here, Angela suggests an exercise super for “lifting forehead muscles, eyelid muscles, and stimulating hairline fascia”, otherwise known as the muscles where your face and hair meet.
To practise this move, “gently place your hands lovingly along your hairline from the top of the head to the top of the ears”, Angela says.
“Breathe in, exhale and gently pull the hairline straight back, toward the other side of your head.
“Breathe in and out as you hold this pose for five seconds,” making sure to sustain some tension as you do so.
Release the pose and repeat twice.
EYE LIFT
Wrinkles around the eyes are a pretty inevitable part of ageing because of smiling and squinting.
An eye lift has been a typical way of targeting this – but Angela suggests you can get a similar result by using the following move.
It helps target the temporal muscles, the upper and lower eyelid muscles, and the cheeks.
Start off by breathing in and out through the nose, the face yoga buff advises.
She added: “Gently make both hands of your index and middle fingers into a peace sign.
“Then, with tenderness, place both hands near the temple of the head.”
Place the middle finger on your hairline, diagonally up from the middle of your eyebrow. Then, put your index finger on the hairline a couple of inches further down, as in the picture below.
You should look as if you are “channelling a message from afar”, Angela explains.
“Inhale and as you exhale, gently pull the hairline up and back at a 45-degree angle.
“Breathe in and out as you hold the pose for five seconds.”
Release and repeat twice more.
SMILE BOOST
As your skin begins to produce less collagen in your mid-30s, it becomes less elastic which means your smile can appear droopy.
To help reverse this, Angela suggests two exercises that target the mouth, cheeks, and the wrinkles between the two in particular.
For the first, “gently smile in a way that shows the top teeth“.
She added: “At the corners of the mouth, position your hands with the index and middle fingers glued together.
“Inhale. As you exhale, lift gently toward the apples of the cheeks.
“Breathe in and out as you hold the post for five seconds.” Release the post tension, and repeat twice.
The second move involves starting in the same position as the first, with your face in a soft grin.
“Exhale, as you gently stick your tongue straight out. Keep breathing throughout this sequence.
“Begin to try and touch your nose by listing your tongue toward the tip of the nose.
“Continue to breathe in and out as you move your tongue in this position toward one side of your mouth, as if you are licking something off your lips.
“In a count of five, then move in the opposite direction toward the other size of your mouth.”
Bring your tongue to the centre and release, before repeating twice more.
DOUBLE CHIN REDUCER
There are few things more dreaded and ageing than a double chin, but luckily Angela has an exercise specially designed to banish it for good.
Start in the same pose as above, she advises, with your tongue stuck straight out of your mouth.
“Exhale and gently tilt your head straight back,” so you’re looking up at the ceiling.
Once there, move your tongue from side to side in five-second intervals, just as for the exercise before.
Bring your tongue to the centre, and release the pose.
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