Facial gymnastics
The skin on your face needs daily care and specific treatments because it is more sensitive and finer than the skin on other parts of your body.
One of the therapies recommended to keep your facial skin firm for longer is facial gymnastics, which exercises face muscles to preserve skin elasticity and tautness, preventing against sagging and the appearance of wrinkles.
What is facial gymnastics?
Facial gymnastics consists of performing a series of exercises that mobilises the face muscles. It is a healthful therapy because it helps keep skin firm.
It is based on the idea that stimulating face muscles aids the composition and tautness of the fibres of the skin that covers them. Unforced repetitive movements stimulate the muscles, which must produce a greater concentration of collagen and elastin. This overproduction of elements of the skin's extracellular matrix directly impacts the prevention of premature aging. The skin becomes firmer because the muscles on the deepest levels are also strengthened.
This series of exercises may help reduce signs of premature aging like expression lines, under-eye wrinkles and saggy cheeks.
Benefits of facial gymnastics
Working your face muscles has positive and beneficial effects similar to those you get from cardiovascular exercise like running, cycling or swimming.
Repetitive mobilisation of your muscles relaxes your expression, reduces the tension formed when you force certain gestures, and activates blood flow. This last factor ensures that the skin receives a greater concentration of nutrients and can therefore regenerate itself more easily.
The exercises let you relax high muscle-tension areas like the forehead, between the eyebrows, around the eyes, the mouth, upper lip and the neck and collarbone area (mainly the neck).
Facial gymnastics also has other benefits:
- The skin receives more nourishment and increases cell regeneration.
- It prevents against aging by activating skin metabolism.
- It tones your muscles and oxidises the skin, boosting the elimination of toxic substances.
- It reduces muscle tension in the forehead, around the eyes, jaws and neck.
- It fosters rehabilitation in facial neuromuscular paralysis processes.
Facial gymnastics routine
Doing certain exercises will help partially correct skin flaccidity, restore muscle tone and keep your skin firm.
To get you started, we recommend you follow a simple routine based on moderate-intensity exercises once or twice a day:
- Relax: to begin, tighten your face muscles while pressing gently on your face. Start with the cheeks and work your way down to the chin and lips then up towards the temples and eyes, finishing at the forehead.
- Jaw: press up on the jaw with your fists. Pretend to try opening your mouth. Then relax.
- Cheeks: relax your jaw. Draw in air as if you were about to blow it out and return to the initial position.
- Lips: purse your lips and then open them wide as if you were giving a fake smile.
- Eyes: close your eyes, raise your brows and open the eyes.
- Forehead: press your fingers against your hairline, rub up and down and try to relax your muscles.
Finally, give yourself a gentle massage with a moisturising product to recover your skin after the exercise. You’ll soon start to see the results.
