Travelling in Singapore is always a smooth breeze. While commuting via MRT on one of my earlier trips to the city, I found myself entranced, watching a woman contort her face. From sticking her tongue out and puckering her lips to dropping her jaw while trying to make a big ‘O’ while her eyes popped out of that expressionless face. The lady was perhaps in her mid-50s but there was something savagely charismatic about her face; maybe, it was the beautiful unlined skin or the radiant glow on her face.

I observed the lady in silence, though deep inside I felt sympathetic towards her for, I mistook her facial toning exercises to be some kind of treatment that’s prescribed to patients recovering from a stroke or Bell’s Palsy.

But, it was only after she started raving about the benefits of the non-surgical anti-ageing cult, I got formally introduced to face yoga, roughly a decade ago.

With roots dating back to ancient Japan, facial yoga is believed to offer promising benefits such as face-firming, skin-tightening, maintaining contours and elasticity and skin rejuvenation, etc.

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Does it work?

It sounds good to be true, right? But when Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle recently revealed her penchant for facial exercises to keep her face toned, it sparked a surge in curiosity about the facial exercise movement.

Even a study published by JAMA Dermatology in 2018 claimed that ‘middle-aged women can look about three years younger after a few months of doing facial yoga’. It was unavailability of any scientific literature on the subject that propelled Dr Murad Alam, lead author and vice chair of the Department of Dermatology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine to conduct the study.

The founder of Happy Face Yoga Gary J Sikorski, who is also listed as one of the co-authors on the study, developed exercises for female volunteers, aged between 40 and 65. Later, after about 20 weeks, 16 participants who exercised their face using Sikorski’s Happy Face Yoga techniques were found to yield firmer and younger skin. Of course, the study had certain limitations, such as it was performed on a very small sample size and it included only middle-aged women. Also, the study failed to look deeply into ‘why facial exercises lead to these dramatic transformations and magical improvements’. But, so far, this is the only credible academic study to measure the effects of facial exercises.

Science behind beauty

There are more than 40-plus major muscles in our face and when we do these facial exercises, regularly, they tend to wake up those “sleeping muscles”.

Sleeping muscles are located in lower eyelid and cheeks, whereas overworked muscles are found in the forehead, between the eyebrows, and around the mouth.

Besides, these face exercises also help in the stimulation of blood flow thereby, increasing oxygen supply to facial tissues and resulting in a brighter, healthier complexion. And, just like working out strengthens rest of our body, face exercises are believed to tighten and tone the facial muscles. It simultaneously relaxes overworked muscles which help to further eliminate wrinkles and soften those fine lines.

So, next time, think twice before you frown because it may create a lasting crease or furrow lines on your forehead which may make you look older.

The trick to looking younger

There are as many as 70 face poses that target most of the muscles in the face and neck, however, the two most effective ones are the Cheek Lifter and the Eyebrow Lifter. Other moves like the Lion Face, Smiling Fish, Puffer Fish and Prom Queen may look insanely funny to pose, but after practising these exercises you will be smiling with a more youthful appearance.

Although these facial exercises may prove to be a good way to keep your wrinkles at bay, the results, unlike Botox are not instant. Besides, just like any fitness regimen, face exercises require commitment and the end result depends on how regularly you perform these face workouts. The trick, however, is to repeat these exercises a couple of times a day.