It makes sense that we can preserve at least some of our youthful facial appearance through exercise. We run, go to the gym, do calisthenics, and lift weights to build bigger muscles in our arms, legs, and abdomen—or at least to maintain the muscles we already have.
After a while of exercising those muscles, they get bigger or at least firmer.
We don’t want our facial muscles to bulge out like a bodybuilder’s biceps, but it would be nice to keep them firm even as we get older. And it just means that firmer facial muscles will make the skin on our faces look firmer.
Over time, these muscles lose their natural elasticity. They still react to our facial expression: they frown or smile, but this is not enough activity to maintain their youthful control.
When you are young and squint thousands of times, the muscles involved naturally return to their original condition and position. However, from the age of twenty, they begin to lose that natural adaptability and expression lines begin to form.
So facial exercises may not get rid of all wrinkles and frowns, but they can help prevent or firm up sagging double chins and chins.
This book is the result of the research that the author carried out for thirty years to develop her Design Exercises. She outlines the facial muscles, and it’s interesting to know that there are ten of them, from the forehead to the neck.
In addition, according to the author, these exercises help stimulate the growth of fat cells around the muscles. Although normally we do not want to stimulate the growth of fat cells, this case is an exception.
Our faces naturally have enough fat cells for our faces to look full and vital when we are young. The loss of fat cells is part of why our faces look sunken and puffy when we are older.
Most of the book consists of exercises, divided into sections based on facial feature. Start with the lips and the lower part of the face because it is the area most affected by premature aging. Plus there are exercises for men and women over 40 years of age.
One section is devoted to biofeedback, as many people will initially have trouble isolating small portions of their faces to exercise only those specific muscles. His goal is not to get people to buy a regular biofeedback machine, but rather to cite experiments to show that people can gain greater awareness and control of their bodies, with time and practice. So she’s encouraging, because many readers will struggle at first, but they shouldn’t give up.
One criticism I have is that she doesn’t give a general program. In the notes, she says that since you won’t have time to do them all every day, just do a few every day. Focus on problem areas.
But for many people, their entire face is the problem area. What is the best way to rotate exercises? Or is there one that will help with all the rest? She does not offer any systematic guide. Just do what you have to.
She suggests the length of time to do the exercises and the number of repetitions, adding that you can do more than this if you feel the need. But it can take weeks before someone realizes that the suggested number of reps isn’t enough for them. They can quit rather than just increase the number of repetitions to a high enough number to get the results they want.
It is difficult to write a book that can be adapted to all readers, because everyone is different and so are their faces and facial problems, but more guidance in formulating your own exercise plan would have been helpful.
At the end, he includes a chapter on using a tape mask to remove wrinkles. That is putting duct tape on various sections of your face to bring them together.
I haven’t tried that, I’d feel like a fool putting duct tape all over my face. That’s too “metrosexual” for me.
It might work, but as a man, I’m more comfortable with the idea of exercising muscles.
